The 3-Day Weekend

I am AMAZED at the difference a 3-day weekend can make.

As a student, and particularly as a humanities student, I always had three-day weekends, and it never seemed like a real “holiday” to just get one extra day off of a work week. Boy, was I wrong! Having Friday off for the 4th of July this week was such a blessing! Really felt like I had an extra week of vacation after a 9-5.

And we made good use of it down on College Ave. Anyone who knows me will attest, I’m pretty big on holiday spirit, and the 4th of July is one of my faves. Nothing beats burgers and fireworks in my book. I spent most of the day cooking, trying to put the “south” back in Southern California, making family coleslaw and collard green recipes from Tennessee, and being an integral part in building a “redneck slip ‘n’ slide” (as they called it on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, my main media studies thesis text) – two giant tarps, hand soap, and a hose in the backyard. Who says you have to grow up after college?

We finished up our food just in time to race up to campus to see the City of Claremont Fireworks show (located at Pomona College) from the roof garden of Sontag Hall. When it started while we were still in the car, I thought we were going to miss the whole thing, but the show lasted like half an hour! And, luckily we loitered around afterwards, because there was an epilogue of sorts 20 minutes or so after the main show ended.

I’m used to family reunions on the Fourth. This is the first year I’ve been away for the 4th of July, so while it could have been sad, I sort of felt like I was at a family reunion – the POMONA family reunion!! Ahh! It was great to hang with other 2014’ers around for the summer and to be back on campus with the underclassmen who are doing research and working on projects – it’s one thing to be on campus in the admissions office every day, but it’s another to be in the dorms with the student community. Glad I got to be there for a real Claremont 4th of July!