I Suck At Flag Day

saturday was quite the interesting day.

in what has almost become a tradition with my friends, quincy held the flag day parade on saturday. now, i suck at flag day. according to my friend, wikipedia, quincy has the longest running flag day parade. for anyone curious, quincy began the flag day parade in 1952. in fact, on this 57th year of the annual parade, the flag from the world trade center was supposed to be featured.

anyway, to follow the annual tradition in lockstep, my friend (jen) usually organizes a get together with a bunch of friends. she has been doing this gathering for quite some time now... as far back as i can remember.

needless to say, i tend to cringe whenever flag day comes. sadly, i have never been a fan of parades. watching people go by has never been my thing.

as well, i was not really looking forward to flag day this year because at this time last year, karen and i were joyfully telling a bunch of our friends (who gathered together for the annual flag day tradition) about karen's pregnancy. granted, it's not flag day's fault that the day is a general reminder about my son (braden) who passed away. it's just one of those unfortunate associations.

as if one bad thing weren't enough for flag day (assuming you don't include the parade itself), i learned my friend's (aimee) mother passed away. so right now, flag day is looking more like black saturday if you ask me.

that said, i feel a little annoyed with myself for thinking that way. after all, jen looks forward to this and she always does a great job organizing the event. and in fact, the flag day event was very good. jen did a great job. i had fun.

a bunch of us gathered at jen's parents' house for a cookout. all of us had fun hanging out, eating burgers and hot dogs. probably the highlight of flag day for me was when my friend (hot amy) got angry with me about a certain publication.

hot amy came up to me asking about my involvement with a certain publication. at the time, i had no idea what she was referring to. it turns out, the publication she was referring to was the "hough's neck bulletin", which is a local community paper for residents of quincy who live in the hough's neck area. upon learning about the hough's neck bulletin, i immediately cracked up because i then realized what she was referring to.

for anyone curious, i stole hot amy's stuffed animal, wally, from her car to see if she would notice his disappearance awhile ago. even though i had wally for quite some time, i planned on returning him to his rightful owner. and so, the day came when i was going to return wally.

naturally, i had to take one more jab at hot amy (because that's what i do... i instigate). thus, i contacted the hough's neck bulletin knowing full well that she had previously warned me to never contact them.

to be honest, i was quite surprised that the hough's neck bulletin even printed my announcement. (the hough's neck community council does not have the current issue on its website yet, so i can't link to it.) basically the gist of the announcement was a congratulatory statement that hot amy was being reunited with her beloved stuffed animal, wally.

when i had contacted the hough's neck bulletin, i had inquired if they would even print a silly announcement about a stuffed animal reunion. granted i may have exaggerated the truth a bit by saying that hot amy really really loved her stuffed animal. nonetheless, i never heard back from the hough's neck bulletin about whether they would print it or not.

as it turned out... they did! it was fantastic! just the look on hot amy's face was priceless. and the funny thing is... i never returned wally. i still have the stuffed animal.

anyway, i spent the rest of the flag day celebration partying with my drinking buddy (kelley). it was good because we got to skip out on the actual parade portion of the night.

I Suck At Flag Day

after going into town for the pride parade, karen and i then met up with some other friends for flag day.

my friend (jen) has an annual flag day celebration. apparently, (and i just learned this yesterday), the entire flag day celebration tradition started when jen and karen went rollerblading and accidentally stumbled upon quincy's flag day parade. ever since, they have been celebrating the event... lucky me, because i suck at flag day.

this year's cast of characters at the flag day celebration included jen, her friend tim, tim's photographer friend gregg, her brother bill, her mom nancy, deb, carlos, kerry, hot amy, karen and myself. in honor of flag day, jen even went and got a margarita machine. for the record, the margaritas were very nice. basically, we had a little pre-parade cookout. (by the way, jen... is very good at grilling. the burgers and hot dogs were delicious.) we hung out and had a good time.

when it was time for the parade, we all staked out the usual territory (which is the masonic temple on hancock street).

(pictured below is bill and carlos on the steps of the masonic temple. i would have liked to put the picture of all of us here, but i didn't get a group shot. i'm hoping someone can send me their pictures.)


the parade itself was actually better this year. a float with three women in short skirts got a big round of applause. they were singing some song... that's about the highlight that i remember. well, there were the bagpipers too... i love bagpipers. hot amy liked the sailors. just kidding. oh yes, my former track coach... dissed me... that was the other memorable highlight. i yelled his name... he looked... then he looked away. (my former track coach is now dead to me. just kidding.)

truth be told, i actually had a good time at the flag day parade. i think part of the fun was sitting on the steps of the masonic temple and laughing with my friends. jen cracked me up because she kept trying to take self portraits with all of us around her. needless to say, her self portraits didn't work.

after the parade, all of us headed to bill's friend's (bruce) place. bruce lives in the penthouse in the building across from the adams academy. well, bruce used to live there as he is moving this week to a townhouse elsewhere in quincy. it so happens that bruce was not even at his place when all of us showed up. (bruce had yet to return from a brewery biking trip, but he had invited all of us there for the fireworks.) luckily, bill had his key. from the balcony of bruce's place, we watched the flag day fireworks. it was a very nice view of the city and the fireworks.

all in all, i hate to admit it, but it was a fun flag day celebration.