Heh, possibly poor colloquial phrasing on my part -- I actually just meant the illegal fireworks (although many of those do come from Mexico! :D). There's quite a few cities in California where fireworks are banned outright, but in the cities where some types of fireworks are allowed, plenty of the illegal ones are also constantly going off on the Fourth of July (USA's Independence Day) and the cops just have to play a slow game of whack-a-mole to try to prevent it. Usually, they and the fire department just drive past making their presence known; this is the first year I've actually seen them shut someone's celebrations down. (Also, my profile lies -- I'm not currently in Santa Ana.)

The obviously-illegal ones that people set off in neighborhoods include a category called "mortars", that use a vertical tube launcher to fire it about 100 feet in the air and then it explodes into a bunch of colored bursts. (Why noooo... I've never used those... ... of cooouuurse not.....) But around here, even Roman Candles and the standard firecrackers aren't allowed anymore. It varies city to city though. And of course legitimate firework shows are able to get licenses allowing them to use mortars. If people are smarter about it, they'll launch the mortars from their backyard instead of on the street -- makes it harder for cops to pinpoint where it came from.

That said -- it's not surprising to see that article for Santa Ana. I went to school there, and many of my friends were, and are, illegal immigrants. The citizenship process is not as smooth as many believe it is, or should be. Some of my friends, although technically not citizens, speak English far better than some natives and actually have trouble communicating in their own native tongue. Santa Ana is predominantly Mexican, but there are many Asians living there as well (Cambodian, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.). There is good and bad within each of those communities, but I think that can be said of any ethnic community, or just about any grouping of people in general. I typically refrain from getting too political on the net, but I'll just say that I wasn't happy with either of our 2016 presidential candidates, and I definitely miss Barack.

Eh it's complicated, he lives overseas and long distance relationship isn't what he's looking for

I really want to travel alone somewhere once I graduate, I've never done it and it seems like a great adventure, though it's also kinda scary

Yes. I don't have an ice cream maker, so used a recipe that requires manually churning it periodically as it freezes in the freezer. In the end, once I thawed it out to eat it, it went from firm, icy and cold enough to burn my mouth directly to almost liquid and still cold, with no creamy stage in between. I figure the main problem is that I had to use a recipe without heavy cream, as I didn't have any and the nearby stores had already closed when I felt like trying to make ice cream for the first time and I didn't want to put it off. So with little fat to trap air and not as much air infused with manual churning as a machine would, it's no surprise it didn't turn out creamy. Also, I used too much sugar and brought down the freezing (and thus thawing) temperature of the mixture, so it was too cold to eat at the stage where it was semi-melted.

Thanks! It did take quite a few tries to talk her into it, normally she doesn't allow me to use the console if she's home. And I feel like the whole button-pressing did strain her, in a sense, since that was the first time she even used the controller properly. I wish I could have a partner to play with though! Preferably someone closer to me age-wise :)