Yip!

It’s coming, it’s almost here. My favorite holiday.

No…not my birthday, although that is coming, and as much as it should be a holiday, it is not…yet.

The 4th of July is coming.
America’s birthday.

And although I have many problems with my country and the way it is run, I am still proud to be a part of it and feel lucky to live here, no matter how bad it gets. And I tell you, don’t even try to make me go out of town for the 4th, because where would I rather be than the most beautiful city in the world on the my favorite day?


And hell, who doesn’t like a birthday party?
Who doesn’t like fireworks, hot summer nights and hot dogs?
Who doesn’t like FINALLY having someone to love me on the greatest celebration of the year?

Really though, I don’t have a big religious faith (really none at all) so Christmas is fun, but not something that I believe in. It’s fun, but it doesn’t hold a deeper meaning.

But the 4th, the 4th does and it always has. It holds nice memories of my family and my neighborhood, of plastic plates and block parties.

And getting older and drinking 5 different kinds of liquor out of a Sprite bottle, while deciding where it’s better to go, the Wilmette Beach or Nielsen Park in Winnetka.

Of drinking vodka lemonades with my friend Dori, of riding bikes to Evanston, of miniature golf and picnic dinners.

The day holds pure pleasure for me. A day to do whatever I want with whomever I’d like to do it with. It’s a day to relax and enjoy the summer, and a day to remember that as horrible as things can get here, as horrible as that W is, the atrocities that are being committed in other countries in our name…America is not at fault. America is as true as it was when it started. It’s the people fucking it up, not the country.

I have travelled a bit, I've seen the dirty streets of Jakarta Indonesia, I've seen the pristine streets of Singapore, I've seen the rice patties in Thailand and the thai hookers hawking themselves on the street. I've seen beauty and horror in all of these places, and still believe I am the luckiest, by being born at this time in this place.

I have faith and pride in my country, call me cheesy, call me naïve, but it is what I hold in my heart to be true. America is still the greatest, and no matter what happens with this foolish man and his foolish co horts, America will pull through.

And I get to see War of the Worlds, and THAT is like the 2nd greatest holiday ever.