This weekend was my first 4th of July since 2003 in which I was not at work. I was not home in Oregon, but I was in Ohio with the inlaws, and that is more than good enough for me! There is just something so refreshing about celebrating our nation's birth on the same day that I meet with family and do not shave, sit on a bus, or play music in a concert that is stressing out my leadership just prior to fireworks.
We had a great meal during which I used a fork and knife for my ribs after watching the others at the table to see what was "appropriate" for the crowd, although had I watched a few minutes longer I would have seen some of the guys use fingers and therefore avoided a comment about how I was the rare guy to be civilized. We also had Mel's Macaroni Salad-- Deanna's mom's recipe. She gave Deanna the recipe, and it is a family favorite. At the dinner table, we also heard the shocking news that her grandmother's "lady fingers" (actually they were "closepin cookies"-- she liked to use the wrong name) were not actually homemade like everyone thought, but were actually store-bought! She sounds like she was a very tricky woman who I would have loved to meet.
We finished the evening out with fireworks at the local minor-league stadium. It was nice, though I was annoyed that people stood and removed their hats for God Bless America (it is NOT the national anthem), and that the REAL national anthem was not announced when it played first in the fireworks display. But I have discovered that I care about such things more than the average American, especially after the last several years. This year was my first year adjusting to a "normal" culture, and it really showed.
