Fourth of July Weekend

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. It is special because about five or six years ago I went to a party at my friend's half built house and had an amazing time. It was kind of my first "real" party so to speak. I love fireworks. I love summer. I love cookouts and I love the beach. I really appreciate our freedom and used to don red white and blue apparel year round. I actually owned a pair of American Flag freedom pants. I had the little headbands with wiggly flags on them. I love the Fourth and always try to do something special.

This 4th was no exception. I started early by spending the night at my friend, Beth's house on Friday night. This made things easier for Saturday's fun. Friday night I went to the ice cream festival at my old town. This was an incredibly hick but cute festival featuring the All Shore Band, bell ringers, free ice cream, and lots of people. Then we went to the carnival, lost at bingo, ate fried Oreos and had a pretty good time. Then we went to Shucker's for a few drinks. I had so much fun dancing that when I dropped it like it was hot I split my skirt. I was dancing out on the floor and felt a bit of a draft. I reached behind me and realized that my skirt had split from the top all the way to the bottom. Awkward, I know. So I spun the skirt to the side and tried to pull off some sort of retro rip look. I kind of just looked stupid. I was amused but this incident sobered me up right quick. We stayed at Shuckers till last call and then headed home. I decided I was a bit hungry so I made a pit stop at McDonalds at 2am. haha I ate my quarter pounder with cheese as I drove back to Beth's. It was a really fun night and a great way to kick off the Fourth.

Saturday morning I woke up early to walk in a small town parade with Beth and her dog, Baller. Her mom made a streamer collar out of red, white and blue and we put it around his neck. So we walked in this parade, showing off the dog. At the end of the parade we were rewarded with Popsicles and water. Beth's parents drove me back to her house because she had to pick up her friend, Jon. I got my stuff together and went to the creek to meet Clay and his fam. We took the boat over to Cedar Island, yes the land of magical wonder. Here I ate fried chicken and home made brownies with joy while sipping on a Bud Light. It was awesome. We went to seaside and played in the baby waves and visited other locals/ate their food. haha I think we were on the island from noon till about 6pm. I only got a tad bit sun burnt, Beth got the worst of it. Jon had a great time. Clay and I have crazy pictures. It was perfect.

I returned to land, took a shower at Beth's and then tried to plan my next move. There were going to be fireworks at Shuckers so we had plans to go there. I called up the parents to let them know what was up and they were less than thrilled. Due to a communication problem, my parents were under the impression I was coming home right after the beach. Therefore, they had made plans to go to the carnival with me that night. I remember telling them about fireworks and was just trying to figure out how to save gas/spend time wisely from 6pm-10pm. This resulted in a fight due to the disagreement. They are still kind of upset with me.

So I'm working through that. We found out that the fireworks started at 9pm....and it was 8:55. We booked it over to Shuckers and witnessed comeback fireworks. What does that mean? Well, my old town used to have a really nice firework display each year at the Fireman's carnival. This town sold the carnival rides and gave up the carnival grounds. They just couldn't afford to hold the carnival anymore. So there are no fireworks in town. To see Eastern Shore fireworks you had to drive all the way up to the top of the Shore or all the way down to the bottom. This is not convenient for us middle of the road folks. So Shucker's, "the Eastern Shore's Premier Nightclub haha" decided to host a firework show. It was beautiful. The show lasted about 15 min or so, they had a beautiful right above your head display of professional fireworks. I think the display was better than the carnival's old displays. So there, comeback fireworks! The town made a comeback.

Then I had to make a hard decision. Beth was really sun burnt and not feeling well. I was staying at her house for the night. I could either go home with her and watch a movie. Or I could stay at Shux with Clay and meet up with Cora, a good friend of mine from high school theatre and forensics days. I hadn't seen Cora in over four years. I know now I should have went home with Beth and be with her. I didn't. I stayed out for a second night at Shucker's with my other friends. It was a blast, I won't lie. I saw people I had a class with one semester in freshman year of high school. I saw people I went to middle school with and who dropped off the face of the earth. I got an old forensics picture with three other people from our team. The music was good, the atmosphere was more of the young crowd, and it was fun. Cora drove me back to Beth's around 1 or so in the morning. (After we had a parking lot feast of McDonalds cars side by side). Beth said she didn't mind if I went out or stayed with her as long as I "was returned to her custody haha." But I'm an idiot for not going back with my friend who I was staying with. She was so sun burnt and tired and I didn't even feel like going out that night to begin with. I just wanted to see Cora, who in turn wanted to hang out with me for a bit.

You can't please everyone. I will never learn. I try to take the road of less damage but I think I just end up choosing the road of most damage. I don't know.

But that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was a really good time and I enjoyed my favorite holiday. My friends all leave tomorrow and go back to their lives in C-ville and Richmond. I, will be back to spending my days trying to find a job for a month and a half and waiting to hear if RMC accepts me or not. Thrilling, I know.

Upon reflecting on the many reasons why I am so excited about RMC I realized a few things.
1. This program is perfect because I really don't know what I want to do with my life. I'm up in the air about counseling, social work, journalism and the like. I have no set plan.

2. This is a transition from college life to the real world. I've have similar responsibilities I would if I were on my own, I'll have a 9-5 M-F kind of job, I'll have to keep my living space clean and be courteous to others. Its like the real world on training wheels.

3. I love the fact I can continue nurturing my spiritual life. I'm coming from being involved in CCM to being a parish orphan. Yeah. This gives me no outlet to grow in my faith or continue to build my trust and relationship with God.

4. I love the adventure aspect. I'm literally giving this up to God and basically pulling a "Jesus take the Wheel." I don't know where I'm going to end up. I don't know what is going to come of a year. I don't know what I'm going to do after a year. (Which excites me instead of scares me). I always wanted to plan my whole life out, every last move, but now I'm just seeing where things go and what comes of them. Its so adventurous.

5. Practicality. While this position does not relieve credit card debt of any kind and makes me drain half my savings to pay off debt while serving a year, it is beneficial in many other ways. Spiritual growth, almost 5 grand to pay off student loans in one shot, loan forbearance for a year because face it, I really don't have any money to pay my loans now anyway, room and board (no rent or bill worries for one year), stipend so small I have to really think about how to use it (building financial responsibility), free health insurance (co-pay) (well I'm uninsured right now...and I will remain so if I go get a job on my own), community living (learning lessons and transitioning from being around people all the time to being on my own). It makes sense. With the economy, it makes even more sense. Everyone is going to grad school or volunteering for a year.

There are tons of reasons why I really want to do this. Including the fact I felt incredibly at home and happy during my interview. Honeymoon stage or not, I loved it.

But I guess I still have things to think about. Oh, yeah, and relationships to repair right now. Oh, and a temp job to find.

Until next time.....