Retelling our Mexican Independence Day experience reminded me of my 4th of July this year. For the first six weeks of this semester I lived with a delightful Uppie family north of Denver. My host dad works for the company and my host mom had worked for them for many years. They have two of the most picture-perfect kids as well.
For the 4th of July, we went to a party (yes, full of Uppie alums) at a house that backed up to a park with a lake. The fireworks were to be shot off over the lake. We couldn't have had better seats. The food was incredible with my favorite dessert being the homemade s'mores. That's right, homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers, and Nutella. Yum.
The fireworks display began with parachuters jumping from planes with fireworks attached to their feet. From there, things got beautiful. The fireworks were so close you could feel the pounding in your chest as they exploded. We had to look up because they were erupting right over our heads. The ashes fell on our blankets and the rooftops of the neighborhood, but we were entranced by the glittering sky. There was no way we could have been closer unless we'd been those parachuters. It was beautiful.
Well, we're back in the U.S. after five weeks in Mexico. This brings with it new challenges as well as new advantages to my job. I was able to have dinner with some of my family last week, which was delightful, but a bit surreal. I'm very used to having my life sectioned off. My New York friends all live in New York and are either school or improv friends. My San Francisco improv friends are separate from my San Francisco school friends, who are separate from my Bay Area Challenge Day friends. My Ohio family, California family, and Arizona family come together occasionally, but are pretty separated from my friends. Work has never really connected with any of the groups, so when two of my worlds collide it blows my mind a little.
There's a different feeling when I'm at work versus when I'm with my family. When you live in your work and are constantly surrounded by it, it's easy to fall into being always "on." Needless to say, driving out of one group and into another throws you for a loop. I realized I've never been to Arizona in the fall. I'm not sure if it was that or the fact that I was seeing it from a different point-of-view that made it seem like a whole new place. All the familiar landmarks came into view but were somehow different... or maybe it was me who was different.
We're in Albuquerque now. The cast is preparing for a show at the zoo where the stage is a hippo mouth. Just this morning we surprised the cast by announcing that we're going to the Balloon Fiesta tomorrow. Over 1000 hot air balloons are registered to take off tomorrow morning. All week we've told them we were doing a community service project at a landfill for which we need to leave at 3:30 in the morning because it's far away. In reality, we're leaving at 3:30 because 2/3 of the cast are going to be on launch crews for the balloons. This morning there were already dozens of balloons in the sky on our drive in. I can't wait for tomorrow.
Every time I see a hot air balloon I'm always reminded of this picture: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2923914240061776909ERyqyX?vhost=good-times I don't even know if we're going to see hot air balloons or if it's just my memory making up another story, but in my mind whenever I see a hot air balloon I see my dad in his furry hat with me strapped to his back. It should be a really exciting event.
Until we meet again,
~Molly
