red. white. & blue.

oh independence day.

4th of july.

my heart was a little torn this year,

not being able to spend it on the good ol' snake river like i have since... well since forever.

but i'd have to say that monday was still a great holiday.

most of the day was spent across the river with the rest of the girls celebrating

the holiday with the jersey boys.

we took a train over to hoboken, new jersey so that when it was firework time, we could watch the firework show with the manhatten city skyline behind over the hudson river.

holy heck. such an AWESOME view.

it was gorgeous.

haven't seen anything quite like it.

if you ever have the chance to spend the 4th in the city. i would highly recommend it.

they sure know what they are doing.

{funny story.}

so lately i have realized some habits i have picked up since being here, some really great ones, and some not so helpful ones, such as being kind of rude, like the rest of this city.

well yesterday we show up a few hours early to save good seats for the firework show

and camped out for a while.

the sun sets...

we all stand up and start watching the show, at first it was great.

we had THE perfect seats. we could see in perfectly. no complains whatsoever.

well as the show went on, more and more people started showing up, standing wherever, regardless if people had been saving places and such.

next thing i know, some dingle brain was standing directly two rows ahead of us. i wouldn't have minded, except for the fact that im a whopping 5 foot and this man was a little taller than i, but accompanying him was his iPad. and he thought he should record the entire thing.

hence, blocking our view of the show.

people start complaining all around me, yet no one would say anything.

so me, being the brave soul that i am, (haha not),

shout,

"we were here before you, would ya please put down your iPad, before i hit ya with it!"

(instantly i think, "uh where the heck did that come from? i would NEVER say that.")

the jersey boys start laughing. the girls start laughing.

the man turns around, looks at me.

meanwhile i'm nearly wetting my pants, laughing, yet scared out of my mind!

so apparently, i'm not as intimidating as i thought i was, because he didn't move his iPad.

and his iPad is in just about every single one of our pictures we took.

haha oh well.

lesson to learn: lish. keep yo mouth shut!

i'm lucky there was a row of boys ahead of me, or maybe i would have been the one that got bopped in the head with the darn iPad.

and if ya'll want to see the hudson fireworks show,

i'm sure the kind iPad guy uploaded it to youtube immediately. :)

SIDENOTE: NOTICE THAT iPad BOY IS IN BASICALLY ALL MY PICTURES. hahhaha.

the train ride back to the city was HILARIOUS. i have literally never laughed so hard in my entire life. the train was so jam packed that literally it felt like sardines. there was no where to hold on to. if the train leaned left, we went with it. if it slammed on its brakes, we moved with it.

all of us girls were just laughing.

too many bodies.

too many smells.

too many stops before we got off.

too many attitudes.

too good not to laugh.

meanwhile back at home, i missed quite the excitement, or so i am told.

i received a picture of my dads face from a family friend.

at first glance, i thought,

"ok weird. why would they just send me a picture of my dad's face?"

then i looked closer.

and read the caption.

buried in my father's face, was what looked like a 3 pronged fishing hook.

i got queezy.

what on earth?

i wont drop names, because it was a complete accident, but someone got a little fishing happy on the dock and managed to catch dad right in the face while he was out in the boat.

not so fun.

my mom had the pleasure of taking him home and cutting it out with the wire cutters.

but hey at least it makes a good story right? ;)

random.

so they say that TEXTING & DRIVING is dangerous.

good grief.

well so is TEXTING & WALKING.

i had a near death experience this week.

so alot of the restaurants or laundry mats

have basements that are accessed outside through a seperate entrance

in a "man hole" type crawlspace. and when its super hot outside, they leave

the panels open.

well leave it to me.

i had just got out of the office and was checking my text messages, off in my own little world,

when it occured to me that perhaps i should look up.

WELL PRAISE THE HEAVENS THAT I DID, because

i was about 3 inches away from this.

i can't even imagine trying to explain how i got myself into that mess.

haha. so take a lesson from me.

don't text and walk.

no bueno.

things are still going great on this end.

taking full advantage of my last weeks here.

and looking forward to friends from home coming to visit over the next couple of weeks.

it will be a blast. i cannot wait.

this summer has been so great.

they say new york is the city of opportunity. and i'd have to agree.

since arriving here, i've been thrown opportunity after opportunity.

causing me to think a little more long term on some decisions

i will have to make in the next little bit.
this summer is exactly what i have needed and so much more.

i really don't know how i lucked out so well.

i have absolutely nothing to complain about.

my living situation is ideal.

the crew at KRI is perfect.

and the experiences i have had, have been even better.

you don't always end up where you think you'll be,

but

you always end up where you're suppose to be.