Last year I opened an account with Venture Bank in downtown Tacoma. Across the street from the Matador on Pacific Avenue, this bitching banking boutique offers free freshly baked cookies and a hot pot of coffee to anyone who comes in the door. They do the same in Lakewood and other branches.



Money is a game we invented to help define the value of things and services. The better one becomes at this game, the more things and services one can obtain with the money one has won.



Banks, by nature, are large gaming complexes that play with your money to make more money, sometimes even for you. Banks offer us all sorts of incentives to entice us toward the perception that they deserve the right to handle our income. A bank can offer you security, convenience, investment games of your very own, lines to stand in, boxes of math, savings and loan. From the age of 7 or 8 my mother had me steeped in the knowledge of the bank lobby, but when I turned 19 I paid one too many overdraft fees and decided I was tired of playing along.



For eight years I hid my money in places around my house and in my room. I was my own bank, I would withdrawal and deposit as I was paid, and I was more than willing to give the check cashing place on Sixth Avenue their five percent for the freedom from the system. 



No one was mean to me if I made mistakes, and the girl at the counter never acted like it was a sin not to shave. About a year ago, however, some friends convinced me to open a savings account in an attempt to bring me out of my financial stone age. My good friend Liz Sparks led me by hand into Venture Bank and sat with me through the process of opening an account.  I had to admit, debit cards are pretty handy, even if they will someday become the mark of the beast. 



I quickly found that Venture Bank is different.



Marv Sandburg, Deborah Dickson, Serena Adkins and Danny Hansen all know my name, and know what the hell I’m trying to do with my life. I would like to think they actually support dedication to my art. Numerous times they have corrected my mistakes without charging me, and they never look at me funny when I take advantage of the neat little $1,000 overdraft protection that has paid my rent more than once. I have never had a bank actually care about more than getting me through the line. It is refreshing and heartening to be treated like a human being in the big game of money.



[Venture Bank, www.venture-bank.com]