How Faith, Freedom and Fireworks became a Holiday Two hundred and thirty-eight years ago we adopted the Declaration of Independence and in turn walked away from the sovereign rule of Great Britain.  We now celebrated this day with parades, barbecues and fireworks. Where we now fill our day with picnics, baseball and reunions with family or friends once were filled with mortar shells and bullets as our forefathers defended our newly founded country. July 4th almost never happened you know… I don’t mean the day or even the separation from our motherland.  The actual separation happened on July 2nd,  but it took Congress until the 4th to come to an agreement (and have yet to really agree since) on what is known today as the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, even he declared back then that the day would be epoch and “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forever more.” (source: Had a declaration letter) Even as this day was being established so many years ago it was speculated that we should have bonfires (barbecues), parades, sports (baseball), illuminations (fireworks) and well we all know people tend to fire guns in the air thinking they won’t […]

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Everyone knows that trust is a difficult thing to come by.  Even those of you that are ‘trusting’ until you prove me wrong are usually just kidding yourselves.  It almost never fails that someone somewhere at some point will break that bond of trust. As someone who works with homeless and abused animals, trust is word that does not always come easy nor is taken for granted.  This past weekend I witnessed trust get shattered in a blink of an eye. We were at the park for an annual family reunion and we brought our two rescues along as they are family too.  Both dogs usually have great social skills with people and are happy to see anyone that might pet them or pay them any mind. Everything went off  without a hitch, we ate and talked and had a good time.  The dogs were the center of attention as they usually can become.  We take them with us to work on socialization and to continue building the trusting bond around other people.

Another fantastic weekend in the books, what started out as a stormy wash out of a Saturday turned into a perfect evening. We shared some delectable plates at the new hot spot in Five Points named Hawkers Asian Street Fare.  They have been busy since they opened their doors so we did not mind the relatively short 15-20 minute wait for a table.  It was a new experience though as there were half a dozen empty tables but come to find out those were for the people who were responding to the wait list that sent them text messages that their table was ready. Hawkers is a blend of Malaysian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Singapore street fair that are small plates intended for sharing.   You have to ask for a fork as they expect you to eat with either your hands or chopsticks, neither of which am I prone to use. After dinner we traveled only a few blocks away to the highlight of the evening which was being held at Bold City Brewery.  Being that we had never been to Bold City, we were not sure what to expect and therefore were not disappointed.