what i love

we saw this today:



the real one is supposed to look like this:





i got to thinking about what i was "missing" by living in the country for so long. we don't get billboards in vermont. so that cuts down on alot of the advertising i see. also since we don't get tv. so if npr doesn't tell us about it, we may not know. but i would say, all in all, we are pretty hip.
so the list begins...

i like to be here on the west coast and here is why:
i get to see actual people wearing actual fashions.
i can find places that sell second hand fashions and purchase those because they are affordable.
i can work enough hours (at a part time job) to pay the entire rent. ( i know this is not the norm, but it works for now.)
i can eat any kind of food out that i feel like eating. and all the restaurants are good--or they would not still be open.
i love gay men. there is a radio station that plays "dance music". normally, this would be in the "do not like column," but you add seriously funny gay men as the dj's and suddenly, it is my favorite music.
and folks like that we also hear things like young i love having a choice of radio stations. there are about 4 npr stations that are local, the gay man station, and an old school r&b station that plays marvin gaye and tammye tarrell, and otismc, mc lyte, tone loc and candyman!!!!--it is great. it is nice to not just listen to npr all the time.
we have a tv that picks up actual stations. as dorky as it sounds, i have now seen a bit of a few episodes of american idol, and it was ok to good. (my favorite girl already got voted off, so i may not be a regular at watching it, but...hey, i've seen it. )
i can go to any number of shopping areas and just walk around and watch people.
we have cupcake stores.
we get to go to shows and dance. i love dancing. i love shows.
people here expect you to be smart. multiple times while tying people's shoes, they have asked me what college i went to or did i move out here to go to uc berkeley.... never before have i lived anywhere where people assume you are smart. it is a nice feeling.
people here are active. on the way to pick dust up from work the other day, i was held up by a gaggle of people supporting a free tibet. women in pink are always protesting outside of the marine recruiting office, tree sitters are right across the street from the uc berkeley campus. it is nice to see people getting fired up about things again.
i am not writing this to tell everyone why i do not want to go back east, i just thought i had been here long enough to tell everyone what some of the perks to here were. i assume most of you know the perks to vermont. friends, affordable rent (really), the farm, friends, most of the crazies are weeded out by the weather,friends, i can be second most fashionable (next to quinn or kristina--depending on who is out), friends, vermont has a comfy feeling of permanence to it, and did i say we miss our friends???
any way. there are more things i like about being here, but i've gone on enough for now. but we will be home soon. in fact, dust said the girl we sublease from came by today. perks to this are we can now park inside our little gated community, downfalls, i can't quite shake the feeling that we should not be here if she lives here, you know. she is staying with her parents a few towns away. your comments on that are welcome. i don't know where we would go. being that we have two cats, and plane tickets home for may and no place to live in vermont... just a few major things. i guess if we found a place to live, we could pay to change our tickets and that would be fine, but what a weird pickle, you know. so let me know what you think about all this. what do you like about vermont, or the bay area. leave out the weather comments, because that is just painful. and feel free to mention the fact that outside we have flowers blooming at any time of year here in sunny california.
all for today folks.
love you
clm