July 4, 2005 (IJ)

Whew. Ok, I have a lot to write about. First of all, it's Independence Day and it has been such a crazy day. The weather was perfect (as predicted) and we had 180 members at the club for the 4th of July BBQ. That's almost the entire membership of the club! Anyway, a lot of specific orders and lousy communication between the kitchen and servers went on and I was really frustrated. However, things weren't so bad when Chad came into the kitchen and said to me, "Being around you makes me a better person." I said, "That's a random comment. What made you think that?" He said, "Well, I came home from work yesterday and my wife said, 'Chad, you don't swear as much as you used to and you're so happy lately.' So, I told her, 'It's because of Elizabeth.' And it is. You make me a better person.". Isn't that nice? I've never asked him to stop swearing or commented on how much everyone swears at work, but I guess he noticed on his own that I don't curse. It was pretty cool.

After work, I ran home and took a quick shower before jumping on the "T" with Emily and going to the Hatch Shell to see the Boston Pops concert. It was incredible. The activities committee from my ward set up a huge tarp on the river at 6 a.m. and stayed there all day so we could have a good spot. People had camped out! Luckily, the temperature high today was 76 degrees. It was PERFECT! I heard that there was a count that night of about 500,000 people. It was a lot of fun. It seemed everyone in Boston was sitting on blankets with family members and friends, eating their BBQ, popcorn and Italian ices. I looked around and was so glad to see thousands of people, wearing American colors, celebrating the greatness of our country. It was very different than what I'm used to. I grew up going to the St. Johns, Arizona 4th of July festivities with a total of about 300 people and this experience was VERY different. The fireworks were spectacular and everyone had a good time. It took me almost 3 hours to get home because the T was so backed up that we decided to walk. Emily, Michelle, Torrey, Doug, Drew and I walked from the Boston side of the Charles River to MIT where everyone got on the train to go to Harvard Square. Since I live in Central Square and Drew lives in Wellesley, Drew and I walked to my house and I drove him home. Wellesley is about 30 minutes away. I got home at about 1:30 a.m. and was in bed by 2:00. It was a late night, but worth it!