I've lived in my neighborhood for 10 years, and it still throws me just how bourgeois it is.

I completed an onerous task! I made dental appointments for the kids (complicated in that our dentist left her former practice and is working out of another one now, and is only in the office rather occasionally - and I got lucky and the appointments were available on one of my two "random days off during the week" a month!)

I've lived in my neighborhood for 10 years, and it still throws me just how bourgeois it is.

My neighborhood is weird and awesome. I joke about the hipsters -- of which there are many (although I think lots of them come from other parts of town to visit) -- but really, it's chock full of low-income families, mostly racial minorities, many of whom are single-parent families. And it's got the largest concentration of GLBT people (some of whom also fall in the hipster and low-income categories). And it's chock-full of vocally, actively liberal hippies (some of whom are some combination of hipsters, low-income, racial minorities, and/or GLBT).

It is a good neighborhood in which to just be your freaky self, but it's also full of people just trying to go about their lives, and survive. I love how involved many of the residents are in trying to keep crime rates down (by creating citizens watch groups, etc.). People tend to love living here, and get involved to one degree or another. They don't just live here, they're building community here.

And getting their freak on and/or wearing those fucking straw fedoras.

The con is over. It was great. I had to get up too early to drive our toastmaster to the airport. Sleepy cat is sleepy.

Good to hear!

Gud, sorry about the house. Sounds like you did the wise thing.

They don't just live here, they're building community here.

This. This is what I miss about Fells Point most.

ION, my sixteen-year-old cousin said something yesterday that made me almost ask if he had seen it on tumblr, but I just couldn't get into it at that moment. I am curious about his life!

My neighborhood longs for the days of Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet. If you don't go to the nearby church, you are a non-entity--which makes me happy, when it doesn't make me a conversion project, but the last one of those I was aware of was a couple of years ago.

We get "fireworks or gunfire" regularly, due to this being Utah and Guns Make God Happy, and being on the edge of town with large fields nearby for target and varmint shooting. Though why the targets are being shot at midnight, I'm not sure.

And on the hipster front, a new store opened in the business district of our neighborhood, called Northside Grange: Pet & Urban Farm Supply. The large sign in the window says "Dog, Cat, & Chicken Feed."

Northside is the Midwest nexus of secret hipster chickens. (Actually, they don't have to be secret; city ordinances allow chickens as long as they aren't a nuisance, so it's sort of just a matter of making sure your neighbors are cool with your birds.)

I love that my urban hipster neighborhood has a feed store now. Oh, Northside.

That sounds kind of wonderful, Teppy.

We live downslope of what is the county law enforcement's qualifying and training gun range, as well as a civilian gun range. And between the transition neighborhood's Saturday nights on one side and the dove and rabbit hunters on the other, we get far less gunfire here than in our old place. The whole neighborhood was on granite bedrock, and the two-lane at the end of our street had been a truck route and a late-night dragstrip for years, and remained so even after the new section of the interstate opened less than a mile from us. The roar started around 5AM and went until after midnight. We may have been in the monarchs' migration route, but we were also in the flight path of two local airports. A little disconcerting to be watching tv and have landing lights shining through the window. Our habitual urging of "Get it up!" to clear the roof disconcerted not a few guests. And a 100-unit development was built at the end of our sleepy cul-de-sac, turning the block into a high-traffic speedway.

Our neighborhood here is primarily retirees. Sometimes the quiet is just downright spooky.

I am grateful every morning that I conquered my insomnia issues because I would describe my neighborhood as urban noisy. There is the community airport a few blocks away with flight school prop planes and small jets. It is also home to the Goodyear Blimp which flies over low often. We have many people that are fond of fireworks. Outdoor events at the beach are in audible range as well as events at the amphitheater in the other direction. Add traffic helicopters, or police search helicopters to the mix. Also, sharing the house with 18 and 21 yo young men whose schedules and mine are not matchy. So yeah, good thing I now sleep like a log. I depend on Zoe to alert me to actual danger.

eta: I don't think I have heard actual gunfire. If so I likely thought it a blown transformer or fireworks.

And now an infuriating interview with that "seduction guide" guy: [link]

I know this point has been made a thousand times on tumblr, but I think people are really not taking into account how women are socialized to be all playful "haha stop it" when they actually mean "GET YOUR FUCKING HAND OFF ME."