happy fourth of july from the fifth of july

hope everybody had a lovely holiday!!!

this independence day was a big one because my sister got engaged!!  i'm sure this will not be the last you hear about sarah's upcoming wedding since it will be in ann arbor.  i'm insanely excited to start taste testing curry for the menu... mahkni now please?? steve and i are so excited for sarah and dave, and we are all too stoked to get this big crazy intercultural showdown on the road.  woohoo!  (and how gorgeous is that ring / cliff he proposed at?  well done dave!)

my wardrobe is lacking in the extreme patriotism / clean laundry department so steve dressed festively enough for the both of us and we went for another float down the river to celebrate our raging freedom.  you might recall that i am distantly related to alexander hamilton and one of the original pilgrims so i'm about as american as they come, but since we owe the brits a great deal, i shall honor yesterday with a list of things i have learned about americans from watching british television.

1.  americans are extremely comfortable with guns.

it is almost humorous to watch how gingerly, carefully, and fearfully characters in british television handle firearms (unless of course they are villains).  i say almost humorous, but then i remember that there are more than forty times the number of gun related deaths in america than there are in britain and it feels like the joke might be on us.

2.  americans find cigarette smoking rather taboo.

which is great for cancer avoidance... not so great for that whole freedom thing we're always talking about.

3.  americans don't like normal looking people.

it is essential to be generically hot to be on american television.  your next best bet is to be a unique looking older man (we still really like steve buscemi).

time for dreamers

well yesterday i broke the news that we'll be headed out of michigan in a little while, but we don't know where we're going!  while that is totally true, we're not just spinning the globe and pointing somewhere.  right now we have 5 potential options ahead of us, which should be narrowed down to 1 or 2 soon.

but there is something very exciting about fantasizing about our many potential new homes!  so i thought i'd share with you a few of the possibilities!  here they are (in descending order of my preference)!

5.  north dakota

ok... so north dakota may have been second to new york city in terms of locations i did not want to move to.  but i'm ready for an adventure so if it means i have to be an arctic bison herder, i'm game!  we're not looking to buy property or put down roots anyway.  some fun facts about ND:

their official state beverage is milk

they grow the most sunflowers of anywhere in the US.

lewis and clark encountered their first grizzly bear in north dakota.

so clearly this place is so hardcore and rugged that steve's beard is going to grow a beard if we live here.

4.  louisiana

while the hippie in me is afraid of religious intolerance and the swamp creatures (ok and the swamp people too), i can't say i'd mind the warmth, the music, or the cajun food.  lousiana is also one of the very few states i have never visited (along with several that border it, in that corner i've always called the armpit of the united states).  i'm also obsessed with pirates and spanish moss, so i think me and louisiana could do just fine.  fun facts:

louisiana is the only state without counties.  they have parishes.

they have the only north/south facing cemetery in the country.

louisiana has the tallest state capitol building in the country.

3.  chicago, illinois

we grew up just a couple hours east of the windy city so us and chi-town are pretty tight.  lake michigan, countless world class museums, and kiki's bistro all in one place?  yeah, sign me up.  my brother lives here as well as a number of steve and i's good friends so you can bet we won't be complaining if we stay in this corner of the midwest.  that being said, i'll tell you a secret.  i loathe cities... with a burning passion.  it's the only reason chicago doesn't get spot number one on my list.  and now for fun facts:

chicago was home to the first skyscraper.

the twinkie (rest in peace) was invented in chicago.

chicago was home to the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.

2.  colorado

we would be quite literally on top of the world.  i mean look at the picture.  do i really need to say anything else?  fun facts about colorado:

they have 222 state wildlife areas.

75% of the land in america of an altitude over 10,000 feet is located in colorado.

every year denver hosts the world's largest rodeo.

1.  arizona

the desert would definitely have its drawbacks.  steve already sweats like he has a glandular disorder (i promise he doesn't).  i like water... a lot.  steve is afraid of snakes.  dry weather gives me eczema.  you know what?  i don't care.  i want an adventure and i really can't think of a better place to have one.  we are young and reckless and it would be nice to go a year without having to think about seasonal affective disorder.  day tripping to the grand canyon can't suck too much.  fun facts about arizona:

the best preserved meteor crater in the world is in arizona.

phoenix was originally a hay camp to supply military post camp mcdowell.

arizona is home to the southernmost ski resort in the country.

so there you have it... one of these places will eventually be our home!  i wonder where we will go?  which would you choose?