Coming Out

Good Morning -

It's pretty exciting to be back on schedule with the Virgens and to be getting settled in here. Today (save for a quick trip to EyeMasters to drop off my contact prescription) is all about being home and rooting a bit.

Yesterday we got some good rooting in during the afternoon, after a morning bus trip to Boulder's Farmers' Market. The market was fantastic and we got some great veggies, but the best part for me was the bus.

I don't have adequate words to describe how much I love the B, the bus that runs between Boulder and Denver.

Maybe it's because it's what got me to Denver when I was a student at CU. Maybe it's because it's what got me to Boulder when I was living in Denver but working for the AOB in Boulder. Maybe it's because they have great comfy seats complete with recline and foot rest to make the trip that much more enjoyable. Maybe it's because the ride is generally pretty once you get away from industrial north Denver, and you can just sit back and relax while the driver maneuvers through traffic (which may be the real reason I love it - past life flashbacks to a time when I had a chauffeur).

When I last took the B (or the BX - which is the express bus between the two and is extra fantastic), it cost $1.50 for a one-way ride. Yesterday when we rode up, it cost $4, which makes for an $8 round-trip per person.

The cost increase makes it harder to justify, but I still can't quit it. My partner had some good math around how it's not really cost effective for the two of us to ride it, but I still can't quit the B. I counted passengers yesterday on our 60-minute ride and countered her math with the information that, without the bus, there would have been 10 more cars on the road, eating that much more gas and spewing out that much more in emissions.

Really - it's past the point of debate for me. I love the bus to Boulder. I love the regional buses in general. I could, if I wanted, live in Lyons and take the bus into work in Denver every day (okay, that would technically be two buses - one from Lyons to Boulder and one from Boulder to Denver, but who cares, it's still fantastic).

Through my new job, I can get an Eco-Pass for $40/month that allows me to ride any means of public transportation I want. I plan to walk the 1.5 miles I live from work, and can get to most other things I want or need on foot, so there is almost no need for me to do the Eco-Pass - except that I love the Denver bus system and want to support it.

I'll have to think more on that, but I love it so much I may end up doing it.

Let's get to this Virgen. Yesterday was National Coming Out Day and we attended our first professional gay event in Denver as part of my partner's new job at the LGBT center here. The event was a spin off of debutante events with four youth telling their coming out stories over a sit-down dinner.

It was a great event and fun to start to meet the Denver division of the team. During afternoon rooting when I was relaxed after the market and the bus and one eyelid away from napping to Antique Roadshow, I was hesitant about getting more dressed up than I've been in a few weeks and leaving the house to go to the event. It ended up being nice, though, to be wearing something a little more up than the jeans I've worn for the last week and to do something a little fancy.

In honor of the coming out idea, I decided to out myself to my handful of facebook friends as a blogger. I was already out as a lesbian, so that wasn't news, and I felt I should come out about something, so I came out about the Virgens.

When I started this blog and the art project, it was all hush-hush and quiet because I worked with tech-savvy college students and didn't want them to find me on-line. Now that I don't work with that group anymore, I can be more open about this - although, based on a conversation I had with one of my students before I left, it may have been a non-issue to worry about them finding my blog.

During one of my last meetings with one of my students, I listened as she fussed about having to do a blog and a YouTube video for her French class - "A blog? What am I, a 40-year old house wife?"

Hmm - or a 35-year old lesbian who likes to write and is working on a year-long art project...

I smiled, nodded, and moved the conversation to solutions to her problem of having to do tech stuff for French.

So, clearly, what is haute-tech for me is really quite passe for current college students. That's good.

Here's to being out. Here's to creative outlets, whether you're a 40-year old housewife, 35-year old lesbian, or 22-year old French major. Here's to markets. Here's to napping. Here's to regional buses. Here's to rooting at home.