Hello, is there anyone in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anybody home?

[blamethewizard]

Hello, lovely people. Is anyone still out there? I've been away so long...I've missed you all!!

To give a rundown of the last few months would be ridiculous  suffice to say that for a while there I was working about 65 hours a week at 2 jobs, fighting with a round of my superawesome anxiety-ridden depression and being busy trying to help with a few people in my life who have been dealing with health problems.

I've since quit my part-time pizza job which...might leave me job-free since my temp contract at the company I've been working at full-time is ending this week, but it really wasn't a job that was physically very good for me nor very worth the money they were paying me. Plus, having quit that I had more energy to put into the full-time job, which increased my productivity and helped me earn a recommendation from my superiors which will be really helpful while I start to look for new temp work and a permanent job.

Foodservice jobs are fantastic for accumulating some really cool stories, bros, but I have way too many stories for someone my age anyway.

I know this is out of date like bad milk, but it was recently Independence Day around here, and it being the favorite holiday of myself and one of my best friends here, I did attend some of the awesome celebrations that mark the occasion around these parts. Yes, I know we're a country fraught with mistakes in our current events and history, but the holiday is still a Really Big Deal around here and the mood is just infectious. Plus, it's hard not to appreciate things when I am standing, watching some of the best fireworks displays in the world, surrounded by people speaking at least 10 different languages mixed with 15h (or so) generation Americans like me, all pressed up close together like matchsticks and just damn excited to be where we are.

To give you an idea of how seriously everyone takes this holiday around here, I have this craptastic photo:

 

That thing between the trees is a speaker; they are placed every 50 feet or so along the river and they transmit the music being played by the Pops at the Hatch Shell on the other side. There is a concert that starts about 2 hours before the main event and the fireworks are coordinated to music so they are very important. Back in the day (I mean about 20 years ago) when I first started going to this event as a kid, everyone just used to bring portable stereos. Anyway,

 

A view of the river, with some of the boats that all gather to watch the display. They're all in place by mid-day and it's an all day event for everyone!
 

Closer to the event, with all the people walking to and fro over one of the bridges. It was a nice sunset that day!!
 

Another sunset view; I need to work on getting a better quality camera and the skills to capture stuff like this

are some more photos from that evening, if you're interested.

So, I've had an interesting few weeks. And by interesting I mean crazy. More importantly, HOW ARE YOU ALL? I've been a terrrrrible LJ-friend and I apologize for that. I've missed you all and Merlin fandom in general so I hope everything is going well. I'll do my best to catch up with flist, but YOUR STORIES, I WANT THEM, for those of you still with me here :)


✌ ♥ ☺

Comments

[norwegianblue47.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about you, actually. Sorry the job(s) are/were crazy. Best of luck with that. Things do seem to be picking up a bit. A lot, actually most, of people I know around here who were looking for jobs have gotten one recently.

Anxiety-depression thing...so, you actually are like crazy stalker person and just putting up a bunch of ways that make your life mirror mine, yes? :P

If you can believe it, I've never been to the hatch shell for fourth of July, though. I guess your pictures prove that you weren't where I was on July 4th. I hang out with a bunch of homebodies, lol. I did go to Plymouth though, for their thing, and that was pretty awesome. They did the 1812 overture cannon thing, too.

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was hoping you'd still be around :). Am I doing the parallel life thing again? Hmm...I think one of us needs to hit the lottery, ensuring that we both will!!

The place I am working did extend my contract longer than it was supposed to go, so I guess they liked me well enough! That gives me an edge for future placement and the more references, the better. Good to hear that people are actually getting jobs now.

If I didn't live nearby I probably wouldn't want to go into the city..I can't imagine what it would be like getting in and out of here before and after the event! I don't even like to deal with the T afterward...it's about a half hour walk so we just do that. I imagine the Plymouth thing would be fun though and have lots of excitement too!

[norwegianblue47.livejournal.com]

Oh God, you know, if the both of us won like...a hundred dollars on scratchies within a few days of each other, I don't think I'd be all that surprised any more. Well, any more than I'd be surprised about winning a hundred dollars, because I never win on scratchies.

Yeah, we hung around Plymouth for a good while after because it's a good drive for us and we had to wait for the traffic to light up. But it was all fun. Good people watching and stuff.

[blameitonmerlin.livejournal.com]

I've never had probability work in my favor...at least not since I was 15 or so and won 4 tickets to Riverside (what is now 6 Flags). But I suppose there's a ways to go before I can really say "never".

Thinking about Plymouth makes me want to go down the Cape. I haven't been to the beach yet this summer, it's no good!