4th of July

For the 4th of July, Michael and I rode our bikes downtown and met his friends, Steve and his new girlfriend Shannon. I guess they'd been dating for a couple of months, but I swear Michael had told me like two weeks ago that he had just broken up with this other girl he'd been dating for a while. So, whatever, I figured it would be fun.


We got down there after getting a bit lost, and met up with Steve and Shannon. The four of us rode the rest of the way downtown, and found a spot to sit and watch the fireworks. Shannon and I got to talk a bit, and she's pretty cool and easy to talk to. I guess she started getting into riding bikes, which is how she met Steve--he's a bike shop mechanic.


Michael and I rode to a bridge that was completely closed off to car traffic (that was awesome), and watched that bats fly out of the bridge that they sleep under--the bridge opposite of where we were at. They all flew out at once, and it was just an endless stream of blackness. It was cool, but they flew in the opposite direction, so we didn't really get to see much. After riding to a convenient store to grab some beer, we rode back to the spot we were at, and that's when Steve and Shannon announced they were getting married (!). I actually thought they were kidding, so I didn't say anything... and once I realized they weren't kidding, I seriously couldn't make my mouth move. Michael recovered much faster than I did, and offered his congrats. He left to go take pictures, and at that point my mouth finally became unfrozen, and I started asking questions about it (when's the date, etc.). They were all lovey-dovey.

The fireworks show was great. We rode home in the dark again, and got caught in the Austin downtown traffic. :shudder: I hate riding in traffic that thick. Once we got out of the downtown area, we didn't run into much traffic at all, and it was a great night!

I found out yesterday that they're switching me to another team at work. Someone quit (surprise!), so rather than hiring someone else, they're just spreading the work around. Just great.