It was the fourth of July.

Back again, photo journaling with too many photos. Always a week behind as usual.

This photo is from the deck I was on, looking out over downtown. The fireworks across the way are the Elliot bay ones. That's where I was supposed to be. But as you can see, I apparently didn't make it there.

My roommate Elaina and I went floating down the Cedar River. It was great fun. I blew up my queen size air mattress ( I don't have an innertube) at the gas station, strapped it to the top of my roommate's car, and off we went to the river.

Mostly I was met with a strange awe. As I passed by shore-standers, I got a lot of

"I ain't never seen a bed go down the river".

But I was proud of my pirate ship of bed, and it worked fantastically. In the slow parts, you would just lay back and float. It reminded me of a story I read when I was little about a mouse who ran away by setting sail on the ocean with his bed, and turning it into a pirate ship. Or maybe it felt more like I might die when I hit the rapids with my eyes closed.

Then we headed downtown. I was supposed to go to a friends 3rd story queen anne rooftop. But I opted for less parking/driving. Which turned out to be the opposite, plus too much walking. And I met strange people. And we watched the Lake Union fireworks. We were in front of them, right on the water. And I drank fabulous pasta out of a plastic champagne class.

And when I passed by the officer drinking my pasta, he glared heavily , and eyed the Champagne flute while trying to decide if he should arrest me or not for public pasta drinking. To which Elaina said,

"Don't worry officers, were just drinkin' pasta tonight!"

Which I don't think really helped my sobriety case, even though it really was just pasta. And good, too (well, what are you supposed to do when you really want to eat pasta but you have to walk 4 miles while carrying other stuff? A champagne glass is always the perfect accessory for just such an occasion).