this time of year is full of celebrations and days off work. more for me than for most of you because tomorrow is my birthday. so not only do i get the 4th off, but i also go ahead and take my birthday off too because hell, why not? what is the benefit of being a poorass graduate student if you can't your birthday off no matter what day of the week it falls on?

weekend update: on saturday we wandered down to the philly live 8 concert. i had been full of ennui about it because on the one hand i didn't particularly care to see any of the bands playing, and even if i did i knew there was no way i was going to get close enough to the stage to see anything, and i knew the whole experience was just going to be a mess o ' folks on the parkway in the sun, sweating and eating cheese fries and water ice. on the other hand, the whole point of the thing was to get actual bodies out to actual events to show the world leaders meeting this week in scotland that we the people think that african people should be able to have 3 squares a day, just like us, and it would not do any good just to sit at home and watch on tv. (not that it will probably do any good to have gone, but you know what i mean). in the end, the decision to go down there was based on the very sound reasoning that in 10 years time, if people are still talking about live 8, i don't want to have to say "yeah, i lived in philly at the time, within easy walking distance of the concert, but, enh, couldn't be bothered." so we went. and it was indeed just a mash of people, hot and sweaty, eating water ice and cheese fries (and, interestingly, corn on the cob, which, judging by the numbers of people i saw walking by with half-eaten ears, was the food-of-choice for the day). sure enough, we didn't get close to the stage, and couldn't even really see any of the jumbotrons (i feel silly even typing that word). but, we did see pretty people, ugly people, fat people, skinny people, nearly naked people, pierced people, inked people, and a group of inner-city black guys riding horses down the road.

sunday was day o' cleaning, then monday we spent independence day having barbeque and ice cream with l---- and her son j-----, then walked down to their town's fireworks display. in all, a lovely evening.