A joyful reunion and our country’s (loud) birthday!
Since we had a couple days before we needed to be in Durango, and 4th of July fell in the middle of the week, we decided to hunker down with my childhood friend! This is how it went:
Day 6:
Travel day to get to Marianne Brown and Nate’s new house right outside of Denver, CO. Last year, we got to bring Rudy to visit when we stayed with Nate and Marianne. Rudy and Nate became fast friends, bonding over Transformers, video games, and the “Big Nate” book series. This year it was just me and Jared, and even though Nate didn’t really say anything much about it, he was visibly bummed when his little buddy didn’t show up, too. I mean, no one can blame him. We all managed to soldier on without Rudy there. We numbed our empty hearts with liquor, laughter, and lemons. Well, not really lemons, but I needed something else that began with the letter “L”. So “lemons” it was. I get creative licensing. (Jared here: How about “licks from pups?”)
After catching up well into the wee hours and getting in sufficient puppy snuggles with their fur babies, the newest addition, Stout (a black lab mix, three-month-old, baby girl, bundle of floppy joy), and Brandy, the elder momma-bear at 5 years (a yellow bull breed mix), we all toddled off to bed. A nice, big bed, right in the middle of Marianne’s yoga room. You better believe I concocted an essential oil blend to rock our senses to sleep and popped that into the diffuser, reveling in the utter first-world, hippie decadence of it all. I’m gonna take it where I can get it. Creature comforts, man… why can’t we all just get along?
Day 7, 4th of July:
One great thing about being with your bosom buddies is the total “at home-ness” you get to experience when together. I am a hostess through and through, even when visiting someone else’s home. Marianne totally vibes with that and basically gave me carte blanche to her kitchen! Not one to turn down a fully stocked space to create yummies, I went to town prepping a breakfast feast to honor my hosts. Of course, Marianne provided us with the morning libations to get the day started off right, and we ate and drank like royalty while we plotted our 4th of July plans. The Colorado weather didn’t disappoint in its reputation of totally split personalities, and gifted us with sunny Summer heat, wind, rain, and a lightning storm to cap off the night.
After a full day of playing catch-up with work and such, we were ready to eat again, so Nate tested out his new grill and we did the 4th of July BBQ thang just right with veggies, cheesy bread, and delicious steaks! As the house cooled down from the afternoon heat, we prepped beverages to take outside to see if we could maybe catch a few sky rockets.
The neighborhood they moved into is very sweet and full of families and pets and the like. I thought we may see a few dads out with Cherry Bombs or sparklers, whizzy fizzers, shiny hiney poppers, or whatever the hell they’re all called. I could NOT have been more wrong! This neighborhood must have been in a city-wide competition for who could piss off the most dogs on America’s day of flaunting it’s freedoms to be absolute dinguses. Between 9-10:00, maybe even 10:30, we understood. We even went out and met some neighbors, laughed as we tried to capture the perfect firework selfie, and enjoyed a break in the stormy weather so the fireworks could actually be seen. It was warm and lovely and felt like a traditional 4th of July…
Until it didn’t.
The fireworks went til almost 1:00am, and probably only subsided due to a huge thunder and lightning storm that raged through like a middle-aged dad, awoken from a deep sleep, standing on the front porch steps in his baggy “tighty-whities”, yelling at the kids to “Knock it off and get inside before I give you something to make noise about!!!” The poor older dog, Brandy, even high as shit from 3 CBD dog treats, could not find peace and shivered and shook all night. It makes me sad every year, but this one was tough. I literally have never heard so many fireworks in a residential neighborhood, ever. Then, add the storm onto that. Nate and Marianne barely slept. Jared and I had earplugs and so we got through a lot of it ok.
I do love fireworks, don’t get me wrong. I just wish there was a way to keep the fur babies ok while still celebrating in a respectful way, but that presupposes. And therein lies much of the problem all around. But this is not the time or place to get into that. We really did have a nice time for the most part, and I hope all our friends and fans (and their sweet pets) enjoyed the holiday safely and with love.
