finally

I wonder if there are people whose lives are actually like Sex in the City. Spending their days working out and shopping and writing newspaper columns, and spending their nights drinking brightly-colored cocktails with their girlfriends, then making love with men who are somehow independently wealthy and apparently dime-a-dozen. Every week there's a new man in your bed, but it's ok, because you'll laugh about it over lunch at some trendy cafe the next afternoon. Then it's back to the fabulous club openings, where you never have to worry about what to wear because your closet is like an obscenely-fashionable-Mary Poppins' carpet bag, and you will undoubtedly meet a new stud or two or seven.

I suppose the reality of city life is that while it might be glamorous and elite for, well, for the elite, it just seems as if it would be kind of lonely. Unless you moved there with someone you knew, or had a built-in scene to belong to, like a good job or a school or a church-- how do you find a place? I would love to live in the city someday, but how do you keep from being a nobody? I guess that's the problem everywhere, though. How do you keep from (oh this is awful) becoming bourgeois? I finally found a way to tie in my title apparently. I should have called it anti-bourgeois, or resisting bourgeois, but I guess I couldn't resist the alliteration.

Back in the real world, I'm going to Michigan with Tyler and his family for the fourth and next week. Should be a great time! Then on the 10th I start teaching lessons at Lifetime. Gah! My first lesson went pretty well, considering that the kids were crazy. A good test, I suppose!

TWO PIRATES PREMIERE

This is what Eric and I did for two nights in a row (there are more, but they take too long to load):

two two two

It is so hopeful to me that there are people who are both fiscally successful and socially responsible. AND that there are some in Minnesota, AND that they are vocal and active. Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune had a full-page ad on the back of the world section from a group called "Growth and Justice."

Some rich Minnesotans want to pay more taxes

Raising $2 Bn by charging 2% more on the highest-earning 2% of Minnesotans-- with a lower increase on the middle-class, and virtually nothing on incomes under $45,000-- sounds OK to me. I guess I'm not in the highest 2%, but that's two cents on each dollar. I think I might be in the LOWEST-earning 2% of Minnesotans, and I would STILL be willing to pay two cents on each dollar that I make, if I could be assured that it would go towards education, or health care for children, or sustainable transportation options. The problem is: once the government gets ahold of the money, it's like a black hole. The accountability isn't there-- and why should it be, if citizens don't demand it?

photos courtesy of lauren

tuesday afternoon nothing

So my first in-the-water-training was yesterday...TEN hours in the pool. Six shadowing at Savage, and six hardcore training at St. Louis Park. It was FUN! (No sarcasm here, I really enjoyed it!) I think that once I get over the fear of trying to deal with monsters, or of accidentally drowning someone, I am going to LOVE working at Foss. Plus I discovered my new dream shampoo. It's the first swim shampoo I've ever used that actually A) smells good, and B) works! They have it in their on-deck showers, so I'll be able to use it all I want! It smells like blueberry candy, and has a koala bear on the front of the bottle. That's all I'll say.

pennies from...

I got three shiny 2006 pennies at Savers today. It made me wonder: How much is one penny worth? Which led me to this...

The Seattle Times: "Does Keeping the Penny Still make Sense?"

fourth of june

Was at Gull this week, saying goodbye. It is weird, weird, weird to be gone. Hopefully I'll make it back once more before they close on the house at the end of the month. It was a grand farewell, anyway-- perfect weather, and all the usual critters were out and about, and the water was fantastic. Got to visit PK, too, which was sweet as usual.

I had my first training for swimming lessons yesterday. I think it's going to be great! The guy who's in charge seems really cool, and it will probably be a lot of fun. I'm only a little nervous, about controlling crazy kids...but shouldn't be anything I haven't handled before!

Going to Savers today-- finally! And I got the fishtank taken care of. The room is coming together...just found out, though, that Judy and Doug and Chris-- and maybe Morganne, Michelle, Madison, and Mark, are ALL staying HERE next week. I'm so glad that they're all coming to visit, but shouldn't they be staying at Jeanne and Chas's ENORMOUS house? Or at least D and T's relatively large house? It will be an adventure squeezing everybody in, to say the least! Really excited to see all of them, though!