More from the new camera. The kitchen is mainly because my shelves in there are the easiest spot to balance it, it won't balance on my armchair like the old camera.
I'm feeling frustrated with my neighbors right now.
Let me start out by saying, I do not hate the 4th of July. Independence Day is great, guys, celebrating freedom and America and all that stuff. However, I despise fireworks.
It wasn’t always that way. For most of my later childhood and early adulthood, I enjoyed fireworks. I have fond memories of going to Disney World once or twice as a kid and seeing the fireworks display there. I also have fond memories of watching fireworks with my family in other places, although half the night was spent slapping at mosquitos and complaining about the itching, but once the fireworks actually started I was quite happy to forget all that and marvel in the pretty display.
It wasn’t until college that I started really hating fireworks. I don’t know if this is typical for all colleges, but at my school, fireworks were the most amusing thing in the world to drunk college kids, and my school was a pretty notorious party school (not why I went there, I didn’t drink regularly until after I was 21, and even now it’s about a glass of wine/a beer a week, if that). That meant that just about every single night, usually at 3 AM when I had a test at 9:30 the next morning, there were firecrackers and other shit going off outside the dorm or apartment where I lived. Didn’t matter where I was living, or what time of night, there were fireworks going off and keeping me awake. Just like I started hating the Moulin Rouge soundtrack after hearing it every day for hours on end for eight weeks at Interlochen Arts Camp, I began to flinch every time I heard fireworks. I would grind my teeth and get a twitch in my eye and just silently curse whoever it was who sold them locally to the idiotic drunken college students keeping me awake.
When I graduated from college, I got a brief reprieve. The first apartment I moved to (while swarming with bed bugs) didn’t seem especially prone to fireworks at all hours. I think that’s because it was on the border between a residential and commercial area, so likely there would have been complaints from the businesses if fireworks were being set off every which way. Last summer I lived a happy, fireworks-free existence, but of course couldn’t enjoy it because of the fucking bed bugs. I had hopes that this summer would be similar, but alas. My neighbors seem especially fond of making noise, which does not amuse me. It especially doesn’t amuse me because my cat is deathly afraid of loud noises. He’s actually better with fireworks than I expected, he absolutely hates thunder. During the fireworks show last night (which, despite being several miles away, was clearly heard where I live) he spent the time cowering under my armchair. Once the worst of it was finished, he remained nervous and alert because of the sounds coming from my neighbors’ yard two doors down, but he wasn’t cowering, at least. For myself and my cat, I despise fireworks.
I think holidays are great. I like that I have today off of work because of the holiday. I think spending time with family/grilling out/corn on the cob and watermelon are wonderful things. I also fully support the troops (opposed to the war, but fully support the troops) and think it’s a good thing to celebrate the historical significance of the day we declared our freedom from tyranny. But damn, I really hate fireworks.
MirrorMe 