Friday, June 30, 2006

five for the fourth

Friday Five from the RevGals ...

1) Do you celebrate 4th of July (or some other holiday representing independence?)
To be honest, the Fourth of July has never been one of my favorite holidays. I always associate it with big groups, extraverts, hot sun, loud noise. I do enjoy the artistry and fantasy of fireworks, though. That's the one part that appeals to my INFP personality!

2) When was the first time you felt independent, if ever?
I can't say for sure. I think I've always felt independent, even if I didn't identify myself that way. I do remember when my sisters and I visited our aunt in California the summer after ninth grade, and one night she told me, in a complimentary way, that I am a very independent person. Maybe that was the first time I applied that perception to myself and found it to fit. I certainly felt independent when I went away to college in New York, but I think I was independent before that, too. (And I have certainly felt dependent at times, too! Especially now, at seven-and-a-half months pregnant.)

3) If you're hosting a cookout, what's on the grill?
We are not hosting a cookout, but maybe we'll grill some hamburgers. Funny ... my family didn't grill when I was growing up, so it's been a totally foreign thing for me. Thank God I am married to a man who grills!

4) Strawberry Shortcake -- biscuit or sponge cake? Discuss.
Sponge cake. Less dry, more moist.

5) Fireworks -- best and worst experience.
Best: The Taste of Minnesota fireworks the year I biked with some friends to the Cathedral, thus avoiding the horrible traffic jams. They were spectacular! But the evening itself was not perfect — Steve and I had been dating for a month, but for some reason we didn't manage to get together that night, and I missed him dreadfully.
Worst: The year Steve and I tried to find a place to watch the fireworks downtown, the year they moved them to Harriet Island. We parked the car over by the Dorothy Day Center and hoofed it up to the Cathedral, but that didn't work anymore, now that they weren't over the Capitol. Plus, it was so buggy. So we walked all over, got huffy with each other, and finally ended up seeing them over the top of the Xcel Center. We drove home in a horrible mood.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

1) Do you celebrate 4th of July (or some other holiday representing independence?)
I really like the 4th of July! Summers, bright colors and days off are some of my favorite things and its so much more laid back than say, Christmas. And these days it seems like its the only day you can really be patriotic and celebrate this country without any intellectual rebukes. But yeah, it's kind of depressing when it seems like everyone around you is with some laughing, drinking group. I relate. It's making me sad just thinking about it. Definitely not the world we were brought up in :-(

2) When was the first time you felt independent, if ever?
Definitely when I went to college...literally, the moment I stepped off the plane! For the first time ever I was not living under anyone else's roof and not responsible for adhering to anyone else's schedule. And I could smoke in my dorm room, hehe.....

3) If you're hosting a cookout, what's on the grill?
Okay, this image goes back to question #1, and why the Ast (Lemmons) girls don't like some parts of the 4th. We don't host cookouts, in fact, we never had cookouts growing up. So we weren't part of the communal, drinkng aspects of an otherwise really fun holiday! No anger, just a realization that when I have kids, I totally wanna host cookouts! I like making my own hamburger patties so that's what I would contribute. They come out tasting so much better...

4) Strawberry Shortcake -- biscuit or sponge cake? Discuss.
Whatever our 'rents lacked in grilling, they made up for it in biscuit strawberry shortcake! Mom still prepares her own berries. When I was younger and my sisters were living at home and there were eight of us (in a 4-bed house) I remember helping her every step of the way. She bought crates of berries at the Saturday farmers market and when we came home we filled up the kitchen sink with cold water, dumped the berries in and removed the caps from each one. Then I loved watching all the caps disappear down the garbage disposal! We then cut the berries, mixed the pieces with sugar and stored them until the 4th. When she made her own biscuits I helped cut circles out from the dough and put them on the pan to bake. Now that she's older she gets everything at the store, but the memories are so wonderful to me!

5) Fireworks -- best and worst experience.
Best: I can't remember what I did on the 4th in 2003. It was a Friday night. But that summer was one of the best in my adult life: Em was newly married, I was recently confirmed (a Catholic sacrament that was an intense spiritual exprience for me) and I was a month into my first journalism job. I was single and spent the 4th of July weekend on a media pass at the US Women's Open, which was held at a local golf course. I hung out in the media tent and was hoping to flirt with some cute guy reporters. There were spots in the media tent for some of the top publications in the country, even spots for Sports Illustrated! The media scene there put me in such a trance.
Worst: In 2002, me and a guy at the call center I worked at had planned to meet that day for coffee but he never showed up, so I sat in my car and cried because I was extra sensitive to that kind of thing at that point in my life. That night either no one wanted to go out or everyone had other plans, so I sat on the front porch with mom and dad and we listened to all the fireworks going off in the neighborhood.