4th of july

my 4th of july was nothing short of epic.

in fact, it might have started off too epic, because it peaked too early and i never quite recovered.

this year, for my first time ever, i went to hadad's lake in the middle-of-nowhere outskirts of richmond. for those of you who have been to hadad's lake, an explanation is unnecessary. for the rest, i seriously doubt my words can do it justice, but i'll try: imagine you are in the middle of nowhere, at a redneck water park where the water is an uncomfortable shade of green. there are water slides, giant inflatable things to play on, a water slide, a rope swing, paddleboats, and most importantly: SKETCHINESS. imagine 400 rednecks and about 100 tattooed punk rock kids all coming together to celebrate. imagine a free-for-all alcohol policy where if you bring it, you can drink it, 21-and-up be damned. the air is humid, hot, and you can't shake that feeling that at any moment, for any reason, a fight might break out.

that's hadad's lake. and it was awesome.

i decided to not participate in the alcohol due to my inability to "day drink" so my time was spent talking to friends, eating people's food, and swimming more or less non-stop. i acquired a life vest which allowed me unrestricted access to the park's inflatable monstrosities. here is me on the inflatable trampoline:


after about 5-6 hours, it was clearly time to go home. i was sunburnt, in need of a nap, and in desperate need of a hazmat team to get all the strange lake chemicals off of me. plus, giant thunderclouds were on the horizon and we escaped just in time.

after chilling at home for a bit, i tried to do what i always tell myself not to do... party hop. i showed up at sarah's cookout, only to find there was no charcoal and the roof access to see the fireworks was locked. i had my heart set on seeing the fireworks on a roof, so i left and met up with brandi only to find that there was no roof involved in her plans either. brandi, myself, and crew walked to get a good spot to see the diamond fireworks only to find out that the baseball game was in its 4th overtime inning and we had to wait for the game to end to see the fireworks.

we waited forever, and as shown in this picture, i was not stoked on this:


one thing i was stoked on was finally meeting brandi's boyfriend milan, who as i expected, is a totally rad dude:


finally our patience ran thin and we decided to walk back.

my mood sinking lower and lower, i decided to bail and just go to MY house and watch the fireworks on my own terms. i sat on my roof, coors light in hand, alone, and watched the fireworks in my lawn chair. strangely satisfied that i had gotten exactly what i wanted and bummed that i had somehow managed to be alone at my own 4th of july roof party.


fortunately, friends from charlottesville came to the rescue. after the fireworks, a bunch of friends came over and we drank beers on the roof, talked about old times and it brought the evening back from the depths it had sank to.

so all in all, we started out strong/sketchy/awesome, then things took a nosedive, only to be saved in the final hours. i had a good 4th of july, and most importantly, our nation's independence was secured for another year.