Note: this was originally posted to Ben Around the Block on July 8, 2014. I have made edits to preserve privacy.
Hello, boys! I’m back!
OK, mandatory movie reference fulfilled. Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! Mine sure went well!
My Fourth of the July weekend got off to a magical start late Wednesday night. Just as I was tucking in for the night (having just finished up the last blog post), I received a call from my friend S [actual name redacted], who lives in nearby Silverton with their fiancée, R [actual name redacted]. S invited me to spend the Fourth with them, an invitation that I found impossible to resist, regardless of how last-minute it was. Hastily packing for the days to come, I went to bed with anticipation in my heart. It’s amazing how quickly one’s plans can change in a heartbeat!
Thursday itself was an interesting one at work. Usually, our Fridays are casual days, but this time, this Thursday was the day where I reported in draped in business casual garb. This less-formal-than-usual wear turned out to be appropriate, as I was enlisted for some blue-collar labor for the day-namely, moving crate after crate of scanned files into the dark, creepy, oubliette-esque basement of the building. It took all morning, but it was done without too much trouble. The afternoon was spent scanning, having difficulties with, and re-scanning a ginormous case file concerning a violent and serious theft in Silverton, which fortunately did not diminish my excitement about going there. After work, I quickly became acquainted to the buses of Marion County, and managed to successfully undergo the 30-minute ride from Salem to Silverton. On the third stop, the driver asked if anyone needed to get off and waited for a bit. Only when I looked outside and saw S and R frantically waving to me did I realize that I had been a little off with my calculations!
After catching up with S and R and settling down at R’s house, we headed off to the nearby state gardens for the fireworks show. That’s right, Silverton has its Fourth of July fireworks on the night of July 3rd! Why, I have no idea. Regardless of logic, we three had a lot of fun camping out and watching the magical wonder of blowing s*** up, though there was some mild panic when one firework misfired and set a tree on fire. Aside from that snafu, it was a safe and enjoyable night for all!
The rest of the night was fairly unremarkable except for one little detail: one of R’s cats had parked itself on my bed, preventing my sleep. As such, I spent 5-10 minutes negotiating with it before gently easing it off the bed. Let me reiterate: I spent at least 5 minutes talking with a cat, attempting to reason with it so that I could get to sleep. Have I made it clear how bats*** crazy my life seems at times? Good.
Friday, the actual Fourth of July, was simultaneously low-key and exciting. The morning was spent at R’s house, playing Apples to Apples with her, S, R's mother, and R's brother (I actually won!!). The early afternoon was spent wandering the mean streets of Silverton, where S, R, and I spoke of fears and hit up the local video game store, where I expanded my DVD library. The late afternoon was spent at the Silverton Reservoir, where we swam around on boogie boards and I made a point of traversing the whole reservoir to a grassy bank opposite of the docks from where we dove off (metaphorically--we actually waded in slowly and painfully). The water was quite freaky, having really cold and really warm spots splattered randomly around the reservoir. We had a load of fun, and even more miraculously, I did not get any kind of sunburn! To prove the fun we had, here is a picture of me at the reservoir…completely topless! Bask in my raw sex appeal!
OK, imaginary reader. I apologize for the mental and retinal trauma. The evening was a nice cool-down after an afternoon of swimming, where we picked up a makeshift dinner at Safeway, watched an episode of Supernatural, and watched Spider-Man 2, where we concluded that it is actually a scary allegory of a homicidal junkie. Let me explain: Peter Parker is obsessed with “Mary Jane,” (slang for marijuana) lives in a s****y apartment, dresses in a bright and almost hallucinatory costume, claims to be a “Spider-Man,” and has difficulty living a normal life. Also, his best friend resents him for taking “Mary Jane” from him (clearly a dispute between junkies) and people who try to take away “Mary Jane” (e.g. “the Green Goblin” and “Doctor Octopus,” more hallucinatory figments of a stoner’s imagination) tend to wind up dead, most likely as a result of reefer madness directed towards narcs. We went to bed, where I was able to sleep wonderfully, as my negotiations with R’s cats had not broken down completely.
Early on Saturday morning, I packed my things in preparation to leave and said my goodbyes. R’s mother drove me back to Salem and I settled back into my usual weekend routine of shopping (I now have a fan, which should make basic existence easier in my room!), sleeping, and day-to day existence. I have to go to work, so have a great week, everyone!
Modern reflections:
For those born after the 1990s, the opening of this post is a quote from the movie Independence Day.
I originally had photos of the fireworks in this blog post, but I haven't been able to find such photos anywhere in my files or social media accounts. The shirtless photo of me (which got some compliments from friends) was one I fortunately still have access to.
For the record, the DVDs I picked up in Silverton was the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. With this, I completed my extended edition LOTR collection, something I haven't properly broken out since college. Note to self: arrange LOTR marathon when I'm finally finished moving.
I haven't been to Silverton since the Fourth of July eleven years ago--I'm thinking I should check it out again through new eyes.
I haven't gotten that much better at negotiating with cats in the past eleven years, as Cthulhu can attest.
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