jlh | Independence Day

Which deserves an independent post. Another OotP chapter to follow.

Speaking of which, for you non-Americans, I want to make this clear: My quote of the previous post was from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. Independence Day commemorates the signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1776. It is very typical of our country that we celebrate the day we decided we were independent rather than the day we actually won the war against the redcoats, which didn't happen until some years later. So that quote isn't a law; it's more a statement of principle.

Right, so I had a horribly stressful day at work on Thursday, working almost right up until I had to leave to get to the station, though I had a very interesting phone conversation with

vanityfair en route. Met up with

ali_wildgoose,

bhanesidhe,

epicyclical and

rubydebrazier and we boarded the train to Johnland.

queerasjohn picked us up at the station and Val volunteered to ride in the "way back" but the roads were not that great and John wanted her to keep her head down so she couldn't even make faces out the back window which is really the whole point of the way back IMHO.

msscribe,

misscora and

ladylisse were already there. An emergency run to the soon-closing liquor store and back,

morgaine and her friend Lex arrived, and we immediately began chatting and creating general chaos as we are wont to do.

The next day I woke rather early but as John kept taking his very pretty Ibook into his room I couldn't get online so I went out to to the back to catch up to

marysiak on OotP and play with a cat and generally soak up the pretty morning. It's in the country that I become my natural morning-person self again and am glad that I don't need very much sleep. Ali helped me make omlettes for everyone and then Dionne and I made salads and Ali and John and Lex made burgers and we fired up the grill—proper charcoal, thanks John—and we ate and talked and ate and talked. Later,

blackholly and

theoblack arrived with pasta and strawberry rhubarb pie which is MY FAVORITE FOOD. Then we played Trivial Pursuit which Theo won for our team by knocking the last question out of the fucking park, man. And then we played Celebrity which is always, always a lot of fun. And then we started Working Title: Malternity, which I cannot tell you about but which will also rock, mostly because it is centered around an ice cream fountain. And Theo set off a few fireworks, and then he took his lovely lady home.

The next morning we had french toast and bereft-mommy Dionne ran home (how are you going to make it through four days of Nimbus, honey?) and Carolyn and Lex ran into the city so the rest of us sat around and listened to some of Ruby's excellent mixes and wrote and sketched (see Ali and Val's posts for results) which is really the way I love spending a very hot day. And then we left suddenly to make the train.

God, I just LOVE house parties.