Vegas: Fourth of July Fireworks

Well, it's only been what, about three weeks now since the Fourth of July?

Better late than never, eh?

If you haven't noticed, I've got quite a backlog of posts I've been churning through trying to get caught up to this whole real-time life thing. When I initially embarked on this "blog-post-a-day" journey, I knew it would take a lot of time and effort to capture and share so much of my life with the world, and I accepted that challenge eagerly. I've been incredibly lucky in my ability to get out and go on some amazing adventures- whether it was living in Japan or eating my way around Seoul, I've been pretty blessed in that regard compared to a lot of my contemporaries from the city of Sin.  In my own estimation of what reality is and the nature of life as such a fleeting venture, I think capturing these moments in blog form is one of the best ways to try to preserve them for the long haul while simultaneously encapsulating and sharing my experiences with the world, and evolving my ability to try to express myself with words. There's a lot I've yet to delve into, from my time in Japan and Korea, but life keeps endlessly plowing forward and we get out and try to take advantage of this when we can, so the backlog stacks ever higher. This might be our last summer living in Vegas, even if only for a few years as this city seems to have a black hole like essence that sucks it's denizens back into its grip, but still, that adds a special gleam of nostalgic importance to the things we accomplish this summer. 

This need to roam, it seems, is an inescapable aspect of my personality... every few years, a deep, painful ache of wanderlust will settle into my chest and grow into a suffocating weight until I shut up and listen. Perhaps it's the city of Las Vegas itself that does this to me, with its oppressive heat, desiccated desert landscape, carnival parade of junkies, and thrill-seekers endlessly rotating through in an endless dirge of human drama padded with generous donations from the stupid and the selfish hoping to make a fortune on a stroke of luck. I've been quite happy with life in other locales, aside from the pointed lack of very certain humans in my proximity. In all earnest truth, I think I could have quite happily stayed over in Seoul if only Antho had been by my side with our squeaks, but the timing didn't pan out. Transporting any form of animal life overseas is a convoluted and potentially dangerous operation, hard enough with a dog but for something as small and short-lived, and undervalued as a pet, as a rat it's nearly insurmountable.  It's not that I'm opposed to America and what it stands for, because the idea of freedom and opportunity appeals to most reasonable humans... I've got some serious qualms with the quality of life here, and what people accept and do in general relations with other humans, though. There are, absolutely, issues in other countries- sexism in South Korea is SO terrible that if I had gotten raped or something god awful like that I genuinely don't think I'd have had any legal representation or recourse. The work culture in Japan is incredibly hardcore and soul-draining, but as an alien resident in Japan and Korea I still had much better access to basic health services than I do as a citizen in my own country, and there's something bitterly ironic about that fact that I find impossible to swallow. Why is it that I could afford to have a family anywhere but in my own country? Not to mention all the awful shit in the news, it's hard to "get" the enthusiastically manic paroxysms of flag-waving "patriotism" that engulf my fellow countrymen... but I digress. 

Here's a bunch of fireworks.

Boom boom!

Try not to focus on how the empire is crumbling around you. 

Or the oligarchy that has predominated throughout America since (at least) the industrial age, and the growing chasm that separates the 1% from the rest of humanity as the class divide grows ever more insurmountable. 

Taxation is theft.

💘

XOXO,

NAU