Fireworks

Jordy and I went downtown on the 4th to watch fireworks. She had thoughtfully arranged for a room at the Marriot, so after wandering around for hours, we wouldn't have to try to fight traffic making it home.

We watched the fireworks from the roof of the science museum, along with some of her friends/coworkers (several of whom are easy on the eyes, but distressing on the ears). I had a much nicer time than I'd expected, watching the pretty colors shoot and bloom overhead, sometimes viewing the explosions through the "3 D" ("Queenvision": I kept hearing the opening strains of The Highlander theme when using) mask, which gave the viewer rainbow streamers around visual periphery.

I wouldn't dispute that I have my challenges like everyone else, but I kept seeing those lines of fire shoot across the sky, and thinking, It would have been really cool to shoot that at the Taliban. If you think about it, though, my experience of the actual warfighting in the 'Stan really amounted to unloading vast amounts of expensive fireworks on them at night. Often accompanied by whoops from the ODA with us.

The Marriot had incredibly soft beds and inane window dressings. Nice, thick draperies were hung, but they didn't move at all- the only "curtains" were filmy and barely obstructed any light, which meant that I began waking up at, oh, about dawn.