Two Birthdays

I remember the first Fourth of July my family celebrated in Modesto in 2000. We had only been living here for 2 months, so the town and the people and customs felt new. I remember we went to the parade in downtown and found the assistant pastor and his kids so we hung out with them. I remember it being one of the first times I had fun while living here. I also remember thinking I had possibly found my first friend here in town. Making friends has always been hard for me, so I was glad to have hung out with a nice girl that day for even a few hours.

Once again this year, I got to go to the parade in downtown. I love the parades here, they are so 'old-fashioned' and to a point, cheesy. There are marching bands, local politicians riding in cars, clowns, horses, organizations/clubs etc.
I went with Jordan, who met up with friends, McKenna and Nina. Mom was already there with Shannon and Lynnsey who were in the parade with the Modesto High School Marching Band and Color Guard.
One of Jordan's friends has a (I'm guessing) 3(ish)-year-old brother, attached himself to McKenna and myself the whole 2 hours of the parade. The 3 of us talked about firetrucks, different cars, animals, toys, and also what sort of candy he wanted when some people tossed candy out. He liked red lollypops.

That night, The family went over to my grandma's for fireworks. She bought from the band, and we had a lot of fun with the neighbors setting them off. There were illegal ones going off all around the neighborhood too, so yes it was fun.

The 5th was my birthday, and it was the nicest one I've had in years. I seem to have had bad birthdays in the last few years, so I appreciated a quite one at home with my family. I worked a morning shift at work, then mom made lasagna, bread and salad. Cake? Strawberry shortcake ^_^ with strawberries from the stand down the street. It was awesome! Grandma and Auntie came over for it.

Dad got me a book by my favorite author, but I already have it. He said he saved the receipt in case that happened. Everyone seemed to wind down early last night so David and I went to the book store to exchange the book. I saw 4-5 books I found interested, but in trying to decide, I got myself worked up over it and so I did not get anything. Today, I got The Hunger Games in hardback.

So it was an uneventful few days, but very nice at the same time.

Until next time...