we thought if we sat there long enough, the fireworks would come to us. lounging lazily on our sofa with our heads against pillows and our faces pointed toward the windows, michelle and i waited. and read. and ate. and waited. and slept. and finally around 7:30pm, i awoke from a short nap and she asked if i wanted to see a movie with her, her boyfriend and his buddies, and i figured anything would be better than lying there close to comatose so i went.

while waiting for the movie -- we were at the theater an hour early -- we heard them. the distant crackling and booming of fireworks. so we wandered around the block and there they were, colored sparks hopping above the tree tops right beyond IKEA. we stood in front of barnes & noble on some random sleeping street corner, along with a few other late-night shoppers and movie-goers. a buncha wiseass twenty-something kids pondering the logistics of the perfect pyrotechnics display (one suggested purple flames, although that just sounds scary to me).

although it paled in comparison to sitting in the local high school stadium as a child -- oh the feeling of fireworks shake your body and the smoke fill your lungs -- it was strangely satisfying and fitting. and the little girl inside me was so giddy because there were a few purple-pink-and-green ones that look like bursting flowers, not to mention those ones that look like pixiedust tossed in the air only to melt into the dark sky.