When did July get here?

Well, it has been some time since I've posted anything - borrowed or original. I hope you all had a great 4th of July. I had an interesting experience. I celebrated Independence day with some newly sworn in Americans. How odd to be celebrating independence from Britain with a British couple who are now Americans but still sound very much English. We had a lovely dinner together and then everyone took off to a baseball game at PGE. I could not be cajoled into going but instead stayed at my parents enjoying the coolness of the AC and a working TV. I felt a twang of guilt as I drove home at 11pm that I was being quite un-patriotic. I didn't even bother to go to the end of the cul-de-sac to see the neighborhood kids light off their fireworks. Less then that I didn't even flip channels to see any of the televised fireworks. I sat inside in an anti-social slump. What makes it even worse is that is was really nice weather! The joke always goes - when does it stop raining in Portland? July 5th! But this year the weather couldn't have been more perfect and I was a non-participant. Shameful! But I got to wondering as I drove home about the immigration problem we have in the US and wondered why is the US so popular? And I also am wondering why we have such a huge problem with illegal immigrants when, according to Carolyn's first hand experience, it is cake walk easy to become a citizen. Or rather the "tests" are easy peasy, maybe the paperwork and background check before you can take the test is what excludes many people from becoming legal. As we celebrated our national holiday I got rather contemplative about the future of this country. There is no telling where we are heading.