Fourth of July

You'd think with a bunch of fractured ribs and the fact she can't go two and a half seconds without shouting "MOTHERFUCK," Annalee wouldn't be all that excited to go to a 4th of July display. Well guess I was wrong on that front. She woke me up this morning and told me to get in the truck.

I really had no idea where she wanted to go and she was keeping a tight lip about it. Said she wanted it to be a surprise. So I drove while she laid down passenger shouting bloody murder every time we hit a bump. I know I should feel bad for her because she's basically been put out of commission for six weeks with her ribs but I've seen the woman pull bullets out of her stomach, and I suppose it's just best to say she's a lot more volatile about her pain then she is affected by it.

We drove out to this seedy little place right outside of Vegas and waited there until night fall. There was quite a bit of boozing and swearing on her part. She bought us some hotdogs and beers and we wound up on the hood of her car watching the fireworks being shot up from various hotels and listening to Johnny Cash blast from the truck's crappy stereo. Annalee said something along the lines of "Johnny Cash is as American as gets." I don't know whether to say she's right or wrong because Weirld Al is pretty American guys, but it was nice all the same.

I don't know how she keeps up with this sort of stuff though. I've never seen a Calendar in her shack and even I can't keep track of days, but she's got them all internalized. Maybe she thinks the structure is necessary or something so she knows when her vacation days are from shitty desert hell.

Or maybe she's just doing it for my sake. Who knows. She seemed more interested in Cash than any fireworks. It feels kind of like we're coming to a compromise on some things, which is funny because it also feels like we haven't said two words to each-other since we got back. I think that's alright though. We've reached our understanding of one another and it's good.

It's been a long time since I've had anyone I could consider a friend.

Happy 4th of July everyone.