4th of July!

Today is the 4th of July, independence day! The best thing about it is that I'm off work today! :) Some of us collegues at work celebrated the fact that we would be off today by going to the usual after work bar yesterday. I spent a calm evening at home, while Charles was playing softball with some friends from class. We went to bed quite early and had a wonderful 9 ½ hours of sleep, without Casey disturbing us too much in the early morning. (We have learned that Casey, our cat, gets quite bored early in the morning and trys to wake us up by "talking" to us, scratching the wall and biting on the night stand lamp cord. Usually, she calms down after giving her some food... but it doesn't always work. So now we have also gotten her a cat tree and some toys to keep her activated. So far, it seems to work... hopefully it'll last.) Anyway back to waking up this morning... Charles and I decided to start the day with taking a nice walk. As it was 8.30, the temperature at that time is relatively cool, probably in the mid 70's (mid 20's celsius). After work it is usually too hot and humid to actually enjoy a walk... it does get nicer once the sun starts to set, but then you'll be attacted by mosquitoes.

So after getting out of bed, feeling so happy and joyful that I had a good night's sleep, thinking that I'm off today and we were going to take a nice walk before I go to the gym to workout (which I haven't done in a week), I start to gather some of the clothes that I had laying on the floor. I pick the clothes up and (oh my god I can hardly thing about it) I feel how an enormous something with more than 4 legs crawls down my bare legs (aaaahhhhh!).... and oh yes did I scream and jump and fly back on to the bed were Charles was only half awake! And I see a huge and I mean huge cockroach crawling away on the floor and they move fast, probably knowing that his life was in danger. Luckily Charles was able to crush it with a shoe before it had time to hide.

Now this is ultimately the worse thing about living in a hot climate... all the horrible bugs and critters! Now you all probably think that I am exaggerating and are thinking "big deal, it's just a bug"... but actually even though this is the first time I actually had one on me (eeehh that gives me cold shivers just thinking about it), this is the forth time I've been suprised by cockroaches in my home! After the second one, which crawled under the door to the bathroom, while I was sitting on the toalett... I put out little traps, but it really doesn't seem to work... I guess I just have to learn to live with it.

Puh, enough about roaches (if you want to learn more about them you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cockroach to read more about them ;) ). Anyway, after this traumatic experience... I managed to calm down and we took a nice walk and then I made it in time to a morning aerobic class. I'm still wondering about how I'll spend the rest of the day, pool or shopping I guess, Charles will be studying all day. This evening we are going downtown to celebrate the 4th of July with thousands of other Atlantans and Georgians in the 95 degree heat. We'll try to blend in like real americans and enjoy the entertainment, activities and a hotdog or two before the highlight of the festivities beginn - the fireworks! I remember celebrating the 4th of July in a similar way as a child, so I'm quite exicted about experiencing this once again.

To all you americans - Happy 4th of July! - and to everyone, take care!