Yeah! Dumpster diving in your own apartment's trash bin is the best. I found a perfectly good (though slightly full of cat hair) computer chair just chillin in the alleyway, along with a cooler and a brand new, not even out of it's plastic, glass poster frame. I've been meaning to frame one of my paintings for some time now and now I have the frame for free! People should move out and throw away perfectly useful items more often. (Rather, I should be privy to when people move out and throw away perfectly useful items more often). I have some plates I need to collect from the hallway, too. The guy moving said anything in the hallway is fair game.
Today was nice. V called me right in the middle of a begrudging house cleaning to invite me out for a swim. I went to her house and waited for Betsy, then the three of us took the Greenway (a car-free bike path lined with community gardens) to the Lake of the Isles, got lost in the hills around there (a somewhat pleasant and somewhat resented cardio workout), and eventually found the little beach we were looking for. That area is full of crazy rich houses that may qualify as mansions. It's the kind of place where the only people you see are in their cars or maybe walking dogs whose haircuts cost more than my entire wardrobe.
We retreated to V's house around 8 and made a supper of black bean soup on rice with fresh chopped garlic. The kind of crazy healthy vegan thing I only seem to desire when cooking with other hipster types. That and the fact it was easy to make and the exercise had made us hungry. Afterwards I took V's van and went grocery shopping with Ponge. I have a million different things I could eat right now. I love food in my house.
I took the van back and watched some of The Royal Tenenbaums, listened to Elliot Smith and Leonard Cohen albums, and biked home.
All in all a productive day, perfect for summer. This summer has been a lot better than my last summer in Minneapolis (right before I left for Senegal when I was a drunken whackadoo - yes more drunk and more crazy than I am now). I love the heat, it's like a blanket you don't have to arrange or wash. I love the fact that I have friends who like to do things like bike to the beach and don't mind when we get lost doing it.
yay for being happy! :)