Editor gets holiday off

Working at a newspaper pretty much means you work doctors' hours but earn a journalist's paycheck. To break it down: We're at the office at all kinds of ungodly hours and the pay, well ... it's nowhere close to a physician's salary.

But I love my job, and I love journalism so that's the reason I'm in this field - despite rarely getting holidays off so that our loyal readers get their papers on Christmas morning, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, etc.

But wait!

This year I've got July Fourth off! It's a minor miracle, considering this is the first Independence Day I've not had to work since graduating from college in 2000. That's five years ... FIVE YEARS of seeing fireworks in vivid photos plastered across section fronts, as opposed to in living color down by the river with the rest of America.

I'm a sucker for fireworks, professional and, er ... not so professional.

In college, my roommates and I had a couple near-encounters with the police due to shooting off fireworks in a state where that's a big no-no. Couple the illegality with the fact that we were in South Georgia, and we were lookin' at jail time if we got caught, which we didn't. (Not because we were discreet in our fireworks antics, by any means!)

I once set a bush on fire beside our house thanks to a rocket that, instead of shooting straight into the air like it was supposed to do, it went up and took a sharp turn to the left straight into the hedges. The fire was out by the time the police got there, and all was cool.

This year I won't be shooting off fireworks at my house (I'll leave that to the college kids next door), but I will be at any fireworks display I can find.

I may sound like a little kid, but I don't care. Bring on the fireworks!