happy birthday america
fourth of july is such a great holiday. i love how this year it fell smack in the middle of the week. it left me recharged when i got back to work, and i had a great time.
this year, july fourth sort of crept up on me, and i never really planned anything to do. luckily, the day ended up being super eventful and fully in true july 4th spirit.
in the morning, my sister and i headed up to los angeles for a hillary clinton rally. to be honest, i don’t really know who i am planning on voting for, but i thought it would be interesting to go to a political rally. it was a good experience. i spent most of the event observing.
there was a diverse group of people crowded in the hot, stuffy basement where the event was held, and the two speakers that ended up coming where both asian women. the first one, who spoke in broken english didn’t make many points besides “bush is the worst president ever!” and “my husband is a republican” (which resulted in tons of boos) followed by “but he said he would put all his efforts into helping hillary’s campaign!” (which resulted in tons of cheers). the second speaker was a little better. she made some points about hillary having more experience than any other candidate and such but still didn’t get too much across. what i was really hoping for was to find some reason why i should choose hillary over any other candidate besides how cool i think it would be to have a female president for the first time in the united states.
i started to pick up on the trend of the crowd. if you said “hillary for president” or “bush sucks” or anything along those lines, you would be rewarded with a loud room full of cheers. i even found myself participating. when everyone around you is cheering, it’s hard not to join in with some applause of your own.
after the rally, my sister and i visited my apartment to do some last minute packing before moving day on friday. the apartment was so covered with boxes, it was almost unrecognizable. it made me sort of sad. i really liked my home in palisades. it was a good size, had a beautiful view, and was a fairly new building.
meg’s family was holding a barbecue at their house for fourth of july. their backyard is so amazing for parties. when i pulled up, tons of people were there already. as always, i had a great time with everyone and then headed over to mimi’s cafe to meet up with katie, carl, sarno, zelle, and erich for dinner.
after dinner, we met up with meg and heather to go to see the yorba linda fireworks show. i’m not lying when i say that everyone who lives in yorba linda was there. the park was packed, and there were live bands playing. this is the one time in the year where i really feel like yorba linda comes together. i don’t know any other holiday where everyone gathers at one place to celebrate the same thing.
the fireworks were certainly worth the wait. i don’t think i will ever get tired of watching fireworks. i sort of miss going to disneyland because i miss their fireworks show. i used to go something around six times a year until recently. i never thought i would say this, but i got sick of disneyland. the excessive amounts of people, waiting in hour long lines, paying ridiculous prices for average tasting food.. i guess it all got a little old after awhile. anyway, if the time and opportunity arrives, i’ll gladly pay the happiest place on earth a visit now. my two year absence from disneyland has been way too long.
i got a new camera this week. after extensive debating about whether or not to get a new camera, i finally decided to go for it. i couldn’t get away from canon though. i read numerous reviews and eventually decided that i shouldn’t give up on a brand that’s been working so well for me. my new camera’s an sd750, and i love it. it almost looks identical to my old sd200, but it takes way better pictures.
move-in/move-out day was friday. i worked for half the day, and then drove up to la with my mom. it was stressful to say the least. i’m glad it’s over. our new apartment in chez is now an absolute mess. i like the set up we have going in the living room with our new couch, and the bedroom shape/size looks promising. i’m excited to unpack and decorate, but i don’t think i’m going to be up at chez for awhile. this year should be fun. i like how we will be closer to campus, the row, and other students.
meg’s birthday was also on friday. we celebrated on thursday, and i made her a frame. i love how much we’ve been able to hang out this summer. when i looked at all the pictures, i couldn’t believe that almost all of them were from this summer alone. this summer has been pretty amazing. i’m glad work and summer school isn’t taking over my life like it did last summer.
yesterday i donated blood for the second time. i get queasy watching grey’s, so donating blood isn’t an easy task for me. i figure if i can potentially save three lives with a bag of my blood, i might as well give it a shot. this time, it was so much easier since the nurse hit my vein with the first needle prick. afterwards, i sat on the van waiting for them to let me go, and i talked to this woman who was on something between her 50 to 60th blood donation. i couldn’t believe it. she used to go every time she was allowed to (you have to wait 56 days between each donation) until she had a surgery last year. because of the surgery, she had to wait a year. she was telling me how great it was to be back to donating blood. i can’t believe there are people like this. i wonder how many lives she’s saved with her blood alone. she’s amazing. i love meeting people that make me want to be a better person. i’m going to try to donate blood more often.
last night my sister and i accompanied my mom to go see her good friend sing at a concert in pasadena. the concert was really beautiful, and it was held in a huge church. the main event was the performance of hayden’s creation by the chinese choir, three opera singers, and a symphonic orchestra from china.