Today is the Fourth of July. Well, almost yesterday as it is three minutes to midnight. Today I had very high hopes for the Fourth. I anticipated laying on a sunny lawn, drinking a cold Mike's Hard Lemonade (and yes. I realize that's really lame of me, and I'll take all the crap you'll dish about about my beverage choice, and yes I realize Nyquill has more alcohol content and that middle schoolers drink the Mike's, but you know what it tastes like a fresh summer day and I feel like a real adult because it's in a beer-like bottle and I never drink beer so....there), eating out of our very cute little picnic basket, and listening to some music while watching the fireworks light up the night sky over Lake Union. I mean, this was a big deal that I was in Seattle for the Fourth, and she should have done her best to accomodate me. However, she pretty much puked rain all over my plans of a delightful Fourth. The girls and I (Brittany, Dana and their friend Liz) embarked over to Gasworks to avoid traffic at about three thirty. The weather was a wee bit cloudy, and it was drizzling a bit, but Seattle tends to be a bit temperamental when it comes to weather, and may rain for a half hour or so, and then stop later on. We optimistically anticipated this sort of occurance and wrote the rain off. We are idiots. We got to Gasworks and sat in the rain for a full hour and a half, fully ill-prepared and WET as all get out--we would have made terrible Boy Scouts. However, it was not a total loss as this provided an ample amount of time to do some great people watching, and if you are in Seattle this means that you are bound to see something great. See, in Seattle, large public events usually means that people get together and think to themselves, "What sort of political statement do I want to make, or what sort of cause would I like to beat my drum about and how can I most obnoxiously do it?" I think this is awesome, because I love seeing people being politically active but what I love even more is watching people making a spectacle. We saw a man holding a sign with a large picture of Thomas Paine and a very long quote by him that was too hard to understand and should have been bullet pointed for easy reference or at least had a "Dummies" version of the sign. This man was SCREAMING at another man about the rich and the taxes and the poor laborers and it was all so very Karl Marx of him. I couldn't say I totally disagreed, but I wasn't sure he was going about it in the most effective way, but let's be honest that would not have been very Seattle-ish of him. Seattlites need to make a scene and they need to make a statement. It's in the water or something. Unfortunately because this man attracted me to walk over and see what in the hey haw he was ranting about, the girls got their picture taken for the Seattle Weekly while I was gone. Poop. Oh well, my claim to fame and the modeling offers that would have inevitably rolled in from that picture will have to come another rainy day. During our hour and a half we also saw a "Vote-bot" which was basically a man dressed up as a robot walking around trying to get people to vote (which I learned the average voting age in Seattle is sixty-freaking-two and I don't know about you but I do NOT see a lot of elderly people walking around this city--it is over run with people in their 20s and 30s. SO GET OUT AND VOTE!). We saw a pirate ship sail by on the lake. A man walking around advertising for hempfest who looked like he would be supplying a bulk of the plant that makes the hemp. We saw a tiny rat dog in a rain jacket. We met a local government worker who was walking around picking up trash and very, very graciously gave us two trashbags to cover up in the rain. He was just so friendly and cheerful and I let him know that I was happy that people's tax dollars were going to pay him. I also got some free stickers.
With all that said, and with the fun we were having people watching, we decided to retreat to drier lands, and I was very upset that the rain had destroyed all the time and energy I had spent perfecting my very voluminous hair and cute side-braid of the day. Thus, we voyaged [erm, waded?] back to the girls' apartment, made some mango vodka drinks and watched Harry Potter 5, to which I fell asleep and now I'm wide awake...awes.
We did decide to go watch the fireworks, but not at Gasworks as there was no way we were going to get near it. I'll be honest, they were the best fireworks I've ever seen--well played City of Seattle. While I can't say you've fully redeemed yourself because you puked all over my fantasy of an awesome Independence Day, you certainly put up a good fight. I found myself silently judging all the cheesy people who kept going "Ooooooh" and "Ahhhhh" as the firecrackers popped here and there, as they reminded me of the little green men in Toy Story that say, "The Cllllllaaaawwww," but I am a hypocrite and found an "Ooh!" and "Neat-o!" slip out here and there. Oh well. They are just so pretty.
So what, praytell, made this whole experience worthwhile you ask? My buy one get one free coupon for Trophy Cupcakes that I scored at the Trophy Cupcake tent. Yup. All set. Mmm. Hmmm.
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