Arcata is funny in the sense that it is filled to the brim with people whom you’d least expect to celebrate a holiday like the 4th of July. But they do, and they do it well. Despite the fog that rolled in around 6:00 PM, I had a great day just relaxing with friends and thinking about every time South Park has ever made fun of a patriotic redneck.

I kicked things off with a morning of leisure before getting a surprise call from Allyson, whom I adore. We went to Big Blue Cafe and managed to get the outside table, so we could watch people in the Plaza be drunk and crazy while we ate our scrumptious sandos. The weather started off beautifully, but slowly turned cold and windy (as documented above by the flippy-ness of my hair).

Afterwards we walked to Willow & Rags, which I’ve been to way too many times in the last two weeks. I did, however, find a precious lavender turtleneck for $7. If there’s one thing I l-o-v-e, it’s turtlenecks. Oddly enough, I’m not usually one for purple, but I’ve been eating it up this summer.

Of course, it wouldn’t be 4th of July without baseball! The Humboldt Crabs had games all weekend, and they were packed full of people decked out in red/blue attire. It was hard to tell who was being patriotic, and who just really liked the Humboldt Crabs. Or both.

After we stamped out the competition, everyone darted out of the bleachers and into the ballpark, where the stadium lights were turned off for the fireworks show. Unfortunately, thanks to said fog, it was pretty hard to see much of anything except an eerie colored-sky and some sparks here or there. They also took down the flag halfway through the show, which I cursed them for.

All in all, a wonderful day. I hope everyone else in the States had a great Fourth, as well!

Last weekend I got my hair cleaned up by a friend of mine who cuts her own hair, as well as another friend of ours. It was pretty great when the three of us went out to lunch the next day, each sporting not only variations on the same [awesome] haircut, but also variations on our oversized shades, too.

Slightly unrelated, but I’ve been eating a ton of California Cuties lately. They’re the perfect snack and are so consistently delicious, not to mention oh so easy to peel. Not at all like their larger cousin, the Navel Orange.

Over the break we bought Felix a chintzy leash and decided to give him his first taste of the great outdoors. It went relatively well, but he’s definitely been raised to enjoy the indoor life. I’m just glad he finally got to romp around in grass and sniff tree bark; two experiences we’re incapable of supplying him with in our meager coastal apartment.

Good grief! I’ve been editing and deleting and organizing all the photos from my 10 day vacation all night, and yet my Flickr is only up to day three of the trip! This may take longer than I thought…

Here’s a bit of what I’ve managed to get together so far:

Driving! It’s about a 3 hour drive from Arcata to Redding if you straight shoot it. We usually make a necessary pit stop in Weaverville to grab snacks at Tops.

When we finally got home it was pretty quiet. Sue and Charlie were still in Mexico, so we hung out with Larry for the weekend, played games and cooked a lot of stir fry dinners.

Tom was a jerk the entire 10 days. I wouldn’t expect anything less from him!

Ed was looking healthier than I’ve ever seen him! He usually is very stressed out and missing patches of fur on his hind legs (for this, we used to nickname him ‘Chaps’).

Being the first trip home since I purchased my 50mm lens, I had to photograph everything in sight, of course!

I wanted to write a quick note about the Sikh procession I went to yesterday. It was in celebration of Guru Nanak Dev’s birthday, who founded the Sikh religion. There was the most incredible Indian food I’ve ever had being cooked up right in the parking lot, as well as a never-ending pot of chai that reached a level of deliciousness I never knew was attainable. None of which they charged any money for.

Before everyone got into the floats and their cars for the actual procession, a helicopter flew in and hovered about 40 feet over our heads, sprinkling flower petals over the temple, the people and the flag pole. Then, they had a handful of us come forward and sing the National Anthem. I’m pretty sure we sounded awful, as I’m tone deaf and couldn’t hit a note to save my life, but it was still very touching.

I’m still home in Redding, enjoying every bit of my vacation as it winds down, but tomorrow we go back ‘home’ to finish up the semester. Hopefully I’ll be able to post all the photos from my trip sometime this week, but there’s lots to sort through (300+ !) so it may take me awhile.