Unlike past July 4ths, I spent the entire day \”celebrating\”. The last time I had a bbq this long was when my friends came over to my parents\’ house and we bbqed in the pool next door. Then we headed to Pleasant Hill to watch the fireworks.

This time around with a close-knit graduate program. My house threw the bbq. I decided to creatively experiment with recipes. I made two types of marinade last night based on recipes from Marolboro\’s Cook Like A Man grill book. Then I made a vegetarian hot poato/corn dish. Then I made my potato salad which I concocted from inspiration.

Turns out my potato salad was a hit. I was afraid that people would hate it. So I had made the salad to suit my taste so that I could have it for the rest of the week. It had red potatoes, frozen corn kernels, celery, cilantro, mayonaise, sugar, pepper, fines herbs, salt, tomatoes and salsa. And magic! I only had a spoonful before it all disappeared!

We watched fireworks in Schenley Park despite the fact that I wanted to go to Point State…downtown near the water to hear the symphony. In the park though, we saw fireworks. Like real fireworks. Apparently, you can buy them in the state of PA. So I saw a few set off a few hundred feet away. At one point though, a girl set off roman candles and it accidentally hit a couple. The man walked toward the girl, who ran screaming \”Mommy! Mommy!\” The man continued walking toward the family in anger swinging toward his cane to and fro. It was like watching a car crash. Although I was very curious, I laid down on the blanket and whined, \”I want to go now.\” But it calmed down. And we continued to enjoy the empty sky (where we could barely see the city fireworks) with off-kilter singing and patriotic bellowing.