My 3rd of July

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday, for many reasons that I won't go into detail about. But this year's 3rd of July may give the 4th a run for its worth. After getting two hours of work out of the way, I hiked to Stewart Falls. I don't know how many times made the jaunt to those falls, but I forget every time how beautiful those falls and the surrounding greenery is. My only regret is that I didn't get up there before anybody else to really take in the beauty instead of all of the people awkwardly sliding and slipping down the falls' embankment, as entertaining as that was. There's nothing like quiet contemplation in a place that really brings out gratitude and the meaning of more important things.

In the evening a group of friends indulged ourselves in eats at Brick Oven Pizza. For probably the second time in my life I didn't look at the menu. I knew exactly what I wanted: cheese, extra basil, cooked romano tomatoes, and almonds--it was a large and I left two uneaten pieces.

Afterwards, I enjoyed the usual June 3rd festivities of camping out for the Freedom Festival parade. It's fun to see Provo transform into a bustling metropolis... well, sort of, when the blue suits and gold badges let it become more like a metropolis.

At 3:00 AM I finished my last two pieces of pizza that I save. But, the absolute highlight came at 3:35 AM (which was really July 4th) when a friend called me to ask me a question. We talked for about a hour and when I hung up I laid in bed thinking about what we talked about and what we didn't talk about. I gained so much from our conversation that I almost decided to forget sleeping for the night. My mind eventually relaxed and at 7:50 AM my alarm woke me up... for the official start to my favorite holiday, but the 3rd of July will be on my mind, hopefully for a long, long time.