Bloggity-blog-blog-blog

I'm trying to out-blog Carrington for the month of July, so if you feel innundated with my posts, that's why. Whoever wins gets taken out for coffee by the other one. Carrington, dear, I realize you didn't agree to that per se because you never replied to my email with the "rules," but how can you refuse now that the challenge is up on the internet? :D

I'll be at my parents' house for the next couple of days. Tomorrow I'm going to be on the float for my mom's tea parlour and hopefully not get heatstroke. The parade's not til 6, but lineup's at 5 and who knows how long the parade will go. But hopefully I'll return with some pictures of my family and I being cute!

I guess you could say this about pretty much any holiday anymore, but Independence Day seems so commercialized and watered-down! No one, it seems, really thinks about its actual meaning. Maybe the kids in elementary school who get a whole lesson on the founding fathers and the Declaration of Independence and all, but to the rest of the country it's about parades, barbeques, fireworks, and maybe wearing a t-shirt with the American flag on it, if you're into that sort of thing. But maybe tomorrow when you're eating a hamburger or watching your kids play with sparklers, just give a moment of thought to all it took to get to where we are today. I'm not saying it's a perfect place, with the wars, the economy, the obesity, the consumerism, etc. As a country, it seems like we've gotten pretty off-track. But focus on the good: free speech, education opportunities, significantly lower poverty and hunger levels than much of the rest of the world... And appreciate what those men and women did a couple hundred years ago. Their bravery, their determination, their faith, and even their stubbornness.

"We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today is our independence day!"

(Yeah, I had to go there. Give that movie another watch if you can, it's a classic.)