The whole experience made me question whether or not I really do ever want to have kids. It's an odd thought process, because I kept thinking about how much I've got going on in my head, and all the things I think about and work out. These folks, and it's no offense to them, had nothing to talk about and seemed to think about nothing beyond being a parent. I don't know if I could do that and be happy. I'd feel like, and this sounds terrible, that I'd be wasting so much of my mental energy. My mental energy is what's going to be paying the bills.

The whole ordeal prompted Amy and I to have a long discussion about children. They always sound like a good thing in some ways, but if every thought of my life was to be involved in parenting... I don't know, I can't make this adequately sound like what I'm thinking.

In fact, I sound like an ass.

True, if I was a parent, I'd want to be dedicated to my kids. Duh. That's what parents are supposed to do, right? But then again, I want to have a life and an independent mind. And as Amy said, it's hard to ask parents about this dilemma because no self-respecting parent's going to say "gee, having kids is shitty and I hate dealing with these little fuckers." Well, those weren't Amy's exact words... I'd like to hear some feedback from the various parents who read this shit-heap if anyone's got time.

Either way, we're looking at years before kids, and probably adoption if/when that time comes. The world has too many kids who need help to just pump out some more, and I don't really want to curse new people with my genetic deficiencies. Since there are so many things I dislike about myself, how could I knowingly pass those on to a newly born person simply to say that I procreated? Seems a bit selfish.

After ditching that terrifying reenactment of Children of the Corn, Amy and I went on a mission to get fireworks. Apparently, they're not sold in Summit County, so we had to drive halfway to Youngstown to get them. The place we ended up was out in the country, and there were hillbillies galore spending their July welfare checks on fireworks.

Well, that's a little unfair, but they were definitely an interesting group spending amounts of money on instantly disposable goods that seemed well beyond their means based on appearances. This massive (and obviously very temporary in use) warehouse of fireworks was a plethora of people watching to be certain. Knowing that at least a few of these people would later be mixing these explosives with alcohol was simultaneously unnerving and amusing.

We picked up $30 of sparklers, shitty little fountains, spinners and firecrackers, and the cashier seemed surprised at the smallness of our order. Fireworks always make you feel ripped off, though, and the ones here were expensive. I guess that's what you get in a state that (apparently) doesn't allow firework stands by the thousands to set up in the month of June.

We came home, watched a movie, and then set a few off. Then, we ventured toward downtown for the big Akron display and found ourselves in the middle of North Hill's annual Woodstock. Literally tens of thousands of people plugged up the neighborhood, which, as the name implies, is located on a hill overlooking downtown from the north. After the display had been going a while, we found a place under a the giant Y-bridge overpass where we could pull over with a couple thousand comrades and watch the show. When we returned home, we set off the rest of our fireworks and went to bed.

All in all, the evening was a nice relaxer after being smacked in the face with our potential future. Both of us were honestly quite distressed by the parental lifestyle displayed, but the fireworks really relaxed us a bit.

Ironically, as I set off fireworks in our front yard for Amy's enjoyment, I dreamed about how I would do this in five or ten years for Amy plus some other, much younger people.