For some reason, Independence Day has never really been one of my favorite holidays, and I'm not sure why. I like holidays, so I like the Fourth of July because of that, but as far as holidays go, it's just not the greatest in my opinion. I don't know if it's because I come from a family where we don't do a whole lot, or if it's my aversion to heat, or if I just simply don't like it that much.
But since this year I'm living alone, and I hate being bored on holidays, I decided this year to make the most of it.
Last Sunday evening, I went to a patriotic service in the Marriott Center. I'm usually only a patriotic person around the Fourth of July, so I found parts of it a little hokey. I don't think that had so much to do with my lack of patriotism as it did with the production itself. They had little skit things with actors in costumes and then someone would sing a song that was supposed to go with the scene. There were numerous anachronisms--for the skit with John and Abigail Adams someone sang a contemporary love song; for the skit of the mother of WWII victims they had her sing "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis. Some of the performers were talented, others were...meh. I especially find myself unpatriotic when it comes to things relating to the military and war and all that, and I usually tune all that out. So I was quite surprised to find myself choked up when they honored the mother of a fallen soldier and presented her with a memorial flag. It takes a lot to penetrate this heart of ice.
Now, when I say I'm not patriotic, that might not actually be quite true. You probably won't find me sporting red, white and blue during August through April, and I probably won't put an American flag bumper sticker on my car. But I do appreciate this country--I think I take it for granted more than I'm actually unpatriotic. It amazes me to think that we are only 235 years old, yet we have risen to lead the world in so many ways, when all the others have been around for thousands of years. This alone is a testament to Mormonism's doctrine of the Constitution being an inspired document and the Lord raising this nation up. I can sit in an air-conditioned apartment (thanks to some generous fellows in my ward) and write on this blog using the wireless internet from my own apartment to communicate with everyone everywhere. I'm pretty privileged.
The reason I say I can sit in an air-conditioned apartment thanks to the generosity of some wardies is because this week my air conditioning quit working properly. I noticed Monday night that it seemed unusually warm, even though the AC was on, and when I woke up Tuesday morning, I didn't recall the AC having shut off for quite some time. I turned it off to see if it was frozen and needed to thaw, but it was just as hot when I turned it back on. The AC is a little better than nothing at all, but still not good. I told my landlord and he came down on Thursday to show me "the tricks of the AC." He told me I can't adjust the temperature because they did a poor installation job, that I should just keep it cold and turn it off instead of adjusting it. This made sense to me because I had been adjusting it all over the place. But, alas, this did not fix it. I told him I was able to tell it wasn't working right in this email:
"Ever since we turned it on yesterday at 1:30, it has not (to my knowledge) shut off even once. It is also warmer in here than it was before, even though it's set to a lower temperature and yesterday was a cooler day.
I have determined this by, among other things, making the following observations:
Previously, the bathroom tended to be the coolest room, so I shut the vent halfway. I reopened it fully, but the bathroom is not now noticeably cooler than any other room. Oddly, if any room is cooler than the others, it is probably the kitchen, which previously seemed to be the warmest.
Sometimes I would get a little chilly at night with the AC on. Last night I had to sleep with no blanket and a fan blowing on me.
I like to listen to music on my computer, and sometimes I have to adjust it when the AC kicks off or on. I have not had to adjust my music. "
I figured that it's probably a good thing for me to spend less time alone in my apartment, and since having the AC on is better than just leaving it off, I told him it wasn't an emergency. I wish I had said it was urgent, now. He said he'll have someone look at it. When I came home from church today, someone in my ward I barely know started talking to me and I mentioned that my AC was broken. He left but gave me the key to his apartment, where I am sitting at the moment. And AC sure is nice.
I spent part of Friday and all of Saturday chez moi. My almost-eight-year-old niece Allie was there and, as always, said some funny things and scowled or mock hit me whenever I chuckled. We were talking about holidays, and I said, "Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring." Allie said, "Sounds like someone is a know-it-all." This is ironic because she acts like she knows everything. Every. single. time. you tell her something, she says, "I know" or "Yeah." Even if she asks a question and you answer her, she'll still say "Yeah." Walking home from fireworks, she was telling her step-dad Matt the names of the people in all the houses--she is strangely obsessed with people. When Matt repeated one of the names, she said, "It's kind of an awkward name." "Awkward" and "creepy" are two words she throws around like they're going out of style, yet it is clear she doesn't really know what they mean.
Before driving my parents to the airport at midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning, we went to North Salt Lake's annual fireworks show. I had not been since 2004. In seven years, it has gotten considerably bigger and busier. Even those of us who had been there more recently said it was busier than they could remember. It seemed quite familiar, yet it was weird to think that the last time I had been I was only 15!
Last night I had weird dreams about the 5k I'm running tomorrow morning. I dreamed I slept in, and later on I dreamed that I thought I was attending a practice run but it was the real thing and I'd forgotten my timing chip and I was running in the wrong places. It was a relatively complicated dream that has left me feeling a little nervous about the run tomorrow.
But I won't know what it's really like until tomorrow morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment