4th of July (because it was so nice)
It was a stressful week--actually, I remember now. I had gone out almost every day after work, starting the Monday before when my dad took me to the new casino after sundown. On the second I learned that we were closing at noon on the holiday. Awesome, I thought, my shift usually starts at 10:30. I'll just have to work two hours, or because my shift overlaps with the morning shift, maybe they won't have me come in for those measly two hours at all! I lived in naive hope for about a day.
It turned out, they gave everybody the day off except managers, Adrian, and me. And I wasn't working 10:30-close, I was working 6am to close. And I had to close the night before, so, home by 7pm, dinner, shower, bed by 9pm to get seven hours' sleep.
But wait! This calendar year aligns with 1985! So for the past six months I had been watching 1985 mjf stuff with my friends online! And July 3rd is the release date of Back to the Future, the most important mjf stuff ever made! I had had a screening planned for 8pm with snacks and everything! So home by 7pm, shower, dinner and movie at 8pm, bed by 10pm to get six hours' sleep.
But wait wait! The third season of Stranger Things was coming out at 3am! And I wanted to watch it the way I had watched the beginning of the second season back in my old apartment, when I was sad and getting into Halloween and Chelsea!
What ended up happening was: home by 7pm, shower, dinner and bttf at 8pm, bed by 11pm after editing screencaps of the movie, four and a half hours sleep, wake up and watch the first two episodes of Stranger Things.
And it was so. Much. Fun. Watching Back to the Future was hilarious, I made new friends and I was reminded as I always am, of how much this movie means to me. We watched a Huey Lewis concert before 8 while everybody arrived and I got myself set up. I love Huey Lewis. The first two episodes of Stranger Things were funny and bright and so 80s and beautiful and American and I laughed a lot and it gave me joy. The sun rose outside my open window, turning the quiet black night a deep blue, then a pale denim, then that mysterious gray, as the crickets petered out and I lay curled in bed watching the sunny Hawkins Square and bopping to the music and the mall fashions. Falling for the idea of a middle-America summer smack in the mid-80s, when you have a job that means nothing and plans with your friends after work, and everything is simple as your shorts and striped t-shirt.
Work was insane. A traffic collision for six hours. I made sure to wish everybody a happy holiday. Couldn't help feeling like the lower class, serving iced lattes to people who were telling me of their plans to spend the day on their boats. The type of people who can afford six-dollar bread every other day. When I got back to the apartment, the sun was high and I showered because I couldn't see another time. I fell asleep, took a nap, and when I woke up I made myself a burger and pasta salad, because that's what you're supposed to have on the fourth.
I danced to 80s music on the way to the train. I sat at the station rewatching my favorite parts of the first two episodes, with my socks pulled out of my hightops, halfway up my legs to my short shorts. In the middle of giggling over Steve, I heard a roar of an airplane that didn't let up, and I looked up to see the flyover pass by directly overhead, faster than anything that should fly. It felt good to be going to see my mom in the city, to do the patriotic fireworks thing, to walk on the train blasting whatever 80s song I was listening to, seeing myself as a character in some nice movie.
The fireworks were okay. The better ones happened that Sunday night in the park in front of my old high school. I had gone to my parents' and sat in their living room, watching Stranger Things as my sister bleached my hair. She finished in time for us to hear the explosions and walk the two blocks to the school and see the sparks shooting straight up into the air. The fireworks clapped back between the houses and colored the neighborhood blue, red, white, green, in surreal lighting. The next night I went to my little cousin's baseball game. It was a really American weekend and it was so nice. And I love the third season of Stranger Things more than the second and the first.