We all know that I can't stop raving about how amazing Oregon is, but it's not all sunshine and roses. It's hard to be away from my best friend while she's packing and moving out of my house, sometimes I'm bored without students or friends around, and sometimes it's COLD .

I spent my birthday (July 3rd) not feeling very well and sleeping most of the non-work day. So it might not be surprising that on the morning of Independence Day I was a little cranky. First of all, it was 63 degrees outside and I was SOOOO cold. Secondly, my birthday is usually super fun, I'm surrounded by friends and fireworks and food. Independence day is obviously about bikinis and BBQs and beer.

So I sulked for a minute. OK, more than a minute. But then I thought, it's silly to spend a beautiful day off being a sulk monster. I can make my own fun! So I headed to Goodwill for my birthday shopping spree, texted my coworkers, and found myself a group to BBQ with! The day turned out pretty amazing after all!

Plus, the weather warmed up to 75 by about noon and we got to see some amazing fireworks. The above picture is from pretty early on when an obvious accidental explosion happened. A ton of fireworks went off at the same time because, as I was informed later, someone left the extras on top of a table.

♥ Jessa