4th of July

The Wednesday holiday was sort of strange, like having a weekend in the middle of the week. I headed down to Newport, where my roommate's family has a house, on Tuesday afternoon. We arrived and went for a swim in the ocean, then and cooked up a delicious seafood dinner of lobster, scallops, and grilled swordfish. Mmmmmm. After dinner, we went to a concert by The Samples, because apparently we had somehow stepped into a time machine that was set to 1994. The show was a lot of fun...until I looked down and noticed the bassist's choice of footwear:

Nooooooooo! Crocs with socks!!!

On Wednesday, we slept in, and Ern, Timm, Pat and I went out for a late breakfast. After breakfast, we popped in the bar next door to the restaurant for a bloody mary, and then we stayed there. FOR FIVE HOURS. Holy drunkfest! We were joined by several friends and entertained ourselves playing pool, darts, pinball, and enjoying country music and classic rock selections on the jukebox. It may be hard to imagine that Newport has a dive bar, but oh what a dive this place was. Homemade jerky for sale? Check. A jar of pickled eggs on the counter? Check. A cigarette machine (the old kind with the pull-knob handles)? Check. At one point, I asked for a lemon and the bartender said that they didn't have any because they weren't really a fancy place. Jeez- all I wanted was a piece of lemon- I wasn't asking for a pomegranate martini! We finally left and ate some pizza, with dark and stormies (obviously), and then headed out to a 4th of July party filled with inappropriate grown-ups. People my parents' age giving each other spray-on tattoos and the like. So we fit right in. We did manage to see the fireworks from across the harbor, although I got soaked by the rain in the process. The night continued on into the wee hours, and I had a great time, until Ern woke me up at 6AM so we could drive back to Boston and work all day. That part, not so much fun.

Hope you all had a fun Independence Day.