Best a Day of Independence

The Fourth of July, Two thousand and Nine. My first Saturday independent from the workplace in ages. I celebrated by rising and going out into my Upper Western sided neighborhood. I'd heard a rumor that the uptown Shake Shack would be serving corndogs this day. The rumor proved to be patently untrue.

So I did what I expected I would, traveled downtown for a long longed-for breakfast. There is no way you could possibly guess where I had this. (Hint: I opted for the biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs that I had been craving over the day's special, a sweetbreads McMuffin.)

Morning hunger taken care of, I proceeded to do what I do naturally when time is mine: wander the Eastern and Western villages.

At around Broadway and 10th or 11th you can find these school projects:








Union Square, Farmer's Market in effect.

Washington Square, the fountain was happening. Lots of little jazz trios and quartets battling for attention and change.

Over on MacDougal I discovered they tore down the building where the Law School paper office (a.k.a. my home away from home away from home during those years) was. What will be built in its place? A new building to be shared by the Law School and Theatre School. Of course. I suppose this is the sort of thing I'd know about if I read Alumnus publications more closely.


INSERT HERE: A gap of many hours mostly spent in a wonderful nap and involved in a half dozen gchats and phonecalls centered on one topic: No one knew what to do for the 4th and has hoping someone had an idea. The fireworks were to be launched this year over the Hudson River between the high twenties and the fifties (as opposed to the usual East River show) and this had everyone feeling confused and clueless.

But by 7'ish we had met on 23rd street and headed for the river.

I noticed a trend amongst my fair company...


When in Rome!

The masses, we headed for the sun.

Staking out a spot on the West Side highway.

A favorite.

Collin brushed those pesky helicopters right out of Hillary's hair.

That's me. Figured I should show up for this post. I was too much the absent presence until now, correct? I have a horrible cold but a summertime shirt.

Environs.

Turns out, totally coincidentally, that we had sat ourselves down on the highway right by where Di and her friends had sat down...when we arrived, only the friends of Di's that were strangers to us were there, so it was a surprise, a total surprise.

Di and Traci and others had been involved in a covert and clever operation: grilling hotdogs at the end of a nearby alley. Ingenious. American ingenuity, really.

The darkening...




Night falls, final touches of grooming attended to before the celebration of our nation

Ka-BlAmmO! Obligatory fireworks photos to show it happened, to prove we were there.



Injured gravely, carried by a friend.

Nearby, after a lot of yelling by me into several different cellular phones, Jared and Laura were found. Patriots all.

And now, these pictures are for you and your heart:



A city aflame with pride. For our nation.