My 4th of July Weekend

"If I lay here.
If I just lay here.
Would you lie with me and just forget the world."
- Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars

I had an enjoyable 4th of July weekend. It was not like I envisioned, but that is probably more due to not having concrete plans made ahead of time. Sometimes it is just better to go where the moment takes you and see what happens. I feel like I cared more about the 4th's status as a holiday from work than the blind nationalism I used to feel as a child. I did miss out on the part I like the most, the firework displays.

Thursday, after work I headed out on my road trip to the Rio Grande Valley. My friends Christina and Caro had left a few hours before me and were able to warn me about up coming weather and traffic. Early on in my trip I pulled over for a second to the side of the road and unbeknownst to me, I ran over two nails that got embedded in my tire. This would result in a low tire warning when I was about 100 miles away from my destination. Somehow I was able to make it in though. This complication didn't end up getting in the way too much.

I made it in about 8:30pm and was surprised to see that my nieces Bekkah and Jamie where still visiting my mother. I took them over to my sister Ana's house and visited with my niece Sarah and nephew Michael before they left on a trip to Oklahoma. I had plans to go out with my friend Cynthia downtown, but we ended up leaving much later than I had planned. Cynthia picked me up because my car was now flat and we went to the bars. It has been about a year since I had spent time with Cynthia and we had a lot to catch up on. I had a very nice time and we picked up where we left off. She is one picky drinker. Sometimes it takes her a while to update me on things, but she finally does. She got a promotion at work that she is very excited about. We closed down the bar.

On Friday morning, after visiting with my family, Andrea picked me up and we headed to Brownsville for the zoo. I don't remember the last time I had been to the Gladys Porter Zoo, but it had to be when I was pretty young. The trip over there went by pretty fast, but the fact that Andrea was driving probably made the trip feel shorter me. We chatted on the way down and after a quick bite to eat we were at the zoo. I was overcome with this deja vu feeling. Probably from a grade school trip and the memory of eating my sack lunch in the park across the street. We walked into the zoo and it felt there was almost no one was there. This made sense considering the day was at least 100 degrees. We looked at animals, took pictures and joked around. It was fun. The zoo was much bigger than I had remembered. There was a butterfly exhibit that we checked out where I saw this really cool purple butterfly. I think I had only seen one once before and it wasn't alive and instead was cast in a necklace. Taking pictures of butterflies is not easy, I can tell you that. The highlights of the visit included the tigers, the monkeys, the bears and the petting zoo. Andrea quickly made a new friend, a goat named Jack. I've never seen an animal at a petting zoo that actually wanted to be pet so much. She also seems to have a way with kids because some were excited to show her things and tell her things.

Here is a video of Andrea & Jack.

After visiting the gift shop and buying some gifts, we ended our tour of the zoo. There really was a lot to see. If you like zoo animals, here are the pictures I took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyadus/sets/72157620993917916/

After the zoo, we headed over to South Padre Island. It is always packed on the 4th, and on the 3rd it was pretty full as well. My sister Ana and Rick where coming to the Island for the 4th as well, but I didn't get a chance to see them. I think the last time I had been to the Island was on the 4th of July, maybe 3-4 years ago with a friend who took a break from studying for the bar in Virginia to come and visit me for the weekend. The first thing I noticed when we were there was that the Sunrise mall I had remembered was no longer a mall, but now a business suite. The movie theater wasn't there either anymore.

So for some reason I had never driven to the end of the beach, well at least to where the road ends. I have a memory of driving that way once, on my own, but never making it the full way. I probably assumed it kept going. I don't know why now, since it really wasn't too far. We drove past the new construction and I kept thinking of how cool it would be for casinos to be built on the beach. I think if you legalized casinos just on South Padre is would increase business like no other. Once we got to the end of the road, we stopped and took a walk on the beach. There were people out there, but not as many on the beach where all the hotels are. I heard that the bay side was nice too, but that would have to be for another time. I was kind of annoyed by the litter since it doesn't make sense to me how a person could litter on a beach when they know littering is a problem. I mean littering in general is bad, but it happens. But on the beach, it should never happen. It is just shameful. Though I must say, I never went on any of those bus trips in elementary to the beach to pick up litter. I digress too much. We found a nice spot and hung out at the beach for a while and enjoyed the sound of the water as the sun set.

We had originally had plans to watch the Friday fireworks, but I got the time wrong, so we caught the end of the fireworks as we drove back in the main part of the island. If you are going to watch fireworks, the finale is the best part and at least we caught that. We also thought we might catch a movie on the lighthouse, but it was getting late and the drive back was long, so we passed on that idea. I did see the movie being projected as we drove by and it looked really cool. The drive back was definitely helped by the ice cream cones.

The next day I took my tire in to get fixed. The guy took out the nails and patched the holes. The tire he told me wasn't going to last long, so I'm hoping to make an appointment to fix it. After getting back to Austin, I was glad to see that my tire held up. I need to take my car in and get it checked out. I really do hope it is covered by warranty.

Here is a video of my niece Celeste from my trip home. I think her smiling is adorable. I also wanted to compare embeding a Flickr video with uploading a blogger video. I think I like the video function of my camera.

Speaking of Austin, I thought this article was really cool for those visiting. There was a lot in there I didn't know. Check out the part on how to pronounce Buda.
Learn to Speak Austin or Suffer Instant Loss of Credibility

So, at some point a person I knew gave me a small token that I had always kept on me. It was a fortune cookie paper that said, "Don't be afraid of opposition; remember a kites rises against the wind." On the back it had the word "ice skate." This person had got it during her her bar exam and was passing it down to me for mine. It seems silly, but for some reason it meant a lot. It got me through my bar exam and even after I carried it in my wallet until the present day. It is probably the only real good luck charm I've ever had. But it was time to pass on the good luck. So, I gave my old scrap of paper to my friend Christina for her bar exam, which she is studying for right now. I hope it gives her the piece of mind it should of given me and hope she takes care of it as much as I did. Maybe one day she will pass it on and that person will wonder why they are getting a fortune cookie paper and just throw it away. I wish her the best of luck on her studies. I think she will do great, but well wishes don't help you remember Oil and Gas law.

On Sunday, I noticed that I had no food in the house. A problem I could over look if it didn't include having no cat food, which meant to avoid the cats meowing I had to do some shopping. How many times am I going to have to tell myself to not go grocery shopping when I'm hungry. I'm pretty well stocked now is all I have to say. A great way to end the weekend.

So what do you think? Is this a Church that moonlights as a bingo parlor or a Bingo parlor that moonlights as a church? They are probably different places, but I'm not so sure.
So Christina and her sister were excited about seeing Boyz II Men in concert on her trip down. Alas, her hopes were crushed (at least that is how I imagine it) when the band decided to back out. I bet these elder gentlemen put on quite a show, when they show up. I think this is the actual article ( Top Act Backs Out ), but I also took a picture of the paper at the beach.

do I have to fall asleep with roses in my hands