crazy signs of spring

It's only 40-something out there and you'd think we'd gone mad. I know I have - mad with ecstasy. Check out what I've seen lately.

1. A suburban just drove by with a golden retriever hanging out of the front window.
2. Two kids were riding their bikes in tank tops.
3. The gutters are gushing with snow melt, and the sound of it is pure music to my ears.
4. I'm happy. Really.
   
5. The teenagers in the neighborhood are running amok in the night again. I love that about our neighborhood: white, privileged, well-fed, giggling gangs. It would be even more wonderful if they happened to be un-privileged and not white and still well-fed and giggling, but I take what I can get.
   
6. I didn't wear long underwear today for the first time since November. Really.
7. The thermostat has been set to 60 or below all day and the inside temperature hasn't fallen below 63.
   
8. And best of all, the snow people are emaciated. Click on this image to see details and have a a good laugh at these little teeny super guys:

That makes two

Someone out there on Minneapolis Metblogs has a very similar story to mine.

Sigh.

I am not alone.

I would like to kiss the weatherperson

Current temp and forecast:
I haven't been this genuinely happy in months. 6 months, to be precise.

CHANCE OF RAIN SOON!

47 degrees on Wed with a chance of rain! I couldn't be happier. I need my Wellies and some ice cream.

1:08 pm addendum: I hear that it's terribly naive of me to assume a weather report in Minnesota will actually be close to accurate. Piss on it all.

Pinch me.

On the continuum of how much regular human interaction people need, I'd always veered toward the end of "minimal." Imagine why I didn't much enjoy being a reporter. Newsrooms were nightmares.

I lived in Oakland for four years and commuted into San Francisco nearly every day. It's a wonderful place to live and lots of people think so, and it's much too crowded. I never felt alone, even when I was alone. You get crammed into carpools, buses, trains, sidewalks, tiny apartments, cubicles, restaurants. And after living in excessively overpopulated El Salvador, San Francisco was doable - but still consistently irritable - in the amount of energy drained out of me daily from just being around a whole lotta people.

My universe twin visited in the fall. He lives LA. I think he was a little unnerved by how unpopulated the Twin Cities felt to him. You just get so used to it, even though it really is hard on us introverts. And oddly enough, we get to missing the crowds. It's so weird to miss it.

I've been feeling something I'VE NEVER FELT BEFORE. I want to be around people. Crowds even. Until now, I've been very crowd averse. I want to talk and be chatty for more than 10 minutes. I figured it out today. Minnesota winters are long, grey, frigid, and make people hibernate as much as they humanly can outside of fulfilling their 40 hour a week obligations on the job.

I'm so ready for summer! Because it means green, warm AND because it means Minnesotans will become happy, social and agreeable again!

Reminds me of something I read or watched about New York City residents getting a fuller amount of human touch than other Americans because they bump into each other on the subway and sidewalk. That there's some kind of health benefit from that.

I've never looked forward to anything social and I can't wait to see people outside again. Pinch me.

WILD HARE RUMPUS

Bust me, Bonnie.

Me and the wife are going west and it sure ain't soon enough.

Just booked one way tickets to LA, a one way car rental to Seattle, and more one way tickets outta WA back home in mid-May. 11 days. Ocean all the way. Redwoods. Mountains. Goddamn right, mountains.

Holy mother, I cannot WAIT.

How'd I get so much smarter than all the Minnesotans?

I drove once in a snowstorm. It was the first of this winter season. It took me 2.5 hours to go 15 miles, I almost had a heart attack, I almost peed my pants, I almost crashed my car, and I threatened to leave Minnesota forever. Ever since, if I have to be somewhere during a snow storm, I walk or take the bus. That simple.

Really, it's just not worth driving. REALLY.

I'm not a bad winter driver anymore. I've figured out the physics of tires on ice and snow enough to get by. So it's not that I'm one of those CRAZY CALIFORNIA DRIVERS all you Minnesotans like to talk about. It's not worth it because it just takes for fucking ever.

And you'd think that all you Minnesotans would know that it's just not worth it.

Today I had a 9 am appointment. So, I left at 8:15 and walked there. I passed so much traffic - on foot! So many splattering sliding stalled cars. So many frustrated hurried drivers. It was just ridiculous. The person I met was 20 minutes late to the appointment; I was five minutes early. I calmly read a newspaper while waiting; she frantically rushed in after spending 2 hours in traffic. I'd had my exercise for the day; she - and all you other nuts out there who drove this morning - got your blood pressure skyrocketing.

I forgot my Yaktrax though, and I slipped a little. I didn't fall, luckily. I did see someone flat on their back on the way home, though, who'd slipped and couldn't get up. An ambulance appeared and took him away. It was sad.

Advice from a fair-weathered newbie: Slow down. Stay at home. Walk to work. Go in late. But, God knows, causing excessive and dangerous traffic jams is just plain ignorant. Crazy Minnesotans!

Nordic extreme dodge ball

The photographer caught the university Nordic Ski Club playing a new made-up game last Friday in the realm of dodge ball on cross country skiis.

It was a nice day, around 30 degrees out. By the time I showed up, they were packing up their skiis and doing that "loud voice laughing man sport" behavior. They were very amped up.

Such a funny sight.

Thanks to L. for the photo.