HAPPY 4th!!!

I love America.

If there's any more emotion I could put into those three words, it would only be that I would say it louder, sing it, highlight it, underline it, or italicize it. I LOVE AMERICA!! I wish I could thank my ancestors for having the wits and gumption about them to pack it up, pack it in, let it begin, and move their booties over to the new world. Sure we've gone through a lot of changes since they got here. We definitely have more fake breasts, cell phones, and worse politicians, but the point is we're still the home of the brave and land of the free. So whether you boozing it up trying to figure out who else is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, or whether you traveling from sea to shiny sea, here's a heartlfelt HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

***

I saw Train, live in concert, this past Wednesday, and I have to say it was one of the better shows I've been to in a while. Pat Monahan was dead on with his vocal chords, and was truly amazing live. A band called Wilshire opened for them. Train opened their set with the first track off their new album, Calling All Angels, which was fantastic. They played some of their other less-known songs that I hadn't heard, but really enjoyed. Once Drops of Jupiter was played, I was out of there, because I had a Mass Comm Law final the next day. I know now that I recieved a B in the class. I liked it, enjoyed the prof and all, but such is life. The concert was worth it.

***

"Hell to pay" has been more than a phrase to me lately. Withiout divulging too many details, I scrambled to make a deposit in the bank the other night to meet a midnight payment deadline on my insurance. I drove to Circle K and got there around 9:05 p.m. to get a money order (my bank doesn't allow cash deposits into the ATM machine). The clerk told me I was too late, that they stopped doing the money orders after 9 p.m. After the fleeting thought of reaching across the counter to punch his ugly, tattooed face, I asked where he knew I could get one at that hour. Of course he didn't. As I walked out of the store, who should I find but Maureen and Danny. I followed them home, gave 'em the cash, and got a check to make the midnight deadline. Thanks for saving my butt, guys.