America: The Idiotic

It’s hard to believe that one year ago, I learned that we would be moving to Galveston, a city I had never visited until July of 2007. The time that passed last year between July 3^rd (the day we found out) and August 14^th (the day we moved and I began work) went so fast and was so stressful and busy. To think that we found a place to live, I found a new job, and we moved 300 miles in a mere 5 weeks is truly unbelievable. I’m really glad we aren’t doing it again this year. It is nice to relax on this 4^th of July and know that I’m not moving anywhere for 3 years, especially since I have really started to love this weird Island. After all, not everyone gets to eat at exclusively local restaurants (no chains!), cross the ocean every morning on their way to work, have a festival in your backyard every month, and have the ability to be on a beach in less than ten minutes. Coming back after a month of vacation has reminded me that I live in a pretty cool little city.

Of course, with all of the great things Galveston has to offer a resident, there are some major negatives. The Fourth of July is one of them. Typically, I really love the Fourth of July – heck, it used to be my favorite holiday because it’s one of those days where you get to hang out with people you like (versus, say, Christmas, where you have to hang out with people you “love”, a group entirely different from the people you like), cook and eat a delicious summer meal, and hang out by the pool. Truthfully, if we hadn’t just made the 5 hour drive last Sunday, we’d probably have driven back up to Dallas for the holiday, but since we’re still unpacking, we decided to spend our first married Fourth alone. One of the positives of living on an island is permanent access to a beach, a negative is that everyone and their dog heads out on a holiday. So, this morning we had brunch at one of our favorite local bakeries, Speculoos, which is usually quiet and peaceful, but today was filled with screaming vacationing kids. We drove to the grocery store down the Seawall, where visitors will walk with their small children across the busy street, not bothering to use the crosswalk twenty yards up. Unfortunately, the weather is less than desirable for the holiday weekend – we are scheduled to have solid thunderstorms for the next 10 days. On the way to the grocery store the storm began and thus the slightly humorous mass exodus from the beach. Kids screaming, pissed parents, umbrellas blowing backwards in the gale force winds, sand blowing everywhere, and a traffic jam caused by jaywalkers, people who have no idea where they’re going, and the couple trying to get to the grocery store, laughing at all of the idiots who would actually go to Galveston on the Fourth of July. We bought a few groceries where tired parents with carts of coke, chips, and stuff to make spaghetti glared at us when we zipped around them to load our cart with enough wine and tonic water to get through the weekend without going out again.

Sometimes we complain about the dumb people who invade our city: the motorcycles zipping by at 3A.M. during the rally, the people who act like they don’t know any better and block our alley during Dicken’s, the huge families who think that Joe’s Crab Shack would be a great place to sample some local seafood, and even the parents with small children, who, on making their retreat from the stormy beach, load their kids up with all of the beach crap and drag them across a street where cars are flying because they are too stupid to use the crosswalk. The truth is, without tourists, Galveston in all of it’s bizarre glory, wouldn’t exist. Luckily, we have plenty of wine, gin, and tonic water to get us through this very long holiday weekend. Cheers!