Not Born on the 4th of July

Holidays, like many other things, fill me to the brim with apathy. 4th of July? Good for it. It just doesn’t do that much for me. In fact for a while I tried to pick a fight with the 4th. One year I cut my leg while playing tennis on the 4th and vowed it would be my eternal enemy. This was followed by a decade or so of 4th of July’s with no notable reasons to hate the day. So I just hold a grudge against tennis, and leave the 4th alone.

But I’m that way with all holidays. I like Halloween, but I don’t really have any emotional investment in it. If there was a national crisis or budget deficit and they canceled Halloween for the year, I wouldn’t tear up. Though I might wear my costume anyway. It doesn’t matter if the holiday is fun (Halloween, Mardi Gras) has religious significance (Christmas, Easter, St. Patricks?) or patriotism like the 4th: they just aren’t a big deal to me.

That being said, I’m a sucker for theme parties.

I don’t know why. If someone was having a party because it was Thursday, I’d probably have just as much fun as if they made everyone dress up as their favorite tree for Arbor Day. But for whatever reason, I like the themes. Even if the holiday itself leaves me underwhelmed, I like thinking of ways to celebrate it.
This year we had Red White and Boom Boom Pow. In Columbus they have the city fireworks on the 3rd of July, with each town throwing their own display on the 4th. The 3rdof July fireworks are called Red White and Boom, so we had a Red White and Boom Boom Pow to celebrate the fireworks, and of course the ubiquitous Blackeyed Peas and their brand of generic hip hop. Rather than go downtown with the rest of the Columbus (seriously, it’s amazingly cramped and the traffic is death) we watched on the roof of the parking garage next to my house. We had a BBQ, played some good tunes (with the obligate BEP, as well as some memorial MJ and my latest favs) and generally had a good time. Afterwards I’d prepared some apple pie (I considered covering it in cheese, but decided to go with ice cream instead) and watched Independence Day. It’s not quite as awesome as when I was 13, and it wasn’t a good idea to start it at midnight, but again a good time was had.

The 4th was primarily noteworthy for the fact that I saw Boyz II Men perform. Jealous much? They were performing down the street from a picnic I attended so we partook of the blandness. It was pretty bland. But they did have some sweet dance moves, at least for a bunch of mediocre singers 15 years past their prime. Otherwise the day consisted mostly of me attempting to reacquaint my brother with the last 2 years of nerd entertainment.

Now I’m kind of looking forward to Arbor Day.

The Larch