As I sat and watched the firework show tonight I tried to figure out the best firework show I'd ever seen and decided there were 2 that tie. The first one being the time I lived in Oakland. Mom had decided she wanted to try the traveling thing so I switched companies and went with the one she got an assignment with. She'd been a nurse practitioner for a while and most companies require at least 6 months of recent nursing practice to travel. They would however let her do home health as opposed to hospital nursing. At the time she wanted to start working, the only job available for her was in Oakland. She was all gung ho so I chose to work in Berkeley. After 2 weeks our assignments we were fuming mad. The company had put us up in Fremont in just an average apartment. If you know anything about the Bay Area, you know it would be ridiculous to live in Fremont and work in Oakland OR Berkeley. It was taking her over an hour to get to work and mine wasn't much better.On top of that my manager at the hospital scheduled me for every single weekend even though when we interviewed we agreed to every other.(I even got to tell her off without cussing and ended with "Well I don't know how you do it here at {insert hospital name} but where I come from when you have a verbal agreement, you stand behind your word!".And I told her to find another traveler to take advantage of and stormed out of there---it felt so good . Anyways I unleashed the bitch and my company got me out of that assignment and moved us to possibly the phattest place I ever lived.
We were on the 17th floor of a luxury high rise right on Lake Merrit. They say some Raiders live there, but I couldn't have recognized any. We were on the corner facing San Fran and it was floor to ceiling windows and sliding glass doors with a sweet wrap around balcony. When mom and I walked in and saw it we were screaming, hugging, and jumping on the couch and all. It was like a movie or something. Hell it could be a movie-Mom driving around Oakland all through the ghettos with her Alabama car tag, and me taking care of gang bangers at the county hospital I worked at. Quick story --I was taking care of this guy that was totally not nice to the staff according to report. He tried to be mean to me as well and to shorten this story within a story, when I introduced myself he flashed some gang sign and basically told me I didn't know who all I would be messing with if I gave him any trouble. So, naturally, I did the first thing that came to mind. I flashed to him the sign language letter "S" which sort of looks like a fist and told him in my thick southern drawl that I was from the South side and he could talk all he wanted but I give the pain meds. He cracked up and was nice the rest of the night.He had to tell all his visitors about it and would call me in his room to talk to them with my accent Even asked if I needed protection while I was in town which I politely declined. Mom and I both enjoyed our assignments--we extended there.
OK to my point. Mom's best friend from high school, Miriam (yes I am named after her) and her brother came to visit us that week of the 4th. We had a little get together with them and some of our friends there. When it was firework time you could see several shows from the different cities going on. They were everywhere! I know this is super cheesy, but it was so beautiful from where we stood that I almost teared up. It was one of several of those times when I had to pinch myself. (not so I wouldn't cry, but because I couldn't believe "I am HERE doing THIS!) I wish I knew how to operate my scanner so I could share some of the pics.
Then the other time was from my balcony in San Francisco just last year. It was not the 4th. It was just some random night around maybe 10:30. I had just gotten in from somewhere and flipped the TV on when I heard what I was sure was gunshots. I thought someone had been caught this time breaking in to a car and there was some kind of retaliation happening.. My apt overlooked the street and being as I stayed up late all the time, I saw or heard about 2 cars a week get their window busted out for whatever was lying on the seat or in the trunk. (and I worked 3 nights a week) By the way I thought about doing a citizen's arrest one time--I learned that from Barney Fyffe---but didn't think that would go over well-some country girl hollering "hey you stop that! Citizen's array-est! Citizen's array-est!" So I called 911 once and left a description, but you could tell they were like-"whatever. We ain't coming over there, we got real crap going on in this city." After that I would just sneak out on my balcony and yell "HEY! I see you!" and duck inside so they couldn't spot me. I kept all my lights off of course. Sometimes it spooked them but most of the time it didn't. OK so I snatched my lamp off and quickly snuck to the balcony. Right as I opened the door, I heard another crackle that scared me half to death and the sky lit up. Apparently there was a baseball stadium like 4 blocks from me (I lived on 3rd and Folsom) and they were having their regular fireworks show. It was beautiful and so close I felt like I could almost reach my hand out and catch one of those weeping willows. Such a nice surprise!