Happy several days after The Fourth of July friends! It’s been a bit of time since my last post, mostly due to laziness and the fact that I haven’t done anything particularly exciting lately. But, I figure it would be good to recap my Fourth of July festivities.
The day itself was relatively uneventful. I woke up early because I have trained my body to get up at a certain time for work even though I had the day off. My sister and I were both bored and felt like doing something fun and patriotic.
We decided we would bake something themed for the holiday. After browsing some recipes online, we chose homemade blueberry muffins. The recipe was very simple and only took about 15 minutes to make the batter and another 20 minutes to bake. They were topped with a cinnamon crumble to enhance the flavor. Once they were done baking, my siblings and I each inhaled a few (they were that good). I have linked the recipe here if you’d like to try it out for yourself: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6865/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins/.
Afterwards, I lazed around my house for a few hours. At 2 pm, my friend Hannah picked me up to go get ice cream. It has been particularly hot and humid in CT as of late (high 90s, but it feels like 100) so it was perfect ice cream weather. We went to Bloom Hill Farm. She got a chocolate shake and I got a swirl soft serve and we ate in her car with the A/C on. After talking for a few hours, she dropped me off at home so I could nap.
I hung out with my sister in her room until 6 pm when I got picked up to go to dinner. I went to Max Burger and ordered the pulled pork sandwich (I didn’t realize they had changed the recipe, so it was slightly disappointing). Afterwards, I set out for New Britain to attend “The Great American Boom” festival in Stanley Quarter Park.
I was impressed by the park itself since I had never been before. It was expansive with a lake equipped with a fountain in the center and a variety of playground equipment scattered throughout. For the festival, coordinators brought in bouncy houses, a variety of food trucks, carnival games, rides, and more. The turnout was astonishing, bringing in thousands of people that day.
I walked around the park for a while, taking everything in and then settled on the grass to sit and wait for it to get dark. The show started a little after 9:30 pm and did not disappoint; it consisted of over 30 minutes of dazzling fireworks clearly visible on the skyline above the park. I was slightly stressed watching the show, only because several people decided to fly drones a little to close to the explosions for comfort. I have attached a few photos below.
The only downside of the night as a whole was how difficult it was to get home with the traffic coming out of the park. I was stuck for roughly an hour on one small road. However, overall, the night was a huge success. It had been so long since I had seen a fireworks show on the fourth. Watching them always gives me the giddy feeling of being a kid again; the noise and the burst of colors, it’s hard to look away.
I’ll leave you with a few recent favorites of mine. Favorite quirky poetry reads: Selfwolf by Mark Halliday that I picked up at a secondhand store for a few dollars (he has humorous poems that have a deadpan and surprising quality that I enjoy) and The Bones Below by Sierra Demulder courtesy of my sweet Anying in a care package (her slam poems have a raw and honest emotional quality to them and her voice is unique). Favorite sing-along songs for car rides recently: Death & Taxes by Daniel Caesar, Avenue by H.E.R., Provider by Frank Ocean, Mine by Bazzi, 4EVER by Clairo, and She Used to Be Mine (from Waitress) by Sara Bareilles. Favorite fruit of the week: peaches. Xoxo
The Bucketlister 