Thursday, July 05, 2012

Day #5: Premature Ignition

Today's prompt is "What prank do you wish you had the guts or expertise to pull off?"

Seriously, people?  With the pranks again?  I must say it scares me a bit to think of people needing "expertise" for pranks.  Shudder.  What a weird world.  What if we used our guts and expertise to find ways to be nice to each other?  Which actually reminds me of when I was a surly middle-schooler lurking at the Clinique counter, no doubt applying lipstick over and over again, and idly watching a handsome man quizzing the Clinique girl about all her favorite products, which he planned to purchase for "someone special."  She seemed giddy with delight, no doubt anticipating a big commission or something, picking out lipstick after lotion after shadow and watching them all stack up on the counter between them.  He paid, asked her to box up the whole lot, then gently pushed it toward her with his business card on top.  "Enjoy.  Have a nice day.  Call me?"  And then he strode away without a backward glance.  She was so gobsmacked she whirled around and gripped my shoulders with her shiny red talons, squealing "OMG!  OMG!  Did you see that?"  I nearly drew a line of Luscious Lilac across my cheek.  I assured her I had indeed seen it, and suggested she call him, since he was a stone cold fox.  I wonder what ever happened there.

Last night we had a new fireworks experience--on the beach at La Jolla Shores.  We were able to do this because of the generosity of Joy's grandparents, who had us over for a BBQ before the show.  That meant we had a parking space, and then we could just walk.  Jarrah and Joy were thrilled to be at the beach at night, and due to the unseasonably chilly night, it wasn't even very crowded.  We curled up in our blankies and admired first the La Jolla Country Club display and then the show across the cove.  The only hitch was that Jarrah and Joy got into a spat because Joy wanted to curl up with her mum and watch the fireworks and Jarrah didn't see any reason to interrupt her industrious tunneling to the center of the earth.  The sky was literally exploding all around her shadowy little figure, and she remained hunched, head down, digging.  Later, she sulked and cried a little, because "I don't understand the point of fireworks!" Which is kind of odd but also funny.  And I admire that she has a mind of her own and doesn't just succumb to that mindless crowd mentality that it's supposed to be, like, impressive or beautiful or something (whatever) when the sky is crackling with sparkly, colorful designs.

It's a funny thing, because if we hadn't gone to La Jolla, we were thinking about springing for a harbor cruise where we could watch the downtown fireworks from the water.  And--I know this sounds like a joke--the big scandale is that the "Big Bay Boom" (snicker) suffered from "premature ignition" last night and the whole shebang went up in one hot mess ball in 10 seconds, five minutes before the thing was even supposed to start.  In the videos that are everywhere today, you can hear the patient masses (who are not in Jarrah's camp) going "WHOOOOO!" for that 10 seconds, and then...all was silence.  OOPS!  Some heads are gonna roll over that one.

We even figured out a secret way to drive home without any traffic, so that was awesome, too.  A very nice 4th indeed.  How was yours?

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