totally fabulous flamingo

totally fabulous flamingo
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry

I went to a party last night to say goodbye to my friend Charles, who is heading out west for a couple months of wandering and, surprise, surprise - I got a birthday present from my friend Jodi! This is awesome and I think from now on I should totally get birthday presents at random occasions throughout the year, because getting presents just rocks, particularly when the present is as pictured here, the world's most wonderful lawn ornament. He is still at my friend Susan's house, since she was hosting the party, but soon he will adorn my front yard, much to the chagrin of my teenage son and possibly my neighbors. Hurrah!

Well it is the fourth of July tomorrow and I have absolutely no plans and that sounds perfect to me. I can hear but not see the fireworks from my house and when I do maybe I will ruminate briefly on tyranny and throwing off the shackles of foreign government and perhaps I will get all het up and declare my house a sovereign nation but, you know, probably not. Too much work. Meanwhile, every person in every store keeps telling me to have a happy and safe fourth. What's with the safe bit? Is the fourth of July unholily dangerous? Are there more fireworks related deaths than I knew about? Flag impalings? Food poisoning from all the potato salad left in the sun? I never really thought of it as a dangerous holiday, unlike, say, Christmas, where lots of people shoot family members in completely understandable fits of rage.

Ah well, the 4th of July. I don't usually do much for it but I swear I'll find some kind of flag thing to fly tomorrow because, well, because I have a couple of flags and it's sort of the only occasion to use them. I mean, what else can I do, since I'm just not enough of a hippie to wear them or let the kids sit on them at the park and I'm not punk enough to burn them for an art piece or the hell of it. Therefore, they just sit around in the linen closet and tomorrow out they will go. We crazy communist pot smoking hippie socialist pinko left wing radicals get to fly the flag too, you know. So, hurrah. And have a happy and dangerous fourth. Safe is probably overrated.