July 4th 2012

  This was a very memorable fourth of July. I always tend to remember fourths because different equally memorable events seem to occur. Many of them have been sad or unlucky. I once decided fourth of July was cursed for me, because I always found myself thinking about a recent break up or just plain having one on that day. One involved Michael and I having a very awkward fight when we were dating in 8th grade, and I ended up crying on my friend Alex's shoulder and talking about explosives with another friend.

So yeah, fourth of July is always weird for me. I hope for something good but brace myself for drama.

Thankfully this years gone very smoothly! It was strange to be away from home and the traditions I normally partake in, but I got to experience a usual tradition up close and personal: fireworks. In Arizona you can't buy them or set them off. Sparklers, maybe. Designated areas, maybe. But I've always just admired them from afar.

Yep that sure is a tree on fire.

Here in Oklahoma, you're free to get as many fireworks as you want, gather up and set them off as you please. So Michael and his class and their families got together to do this at the lake about twenty minutes out of town. I've never ever experienced this before and for the first while it was pretty unnerving.
It was understandable that there were plenty of fire engines and ambulances and policemen standing by, as accidents are bound to happen. Someone not very far from us set a tree on fire, and in seconds it was blazing high. Just as quickly though, the fire fighters were right there and it was out.
We all had some different fireworks to share and we witnessed quite a lot. It was never quiet; they were going off all around us. I put up a few of our incidents on YouTube, like Mahoney lighting himself on fire and our finale fireworks toppling over and hitting a car and almost Michael's face.

I can't say I got the best quality of pictures, but I got a few good ones I'm fond of. It's hard when your camera runs out of battery and you have to rely on firework lights to illuminate the area so you can snap a picture on an IPod touch, but I did my best.
We set off some black cats at the lakes edge, and I was surprised to know that if you throw them in the water they still go off, so we giggled at the balls of light poofing to the surface for a while.
After we ran out of steam (and fireworks) and other people were starting to leave themselves, we decided to pack it up. We had some hookah and snacks outside our duplex before officially calling it a night.

And what a nice one it was :)