Unforgettable 4th of July

Thinking about yesterday (Independence Day), one word comes to my mind. Unforgettable. Not in a good way. But I'll definitely never forget yesterday. It was seriously like one bad thing after another. Something happened to one of my hips during the night - it's out of joint or something. and we planned to walk about a hundred blocks in the city... usually that's not a big deal (it's a normal amount of walking), but with a bad hip... it was a bit painful. then we got to our picnic spot in Central Park and found that the watermelon we had cut up earlier had spilled all over the bag. Yum. still not too bad though. It started to rain after awhile. We were under a tree, so it didn't dampen our moods too much. Then the ever-present problem of trying to find a restroom in NYC. soooo we went on a little walk, and ended up going into a cafe, sitting down, looking at menus (while we each went to the bathroom), and "deciding" we wanted to get something for take-out.

Here's our picnic spot in Central Park (conveniently under a tree).

The walk back was rainy... and my hip didn't last very long, so I decided to take a taxi (my friends all continued the walk). We met at Grand Central, and made our way to FDR Drive, where there's an unobstructed view of the East River. We found a place that looked decent (we had a good view of one of the barges that would be setting off the fireworks), and prepared to wait about 2 hours. We got sick of standing after about 2 minutes, so we put our blankets down on the wet, oily road and sat down. Only to be bumped into, walked on, crowded in... etc. I guess pretty much everything you'd expect from the biggest fourth of July fireworks display gathering in the country...

(This was our spot. I know I'm making a great fashion statement... )

I guess we didn't end up having a very good spot because right next to us was the rudest, crudest women I have ever encountered in my life. I'm still disturbed by her and my ears have been free of her comments and outrages for over 17 hours. I was seriously scared by the comments she was making, but by that time everyone was packed in (like sardines... or cattle) so we had nowhere to go. I really think I'm scarred for life. She spoke words I've never even heard before. and her 4-year-old son was right there with her. and other people had their children with them, within hearing distance of her, too. I'M SO DISTURBED. the fireworks were awesome. Or what we saw of them anyway. The smoke didn't clear right away so we missed out on some of it. The ones we saw were breath-taking!

I can't say I'm glad I went, because if I hadn't gone I never would've experienced the worst human (by far) behavior I'm even aware of. Maybe someday I'll look back and say I'm glad I did it.

So then we got on the train with our wet, messy blankets and wet clothes, bags, etc and made our way home by 11:30. When we got back, I realized I had left the sunroof partly open and it had rained off and on all day... so the car was soaking wet. :( By this time I wanted to cry. and get on the first plane out of La Guardia that was going anywhere near Michigan. I got home and had to clean up the huge mess of the day, and then I had a hard time falling asleep because of that woman.

I WANT TO GO HOME!