Fundraiser and Support Brigade for Glory!



Well, I didn't get to bed last night until this morning at five because I've messed up my sleep pattern as I do every summer. I was woken at ten by my mom, telling me the parade was on our street. Usually it goes down the street a block from our house, but for some reason the judging was at the estate planning building on the corner, so a whole bunch of floats were right on our street. All the motorcyclists were on the corner as well, so that was sweet. I love the sight of motorcycles though the sound hurts my ears.

The parade began and, like always, they threw candy. Yesterday we went to the grocery store and I had bought a cake, cheesecake, cookies, and we already had ice cream. I thought candy would be overkill-did you notice a lot of sweets start with c?--so I gave the candy I grabbed to a trio of kids who reminded me of myself at that age; running their little legs off and endangering their safety to get candy. I would have given it to the two families on my sides, but they didn't want it.

After the parade I made Shrinky Dinks. I made some awesome earrings of Mercury and Jupiter; I'll try to get a picture of them. I also talked to my mom and just hung out. Then I set off my day fireworks. I had crackers, jumping jacks, smoke bombs, and all sorts of stuff. It was so cool to see the chicken and tank roll around. I didn't have roman candles though, and our state forbids parachutes in the city limits because of the heights they reach. :/

We had grilled hot dogs for dinner. My brother grills really well, so they were great. The baked beans we had from our last camping trip were good too, with the pickles and pretzels. We had the cheesecake for desert and I was so stuffed I just played with my DS. I took a bit of a cat nap afterwords.

After we both woke up and bathed, my mom and I went to the carnival (my brother doesn't like them). I went on every ride--I bought a bracelet--and didn't get sick because I took my Dramamine first. I also got a cherry/lime snow cone and blue/pink cotton candy. I bought my mom a really ugly Alien bottle and she loved it. We would have gotten pizza if we hadn't eaten already because the carnival always has pretty good pizza.

I went on the ferris wheel twice; once during the day and once when it was dark. It was so awesome to see all the people around town setting off fireworks from the high seat. Everywhere I looked I saw such pretty sparkles. It was like watching the professional ones all across the town.

I went on the bumper carts twice as well, and I got complimented in a roundabout way. One little boy who seemed to have had too much sugar announced to his friends they should "get the old people." I told him I couldn't help being the oldest person on the carts, but he said some other girl was older. She probably wasn't and I said as much. He said "well, we're getting the old people but not you." I think the older girl knew the boy, but it was nice that he didn't believe I was so much older than him, though he couldn't have been more than ten.

I also fell after flailing about five feet, so that kind of sucked. It wasn't to bad, though I did grate my hands pretty badly. I won a baton from the duck pond because the game runner was really nice and just let people pull over and over to get the prize they wanted. I wanted to play the balloon pop game, but I wasn't going to pay five dollars for three throws when the prizes were really cheap. I'm a schmuck, but not for that much.

We *would* have gone to the fireworks next, except they moved them to tomorrow because the big annual concert is today as well. Usually the Fourth doesn't fall on Saturday, so they don't collide. This year, instead of moving the concert, they chose to have the fireworks on the day after the Fourth. :/ Maybe they do this every time the two events collide, but it was stupid.

I think it was a shifty ploy to get people to stay an extra day for the fireworks, except you can see fireworks in almost any town. They should have moved the concert; we're the biggest city around for a large portion of the state and the concert is the climax of the Wild West Fest, so people would stay for *that. Why would they stay for fireworks when their own towns no doubt do them? :/

So we came home and set off my night fireworks. Most of them were just pretty and a few made crackling noises--which I love. We had a ton of sparklers, so my mom and I set off, like, twenty each. I also set off a champagne popper, which is a feat for me. I think I must have been scared y one as a child because they scare the bejeezus out of me now. I did do one, though.

Now I am just surfing until bed. Tommorrow I have church and then I may do some cleaning. All in all it was a great Fourth, except I fell and my grandma is sick. She was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks back and they did a surgery today. She isn't doing very well because she can't eat and they basically filled her up with gas to do the surgery, so now she is hurting because of that. My mom is really upset.

I'm trying ti ignore it. It may not be nice to my grandma, but if I think about it I'll get scared. This is the first time I've really said anything more than the fact she has cancer. I'm just really scared. She's the only grandma I have left and it would kill my mom if she died.

SO I'm going to remember how great she is and how great my Fourth was. I'm going to send her good thoughts and think positively. I hope she gets better. I don't want to lose her.