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Joni Evans | 07/04/2008 12:00 am

One Year Ago Today: I'm As Relaxed As I'm Going to Get

Joni Evans
I have spent July 4th, for the past 13 years, at the Town Park in Pound Ridge in Westchester County, just 50 miles north of New York City. This year I went with a few neighbors and the new amazing man I love and now live with. The holiday wasn’t always this good. In fact, it was never this good. We brought a blanket and some wine and sat on the lawn with folks in their jeans and baseball caps with their babies and Labradors. Everyone oohed and aahed at the fireworks and their cracklebooms. I enjoyed the show for the first ten minutes and then, after that, I pretended to enjoy it some more. My mind wandered. Were those sparks going to fall on our heads? Were there any ticks crawling up my shorts? How will we ever find the car now that it’s pitch black? And, inevitably, how the hell are we going to get out of Iraq and doesn’t everyone in the world hate America and are they right? July 4th in Pound Ridge has a small-town heart that I love, but I wish I could get out of my New York City brain.

Read more about: Holidays

2 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Gina F
I love your site. What are you doing about skincare and aromatherapy and total body cleansing? How does your skin look? I am 56 and loving life with my Arbonne products. Can we have lunch and talk about how we look and what are we putting in our bodies?
By Gina F on 07/05/2008 8:17 pm
beth willis
Joni- I can totally relate to that “crazy-making” thinking. I mean it’s just a swift leap fron the baked potato smothered in cheese, butter and bacon bits on my plate to thoughts of my great grandparents’ immigrating from Ireland during the potato famine. Then why would a country depend on just one crop, were all those people eating just potatoes…that couldn’t be good. Why have all these people arrived at this particular restaurant at this particular and yes, I want to start over at the door and have each diner stand, give a little info and then clokewise around the room. I wonder if any of these people are classmates of mine from high school and I just don’t recognize them with these ‘old people’ masks they’ve chosen to wear. Oh please, by dessert, I’ve created a story in my mind about each diner. I’m not muting these thoughts as effectively as in the past. My son will say, “Mom,do you know you’re speaking aloud?” Fine, if you don’t want to know who is a homicidal maniac in the crowd, don’t come crying to me when Dano has to handle the hostage situation. “Does anyone have some Tums?” Peace and grace
By beth willis on 07/13/2008 3:32 pm