Holiday's Coming On!

I know I'm going to generate some heat when I say this, but when I was growing up, I ranked the excitement I felt for this holiday just behind what I felt for Halloween. But, I have to qualify that statement by saying that, in all reality, they were two different kinds of excitement. Halloween was a close nit, nuclear family sort of thing where my mom, dad, sister and I would carve pumpkins and go trick-or-treating. I love any chance to get out of the house and mingle with strangers, really. (Sometimes I forget this in my video game induced stupors.)

The Fourth of July, however, was more about larger family gatherings. This is where aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins came around for cookouts and fireworks. The true meaning of this holiday has never been lost on me. I would gather, though, that I don't fully understand it. Of course, this might invite many people to explain to me about the sacrifices made by people who fought in wars for this country. (In person I'd keep quiet at this point, but in print I'll say ... "Isn't that Memorial Day?")

On July Fourth, 1776, this country declared its independence from England. (I realize that we've gone so far with this independence as to misspell the word "realise.") It wasn't until a little more than eleven years later that this country came into being as we would (hopefully) recognize it today. There was at least one abortive attempt at a confederacy, but that ended with a Whiskey Rebellion. (Don't ask me to explain that. All I know is that in the 1780s, a bunch of people rebelled against the fledgling government in such a way that the whole thing was scrapped to be redone.)

Enough with the history lesson, though. I'm bored, too.

Adventures with My Niece

I might not have said as much in a post before, but I really am looking forward to the day I can start a family. I've been looking forward to that day for quite a while now, and it's days like these that give me the idea that I may actually be ready.

My niece came up from Alabama this past Saturday, and I've really had a blast around her. I really can't tell if I'm entertaining her or if she's entertaining me.

We've been staying up late watching Futurama and Family Guy (And before you even ask, Yes ... My sister lets her watch them, too.) Last night, during a commercial break, I was up clearing some more of my stuff out of the living room (I won't go into that other than to say I have an apartment full of stuff to move into a house that already has two apartmentfuls in it)and I grabbed an empty garbage bag.

A couple of weeks ago, I had bought my mother a high velocity floor fan (to help move cool air up the stairs.) Well, I took the empty bag and opened it up. I put my hands just inside of it, spread them apart, and moved it in front of the fan. It popped full of air almost instantly, and my niece jumped at the noise. She saw what I was doing and giggled in a manner that only kids know how. "Let go of it, Aaron! Let go of it!" She said. And I did. That bag flew gently across the room and landed on a table. We were both laughing quite heartily. I lost track of how many times I did that. (One time, she even stood up in the bag as I held it in place over the fan. She actually had room to turn around in it without touching the sides. I wish I could have gotten pictures it.)

Today, I went out to get a haircut. A couple of doors down from the shop is a hobby store. I had a half an hour to kill before I could get into a chair, so I went in. I wondered around aimlessly until I saw something that sent me back to my childhood. Little, cheap, stupidly fragile balsa-wood airplanes and gliders. I bought one, got my haircut done, and went back home.

I got home, plopped the little package down in front of my niece, and she said "Oh! How do you put it together?"

"The instructions are on the back. Let me get something to drink, and I'll help you with it."

Before I could even get the refrigerator closed, something hit the door and clattered to the linoleum. I looked down. It was the little plane. Before I could get my drink and sit down, she had already figured the thing out.

She and I went outside and played with that little glider for about an hour. When we came back in, I realized I needed to drop off an audio book at the library.

So, while I was out, I went back to the hobby store and got two (slightly more elaborate) planes. I've just sit down from playing with those to write this. I have forgotten how much fun those little airplanes really are. Next weekend, I'm going to go back and get her one of them that has the propeller and rubber band.

In a way, I'm thankful I don't already have kids. I know it probably would have been nicer for my niece to have had cousins to with whom to grow. For me it means that maybe ... Just maybe ... after she's grown up a little too much I'll get to start this process over again.