July 2

I've already remembered July 3 and 4, so the next thing to remember is July 2.

2012. I woke up with "Merry Christmas Darling" stuck in my head for some reason, so I told my roommate Bryton about it. I put on my t-shirt that has an American flag with all the states written on it. I went to my French class, where a girl was wearing a turkey (as in bowling) t-shirt. Our professor talked about how she had a dindon t-shirt, then he looked over at mine, and once he figured it out, he said, "Les états en drapeau." I said it was "pour le quatre juillet." Then that night I went to Dairy Queen for dinner and got a red, white, and blue Starkiss popsicle. I was driving to our ward FHE at Kiwanis park when I saw my roommate Bryton walking over. I stopped and picked him up and drove us over.

2011. I was at home. We went to Smith's Marketplace to buy goodies for North Salt Lake's fireworks. We bought some patriotic brownies and patriotic animal cookies. My overly indulgent parents bought my niece Allie a container of mini Oreos, which she started eating in the car. We went to Village Inn for dinner. Then my grandparents and aunt Sue came up to go to the fireworks. It was a lot busier than I had remembered (since I hadn't been for seven years), and Sue said it had definitely gotten busier. Allie went and sat by Cindy Knuth and talked to her. We heard a distant singer singing "Firework," and I said it was appropriate for the night. After the fireworks, we walked down the gravel path to get home. Sue was saying that the city should keep it up, but my mom pointed out that it wasn't an official path. Then my parents needed to go to the airport. I wasn't comfortable driving there, so my mom drove. I had to quiet down the radio for Bruno Mars's inappropriate "Lazy Song." I needed gas, so she stopped and filled up the tank herself because they were in a hurry. After they were dropped off, I drove home. A Kelly Clarkson song came on (probably "Since U Been Gone"), so when I got home, I looked up the lyrics. I was intrigued that she had a song called "Thankful," so I wondered if it was a Thanksgiving song, but I looked at the lyrics and it wasn't. (My mom thought along the same lines just a few months later when she got me the Thankful album for my birthday, thinking it might have Thanksgiving songs.)

2010. I don't particularly remember this day, but I might have eaten some of the Cool Whip/pudding mixture I had made for a cake the day before.

2009. We went over the baptismal questions with Nick Montez, who was baptized a week later, but some of the details are a little personal, so I won't share them here. We were at the Wynns' house, but Brother Keane was there. I think he offered us breath mints, acting as though they were chewing tobacco (the container was shaped the same). This is my journal entry for the day: "So we've been getting in a little later since we've been teaching Nick Montez and getting him ready for baptism. I've also been really tired, as I am tonight."

2008. In the morning, Elder Bramall and I boarded a bus to go up to Chelan, where we were meeting the Omak elders to go on exchanges. Elder Brimhall came back with me to East Wenatchee, and on the bus I was reading Daniel in the Old Testament; Elder Brimhall later commented on that. We went out and did work. We tracted a complex where an old lady told us not to come back. We stopped at the Adamses' apartment, since Elder Brimhall needed some more water. Then we went home for dinner, but we didn't eat anything. I was too hot to care. I looked at some PIs (potential investigators) we could go see. We stopped at one who wasn't interested and had Fourth of July lights set up. We walked by a house where a mean dog was chained up; it almost got Elder Brimhall. We went to another house to check on a name, but that person had moved, but we talked to the woman there, and she said we could come back. Her name was Glenda, and Elder Brimhall said, "Oh, like The Wizard of Oz." He took down her number. Then we were walking by a house and there was a woman working in her garden. I was really bad at talking to people outside, so Elder Brimhall started talking to her. She was a member (Sister Krueger), and she invited us in, where she was canning peaches. Elder Brimhall learned that she was related to someone he had baptized when he served in Wenatchee, so he called that person up. Then I wanted to go check up on a house we had tracted into a week or so earlier. We had talked to the husband, who said his wife's family were all Mormons, and he said they might have to have us over for dinner sometime. Since they seemed friendly, I went back with Elder Brimhall. This time the wife answered. She let us in and we talked with her. She had gone inactive after a divorce, but her kids in Bremerton, WA, were still active. Her present husband (whom we had met) wasn't a member. She was making dinner and asked if we wanted some, and we declined. But then her husband came home, and they offered again, so we accepted. They gave us spaghetti with sausage. They were very kind, and after dinner they let Elder Brimhall share a spiritual thought. I thought it was miraculous that we had decided not to eat dinner, not knowing that we would get to eat it with them and thus have a good conversation. Then we went home, and Jess, who was the grandson of Sister Knighten (the woman we lived with) and whom we were preparing for baptism, was in and out. He came in and said something terrible happened, that Sister Knighten's cousin had fallen down the stairs in the other part of the duplex (where Jess's dad and uncle lived). We went over, but the man was fine. Then that night Sister Knighten came into our study area to return a chair she had borrowed. I was in the bedroom, the next room over. The door was open, and I was changing my pants. Sister Knighten left rather hastily, so I worried she had seen me with my pants off. Here is my journal entry for the day, which mostly reiterates everything I just said:
"Today I once again had the task of taking over the area. Today was sort of an anecdotal day. We rode the bus to Chelan so I could bring Elder Brimhall home here. We tried to see some potentials. We were able to drop a few, but most weren't home. We came home for dinner, but Sister Knighten's relatives were upstairs, so we got water and went downstairs. I was looking at the potentials sheets, enjoying the cool and resting, so I didn't eat dinner.

"Then we walked to see some more PIs. At one was a vicious dog that almost got Elder Brimhall, but it was tied up. The next PI had moved, but the current resident is now a PI. Then walking back[,] Sister Krueger was working in her yard [Editor's note: dangling participle], so Elder Brimhall said hi to her, both of us not knowing her. She gave us water, and then learned Elder Brimhall had met her and worked with her relatives in Wenatchee. 

"Then we saw Dan and Shawna, a PMF we tracted into, and they fed us dinner. She doesn't want her records here. We'll probably ask the members at the end of the street to work casually with them.

"Then we came home and Jess popped in and out, then came back in and told us Sister Knighten's cousin had fallen down her sons' stairs. He was fine, though. Then tonight Sister Knighten borrowed a chair, and when she came back down I wasn't wearing pants. I hope she didn't notice."

 2007. This might have been the day I wore my blue glasses to work, but I don't know.

2002. I'm not sure, but this might have been the time that my mom and I and my grandparents came home from Iowa. While we had been gone, my Fourth of July window clings had arrived in the mail, so I put them up in the windows.

Related Posts:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
Independence Eve
A year of holiday memories