Weekend 3-Way: Boom Booms

Happy Independence Day, peeps! The Fourth of July is about a lot of things: Yankee Doodle Day, the perfect summer holiday, picnics, and, oh yeah, right, America's 233rd birthday.

It is also about the boom-booms.

You either love them or you hate them. Or, okay, maybe you're ambivalent about them. But for this weekend's 3-way purposes, we need to know what you feel about them.

Fireworks. Tell.

Ellie:

I always think that I don't give a flying fuck damn about the boom booms, or, as I like to call them, the firecrackers. But then I got introduced to the crazy insane firecracker show that *is* what a lot of people consider the heart of New London's Sailfest: the Mashantucket Pequots / Foxwoods Casino's Fireworks Extravaganza on the Thames River, put on by that famous first-family of firecrackers, the Gruccis. This year it's Sailfest XXXII. And it's next weekend -- as always, the weekend after the Fourth of July. The Grucci's boom-boom show is heart-stopping, breath-taking insanity, even if you do not like firecrackers.

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For years, I unenthusiastically boycotted the Sailfest boom-booms with Bill and Matt Henzy, by going to the Thai restaurant during the show. We'd sit in the window table, and wave to all the peeps walking home, post-boom booms. I'd find myself watching the boom booms out the restaurant window, though. And that's just silly. So I stopped boycotting.

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A couple of years ago, the lovely Jacquie graced us with her lovely presence at Sailfest, and that year was my favorite. She and I climbed the outside staircase and watched the show from the roof of the Dutch Tavern. I'm not sure how or why I decided that would be a great idea, but it was, and Jacquie and I had ourselves a time up there, feeling very clever and pleased with ourselves.

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Last year with Mister Dibble, Elizabeth, and The Other Nancy was pretty great, too.

Jacquie:

Da boom booms. Okay, I like them well enough. But you know what? I’m equally impressed by state-of-the-art or crappy boom booms. They’re pretty and they’re shiny and they’re up in the sky, and they always mark some fun night or season or outing or holiday or homerun. They are almost always good news. What’s not to love? I saw the Sailfest boom booms, they were shiny! And up in the sky! I live about 12 steps from a big ass stadium where they do a thing called Sky Show every year. It’s shiny! And up in the sky! One time, there was a Superbowl played there, and the fireworks were a really big deal. And they were shiny! And up in the sky! I used to live down the street from Seaworld, where fireworks were blasted off every night at 9pm. It became predictable, but I still loved it. One time, I stood up on the end of the couch to watch, and then I fell right into the Christmas tree.

Beth:

Okay, not that anyone but me cares, but this is the third stinking time that I've started to write this post. Both other attempts have vanished! Poof, just like the boom booms after the grand finale.....

Do I like the boom booms? I do. Every time I take the time to really watch them, I enjoy them. But overall I've grown rather ambivalent. You see, as Jacquie mentioned, San Diego is home to Sea World, and they have fireworks everynight for months and months, and on weekends for the rest of the year. Every place I've lived in for as long as I can remember had at least a partial view, if you were willing to go to the correct window and stand on your tippy toes (or perhaps on your tippy toes on the couch as J mentions above). Sea World puts on a short but decent show, but it's so predictable. In fact, I know my kids are not cooperating with the bedtime routine when their eyes are still open when those fireworks start. You can set your watch by them. The regularity of the show has taken away the novelty. However, all that being said, fireworks on the 4th of July are different, shiny-er in some way. And worth the effort.

I don't think my location, this year, affords me any view of the fireworks, not even those at Sea World, but I did wake up to find that the charge nurse on duty today is named Liberty....