A belated happy Fourth of July! I thought about posting last night (so that these words of good cheer would not, in fact, be belated), but was exhausted & so put the task off 'til today.

Yesterday was, without doubt, one of the best fourths I've had in a long time. Traditionally, my family didn't celebrate the holiday (or celebrate as much as other people I know): we would sometimes take a bike ride to the local DQ for Blizzards, and would usually see the fireworks show at Sand Creek Park, but that was about it. I never minded having low-key Fourth of Julys, but by the same token, I'm always looking for reasons to do fun stuff out of/on the border of the realm of ordinary activity. So, Eric and I met up with Darren and Sara at Mt. Tom [a state park in Easthampton], claimed a picnic site, and grilled all day long. There are many things to love about Mt. Tom, among them its nearness to where we live, the fact that they don't require reservations for picnic spots/they only charge $2 for parking, and that the park is quiet and secluded feeling. E. and I arrived first and saw two deer crossing the road. No other major wildlife sightings, but the deer were pretty cool. There are also many things to love about grilling, namely, porterhouse steaks with A1, brats with perfectly-toasted buns, and all those cold salads we save for the summer months. (The greek pasta salad, though it got soggy as the afternoon progressed, was nonetheless fab.)

Also cool: I tried a few new foods, including cheddarwurst (delicious) and grilled peaches. The peaches, especially, were tasty morsels; in the future, I might gussy them up with some brown sugar or vanilla ice cream. Let's hear it for grilled fruit!

We didn't see any fireworks, but instead rented "Margot at the Wedding." I was really excited for this when it came out and, in keeping with my movie-disorganization, neglected to see it until now. A convincingly abrasive portrait of family "dysfunction," though some parts (for example, the last twenty minutes) dragged. Jack Black's performance was surprisingly good and un-cheesy. My favorites of the movie were the really menacing bits, which usually took place at night: Margot and her husband coming across a frantic woman and her wounded dog on the side of the road, or Margot looking into the neighbors' window to see a carcass wrapped in plastic - a carcass quickly revealed to be a slaughtered pig, and not the neighbors' child, as Margot believes it might be. Baumbach uses visual ambiguity and small leaps in the story's chronology to reproduce in the viewer Margot's desperate and fragmented way of seeing the world: a state of constant tension and attempted revision. I can see why the movie would have gotten mediocre reviews - by the end, which itself was seemingly anti-climactic, I wondered to where else the narrative would ramble - but those certain scenes of menace were really astute.

Not sure what plans the rest of the weekend hold, except for laundry and continued unpacking/setting up of the apartment. Will post pictures once I get the apartment in some sort of order (!)