Mexico Medical Student |

Of course, here in Mexico, it’s non-existent. I spent the whole day yesterday forgetting today was a holiday. There are no “4th of July Sales” advertised on TV/newspaper, no ads for barbeques, and no brilliant fireworks tonight. There are, however, fireworks on any random night that one of the local soccer teams wins a game, so I hear (not see, because they’re mostly just noisemakers) them all the time.

Last year, I was in my hometown, and my grandmother’s house is very close to the stadium where they do the fireworks/music-on-the-radio thing. Our daughter was a little peanut, less than 2 months old. I thought bright lights could attract her attention a little bit. She didn’t show much reaction at that age of course, but when some of the louder “booms” started happening mid-way through, she was NOT happy (understandably, as even I could feel the reverberation in my gut), so we just went home.

I mentioned all of that only to say this year, I know she’s going to go nuts with excitement. At 13-14 months, the louder, the brighter, the better. And this time, it’ll be with vocal approval, clapping, pointing, and general happiness. I wish I were there to see it. I thought about grillin’ and chillin’ here, but I really had nothing to grill. I’m low on money and am by myself, so I don’t want to buy a big slab of meat. I thought about hot dogs as at least an American substitute, but the best Mexican hot dogs are like the no-name not-sure-if-you-want-to-chance-it generic brands in the States. The “cheap” variety here are these disgusting, gray-pink Vienna-sausage-looking things, and Oscar Meyer brand dogs here will set you back almost $4/pack. Wrap your head around that one–Oscar Meyer, probably at $0.99/pack on sale in the US this time of year, is the “fancy import” brand. LOL!!

I think I’ll just open a bottle of wine later tonight, watch a movie, and relax. I’ll need some calm-before-the-storm given tomorrow’s meeting. I don’t think Thomas Jefferson ever said, “¡Viva la independencia!,” but it’s all I got right now. As an aside, I don’t think any of the founding fathers would have condoned this disgrace, either, but I don’t want to ruin my day thinking about it any more.