Our July 4th 2012

Oh the joys of parenting a teenager when it comes to social outings.

The 4^th of July is my favorite holiday. It is not overly commercialized like Christmas and Easter. 

It is not left over from some other idea of things people used to do. 

It is uniquely American.

I love my country and appreciate living here…all ills aside. 

I even have respect for the political process never the less life at home has kept me too busy to do more than vote.

Even that it is my favorite time of the year we do not have a serious tradition for the day. When possible I have made home made ice cream.

Usually I like to take us out far enough to see the public fire works display without getting us caught in the crazy traffic. 

The first time I tried that she was too little and it scared her to be at Cal Expo when the noise started.

Fast forward more than a dozen years and we got invited to a BBQ & Pool fun party last night. I mentioned it to her and she came unglued.

The invite was from strangers off MeetUp. She did not want to be with strangers and we had not heard from any friends or family that were doing anything or inviting us anywhere.

I thought she had decided to attend just to humor me or if I would pay for a session at the nail salon. No, I am not above bribery for the sake of a family event.

When she chickened out I was heartsick.

"I just wanted to do sparklers close to home with you" she told me. 

Who just wants that, I would have thought. 

We do not even have a grill. The forecast was for temps in the high 90's. A pool was sounding divine.

I went alone to the pool and BBQ party. Then had to leave early to get back home in time. It felt like a let down. 

We thought about going to the drive in. We couldn’t really agree on what to see. 

I was not sure we would have time in the dusk to light our few items and not miss the movie start time.

The night just needed something more…

The boyfriends' family to the rescue! As I came home to shower, from being in the pool, around 7:30 pm she was hounding me. 

"Mom they are trying to reach us" she was saying to me from down stairs somewhere.

"They want to know if we can we join them to light off fire works tonight?"

Sounds okay, was my thought as I tried to figure out what to wear suddenly and pin my hair back up. I had just released it from the push combs that hold it in place.

I fixed myself the first cup of warm coffee I was able to drink all day. The temp was falling. We got in the car but I grabbed a sweater. (Thank goodness.)

Boyfriends' Mamma is a picture diva so dorky me and QueenMiss are immortalized and there are a few…shots of the display that was put on.

Socialization Success hahahahah!!!