Happy Independence Day

I hope everyone at home is having a good time celebrating my favorite holiday. Well, okay, Christmas might be my absolute favorite, but that's like a whole season. Fourth of July is my favorite one-day holiday. It's a celebration of all the good things about America...family, food and our national ability to consume a lot of it, beautiful summers, our love of outdoor activities like baseball, swimming and going to the lake, and our God-given right to shoot explosive devices. Yay America!

It's not quite the same being in another country for the 4th. For some reason, no one over here seems to care, just as no one in Germany seemed to care two years ago. And with Kate and I being the only Americans left around here, it's hard to get a celebration going. But we have sung the national anthem, eaten watermelon, baked chocolate chip cookies, and consumed red, white, and blue M&Ms. We're doing our best. And we're going to cheer hard for Greece as they play Portugal in the Euro 2004 finals, because should they win, we will get to see fireworks, and we can ignorantly pretend that they are in celebration of American Independence Day. What fun!

On a side note, the American embassy sucks. We called them to see if they had any kind of event going on for the day, and all they had was some sort of celebration Friday night to which we weren't invited. Apparently it was for Greek politicians, American VIPs, and the "American Embassy Community." One..We're not VIPs? Two...Greek Politicians...Hello, it's not their independence day. And three...who the hell is the "American Embassy Community" if it's not the Americans living in Greece who the embassy is supposed to be representing. Now remind me again why I get so excited about a day that celebrates our country when it can't do any better than that?

But, all that aside, I do love Independence Day, and I do love America. It has its problems, and there are things about it that I hate, but it's my home. I might run away to other places for a while, but it's the place I'll always come back home to me. I don't know if it's the best place on earth, but it's definitely the best place for me. I'll see you all back there in a few days.