Flags and Fireworks

This is going to be more of a story type blog- I've had a busy time, and not much time to think of anything creative!

As the majority of you know, I'm sure (and if you don't, you probably have never heard of the US), yesterday (as of the minute I am typing this) was Independence Day in America. Of course, for the ladies that means dressing up in a lot of red, white, and blue and talking with other ladies, and for the guys, it means barbecuing and blowing a lot of things up (I have this confirmed with several sources). We, of course, forget the true meaning, the founding of our country. Ironic, though, that the Declaration of Independence wasn't fully signed on July 4th- some of you might not know this- just some of the signatures went on paper that day. I'm not sure of the exact date without looking it up, but signatures stretched beyond at least September that year, 1776 (how many knew the year?), and the date July 4th was chosen because this was the day that Congress is said to have approved the adoption of the Declaration.

Well, we have been in the St. Louis area this week visiting relatives, and we had a fireworks show of our own- low maintenance, probably expensive; my uncle bought the fireworks, neighbors of his bought some too. We all went into the cul-de-sac and shot off the fireworks, and it was nice. The kids lit the smaller stuff in the early evening (dare I say twilight, or the Twilight fans might start creeping my blog), and all the larger fireworks started when darkness finally fell.

The street was littered with cones and boxes of various fireworks that had been used, and my brother, sister, cousin, and cousin's neighbors had shot off some Roman candles, which were off in a bucket. Every direction you turned, you could see fireworks lighting up the night sky, almost like lightning, but much more exciting (and less scary). By the time we were done, the weather reports read that it was foggy (I think, in fact, it was smoky), and all the grand finales were showing. When we got back to my grandparents' house, we watched the coverage of the show at the Gateway Arch over the Mississippi, in Downtown St. Louis. I was proud of myself for lighting off Roman candles (and not being afraid of singeing off the ends of my hair....), but a little disappointed, because my sparklers when I was little were never that pretty! Mine were little metal sticks with sparkly grey matter at the end that sparked when you lit it. No shiny pretty wrappers!! Oh well.

I came to the house last night and finished my paper. It was rough, but I finally finished it. I'm still concerned about my internship, but I'm trying to keep my mind off it right now, because there's not much I can do from here, right?

So we went to Six Flags today. Funny that the origin of Six Flags is in Texas, and has to do with the six flags that have governed Texas, one of them being Texas' own independent flag! (The others being France, Spain, Mexico, Confederate States of America, and United States of America, in no particular order...yea, it interests me lol).

Six Flags was fun. I go there for the coasters, of course. We rode every one there....as well as the Ferris wheel. My brother was going to try to scare the crap out of me by getting me to do the bungee jump thing, but didn't (thank goodness). It was a good way to take my mind off things for a while and just wander around in the sun. It's funny, though, all the rides in Texas seem bigger. Oh yea, everything is bigger in Texas!!!

No, really.

Their wooden coaster could use some improvements, and ain't got crap on the Texas Giant, especially since they built the Giant to be smoother with the metal tracking and all. I can't compare the Tony Hawk because it had some weird, un-epic name here. The Batman? The decor outside sucked, and the guy behind the ride was an asshole. At least the people in Texas are friendly. The Batman also seems longer in Texas, and that's probably because they take you through the ride again....backwards. The Mr. Freeze? Too short. They were only running one side. In comparison, though, they were about the same. Tower of Power? They only have one tower here, and they only drop you once. Texas gives you much more suspense.

EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS!!
Except the fireworks shows.....sorry Texan readers. I saw some great fireworks. The burn bans are bigger, I guess you could say?

Well, that's all I got to say. Nothing insightful today. Well, I do have something insightful, come to think of it, but I'll save it for its own blog.

Deuces!