peevish mama

I am feeling much better today.  It seems Peevish Mama has a little flair for the drama.  No one, however, can accuse me of keeping my emotions pent up.  It’s all right out there and sometimes the force of my feelings and the words that go with them are enough to blow your knickers off.

Which reminds me of last night (a large part of why I’m feeling better, if a little fatigued).  We went to Rock the Garden down at the Walker with some friends and had a quintessential summer night out.  Music, brats, lots of beers.  Sitting in the grass, people watching, laughing, chatting.  Girls in sundresses bumming cigarettes off boys with whiskers.  The acoustics weren’t the best up on the hill, but honestly, it just felt so good to lounge in the grass with a view of the bridge, the Sculpture Garden, the Basilica, Loring Park and the big crowd of music lovers, that the bands just became a really pleasant backdrop.  Incidentally, that is my very favorite view of the city as you come down Hennepin – architecture classical and modern, gravitas and whimsy, art and religion and commerce and leisure all cushioned in a whole lotta lush leafy green.  In keeping with fickle and temperamental Minnesota summers, the weather went from searingly sunny to gusty, angry little rain droplets in a matter of minutes (luckily it happened at the end of the show).  Just being there, grooving with all those people, mostly younger than us, but some older than us, validated why I love this city so much.  People gather, they seek each other out, they congregate and coexist peacefully, happily . . . maybe out of a need to shake off the vaguely hermitic ways imposed by winter.  

A rock concert on the grounds of a modern art museum put on by a public radio station, attempting to be a zero-waste event.  If that doesn’t represent all that is true and good about Minneapolis, I don’t know what does.

Another thing I love about this city, and I know I’ve mentioned this before, is that it’s small and contained enough so that you just run into people.  At the park, at the market, out to dinner, at the lake. You are never quite safe going out to buy milk in your pajamas because a friendly acquaintance is bound to pop out of the produce  section and chat you up for a few.  Yesterday, as my friend and I were groaning at the long and serpentine line for the restroom, my daughter’s preschool teacher and I spotted each other at the exact same time – the adorable and fantastic Mrs. Sheryl.  Turns out her husband’s favorite band is the New Pornographers and through her MPR membership she had scored some VIP tix, so that they could procure drinks and pee away from the plebes (us).  She swept us into the elevator, pointed us in the direction of a secret bathroom and gave us a breezy wave as she went off to get a couple more drinks for her and her hubby.  I’m totally doing that next year.  More importantly, what a lovely surprise and what a happy coincidence!  I couldn’t wait to tell Supergirl.

So back to blowing your knickers off.  As we were wiling away the late afternoon drinking beers in the sun, one of my friends, Gear Daddy (married to Nanook), was treated to a full on peep show of a young (but unlandscaped) coochy belonging to a girl in a white sundress.  Praise be for mirrored sunglasses, right?  So no judgement, that’s fine, it’s summer, your dress is white, you don’t want panty lines, everyone likes a little breeze in the netherlands from time to time, but didn’t your mama teach you how to sit like a lady?  Gear Daddy wasn’t complaining, though – he was loving Minneapolis too last night.