Pop Goes the World
"Jenny and Johnny had a crazy dream...."
I'm still feeling a bit of a sensation of unreality — I think that's what being sick and holed up at home for a whole weekend will do to a person (and waking up at 3pm on Saturday, skewing my sleep patterns for the last two days, didn't help, either).
Figuring out what to do after work is helping a little, though — a $30 credit at the record store near work, and an invitation for Indian food with a friend of mine — as long as a person has choices, things are going okay.
I also keep forgetting that Wednesday is a work holiday (I requested two different people at work to do something "by Wednesday", only to be hesitatingly reminded by them that they didn't plan to be here that day — did I plan to?) I guess when the 4th of July doesn't involve blocking off the whole street and setting off firecrackers with all the neighbors, like I remember as a kid, the magic is kind of gone.
Even the thought of buying some fireworks with some friends and venturing off somewhere to set them off is just missing something.
I'm not entirely unpatriotic, I don't think. I'm appreciative that most people in the U.S. have the privileges they do, but compared to some other places in the world, our self-appointed reputation of being the best, greatest, and nicest people anywhere feels like it's starting to tarnish. It's still a reason to be thankful, but not quite enough to celebrate, unfortunately.
I'm still embarrassed, though, by the Independence Day, several years back, when, not realizing that it wasn't just any other day, I ventured out of my apartment into the Burger King down the street wearing my Moscow University T-shirt (it was clean, right?). For anyone who thinks the cold war is over, I assure you: in Texas, apparently it's very not. Timid claims that you don't really want to live in Russia hold little ground against the average Texan double-whopper consumer.
I did perceive (after I had escaped to safety, and contemplated things a bit), that things were changing, and I'm still not sure if it's just me, or if maybe it's more than that, and city firecracker bans should be loosened a bit again, just to remind people that the U.S. is still a fun place, after all.
Pop!
I'm still feeling a bit of a sensation of unreality — I think that's what being sick and holed up at home for a whole weekend will do to a person (and waking up at 3pm on Saturday, skewing my sleep patterns for the last two days, didn't help, either).
Figuring out what to do after work is helping a little, though — a $30 credit at the record store near work, and an invitation for Indian food with a friend of mine — as long as a person has choices, things are going okay.
I also keep forgetting that Wednesday is a work holiday (I requested two different people at work to do something "by Wednesday", only to be hesitatingly reminded by them that they didn't plan to be here that day — did I plan to?) I guess when the 4th of July doesn't involve blocking off the whole street and setting off firecrackers with all the neighbors, like I remember as a kid, the magic is kind of gone.
Even the thought of buying some fireworks with some friends and venturing off somewhere to set them off is just missing something.
I'm not entirely unpatriotic, I don't think. I'm appreciative that most people in the U.S. have the privileges they do, but compared to some other places in the world, our self-appointed reputation of being the best, greatest, and nicest people anywhere feels like it's starting to tarnish. It's still a reason to be thankful, but not quite enough to celebrate, unfortunately.
I'm still embarrassed, though, by the Independence Day, several years back, when, not realizing that it wasn't just any other day, I ventured out of my apartment into the Burger King down the street wearing my Moscow University T-shirt (it was clean, right?). For anyone who thinks the cold war is over, I assure you: in Texas, apparently it's very not. Timid claims that you don't really want to live in Russia hold little ground against the average Texan double-whopper consumer.
I did perceive (after I had escaped to safety, and contemplated things a bit), that things were changing, and I'm still not sure if it's just me, or if maybe it's more than that, and city firecracker bans should be loosened a bit again, just to remind people that the U.S. is still a fun place, after all.
Pop!