U.S.A! U.S.A!

I discovered there's nothing more quintessentially American than going to the beach on July 4th weekend. You get the vibrant cross-section of this country's inhabitants, the mix of races and cultures who come together to celebrate a common heritage--
Screech. "Fuck you!"
--the SON of a BITCH who just took MY parking space, forcing me, along with my similarly exasperated housemates, to circle around for another twenty minutes, finally locating a space that could've been in Kansas for its proximity to the ocean. But at least I got my piece of the pie, in asphalt form. And the beach itself was warm and sandy, although the sun came out only intermittently, and the water was freezing.
Maybe that's what America is really about--thousands of people being greedy, opportunistic and manipulative, doing everything within their power to get in on the action. The problem is, the action turns out to be a couple square feet of sand that all, inevitably, gets in your food and up your swimsuit. The only solution is to accept what you have and convince yourself you're having fun.
Maybe that's not my cynicism talking, but the general bitterness I've been feeling about my upcoming 20th birthday (less than 24 hours from now, if anyone wants to wish me many happy returns. Hell, I'd even take a couple of happy returns.) But now is not the time or the place for me to go into all that. Expect more in the next couple of days, perhaps.