Well today was July 4th.

And this stupid bitch forgot to bring her camera.

I spent most of the day sitting in my pajamas eating sugar and watching Ugly Betty, listening to the sounds of the illegal Hispanic population of the neighborhood celebrate more festivly than I.

Then Emily came home and ended that sad party, and we armed ourselves with some hard cider and cupakes, and walked to the hill park on 33rd for 360degree show.

..Where we sat on the grass watching fireworks of varying distances, the smoke from the gunpowder clinging to the orange city lights, gradiating into night sky, the big dipper just barely visible above us. Not to sound gross, but the moon totally looked like a luminescent aged toenail clipping

If I ignored the m-80s going off and 10-year-olds singing Bon Jovi, and focused instead on the crickets singing and the fireflies (Emily still astounded I've never seen them before), it was a very peaceful, sunburnt summery evening. Complete with our own drunken stranger soundtrack, two guys singing American Pie and Country Roads and the Cheers theme song.

Soon before we left, someone in Chinatown started releasing paper lanterns. We got to watch the glowing lights go up until they went out. For one, we then got to watch the paper part drift slowly back down and land in the park where we were, but some kid jacked it before I could.

Now I'm home. One block away there's a grouping of people letting off fireworks in the middle of a 4-way intersection, making all the traffic wait until the fire stops, then going around the pile of rubble, which will entirely still be there in the morning.

Outside my living room, there's a rap-listening gathering of dumb-looking people talking and drinking and unintentionally including me in their party because I have my windows open for the cooler air.


Stay cool Chicago. We'll be up past 3 listening to things exploding and waiting for a reply back from RLTO.