Fourth of July!

The day dawned rainy, and I crept out of bed at 6:30 am.  I dressed silently and headed out of McCormick into the drizzle, though not before heading upstairs to peer at the fireworks barge on the river.

You know the definition of deserted?  MIT on a federal holiday.  Seriously, the only person I passed through the entire walk to work was a member of the overnight cleaning staff. 

So yes.  Working on a federal holiday.  At 6:45 in the morning.  This is because my life is basically PhD comics:

Advisor:  "project goal project goal new controls protocol ....15 minutes later....controls project.  Oh.  Since tomorrow is a holiday and we won't have our usually weekly meeting, just send me the copy of the full updated protocol tomorrow sometime and we can go over it on Thursday morning."

...

So I worked.  And worked.  And finally finished around 11, heading back to scrounge for some lunch for a picnic in the Penthouse to watch the Blue Angel and F-14 flyovers.  (==awesome!)

We set up the tables and party in the Penthouse, and spent the day lounging, our hardest decision being whether to drink another glass of mint iced tea.  We watched the boats come in and take their places on the Charles, from yachts to what looked like inflatable mattresses.

My pride and joy of the evening, the layered jello dessert.  I've had it for breakfast three times now, and boy, does it ever satisfy.  Also, canning jars are my new favorite thing ever.  I bought over 100 8 ounce canning jars last year, but they're currently empty due to an extremely busy June...but they will be busted out for a cocktail party I'm co-hosting at the end of July.  

 

My mother taking cucumber sake shots with a friend.  I love this picture.

The sky begins to darken.

Now, what you can't tell from the pictures is the whole weather incident; the esplanade was actually evacuated due to nature's firework show that started around 9:30 pm.  Lightening raced across the sky, drawing oohs and ahhs from the crowd.  But the fireworks were finally back on, and thirty seconds into the show, it started to pour.  And it poured for most of the show, as we all huddled beneath the eaves of McCormick's penthouse, trying to avoid the downpour.  I tried, but ended up soaking wet.  Thank goodness for cotton dresses.  It was definitely a fourth to remember.