Colorado Tumbleweed

For my first blog I thought about diving head-first into politics, religion, or relationships, but thought that it may be a bit of fast start. So why don't I start with something a little more benign? Like comparing and contrasting different parts of our great state of Colorado. Maybe I'm picking this because of some entrenched learning that went on during a summer writing assignment in high school, but nevertheless, it should turn out to be informative in the least.

Over the past eight months I would consider myself a tumbleweed of Colorado. And not entirely by choice. Three years ago I moved to Boulder to attend grad school at CU. After three semesters of blissful learning I took a job that allowed me to remain in Boulder. Where else would you want to live? This job, of course, was far less than spectacular and after a courageous severing of ties with this company I was left without a job or any prospects of finding one.

Through countless resume revisions, company cold calls, and a little help from family friends I got a job offer - in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs? That's right - Colorado Springs. The poster child of American conservatives. Hell, its the Christian organization capital of the world - well, maybe just the the country, but the place is big into religion nonetheless. And of course the military.

Ah, the military. The place is swarming with military. How can a liberal from Boulder even consider a move (though only 100 miles away) to a town that sits to the right of Rush Limbaugh at Thanksgiving diner?

I considered it, and I did it. Begrudgingly, of course, but I felt that I had to make a career move in the right direction (no pun intended). And the Springs turned out to be less than spectacular for me. Mostly because I didn't know a single soul. The people down there didn't seem to be the most friendly and I was left without friends in a conservative military town. I persevered none the less. I joined golf groups and tried to do as much as possible. I really gave it a chance. But when the guy I was living with sold the house (I'm glad he was able to sell at the top of the bubble), I decided to move to Denver. In my mind this was a better place for me. More going on, less conservative, not as many pawn shops (or prostitutes) - but hey, I could deal with that. Despite the 1 hour drive down I-25 I was willing to do it (a carpool with other folks from my job helped).

I found a cool place in south Denver with a buddy I lived with in Boulder. So I'm all set to move up to Denver and the day before my big move up the highway I get canned from my job. Supposedly it wasn't a performance based lay-off; my company lost the contract on the project I was working on in beautiful Colorado Springs and they "didn't have anywhere else to put me".

Ok.

Not the end of the world. I could find another job no problem. Plus I'll find one in Denver a helluva lot closer than the Springs. So on my first Monday of unemployment and life in Denver, I get a call from a company for whom a grad school friend of mine worked. They said they had an immediate opening on a huge hotel construction project. Great! I'll take it! One catch. The job is in Vail, CO.

Ok.

Not the worst place in the world. I love to ski. I just moved to Denver though. And I mean, yesterday, I moved to Denver. I told this company that "I needed some time". Fair enough, who doesn't need a little time to think things over. I actually needed some time to scope the job marked in Denver before pulling the trigger on my third move in eight months. After using my tried and true job hunting skills I determined that the job market in Denver was flat. And this was true. Could I have found a job in Denver? Probably, but it would have been for less money, on a less prestigious project, and could have taken several months. I took the job in Vail. After a month of living Denver, I was off to the mountains.

And now it has been almost two months of working in Vail and living in Edwards (10 miles west). The summer in the Vail valley is a bit slow and I've been coming down to Denver on most weekends (I haven't subletted my apartment yet).

So in conclusion (another entrenched high school line), I have four distinct areas of Colorado from which to derive opinions. Really the only "conclusion" I can come to is that there are some serious differences in parts of this state. I went from the liberal utopia of Boulder to the regimented military town of Colorado Springs to the proverbial middle ground of Denver to the small-town resort mecca of Vail. Four quite different worlds.

Ah, the life of a tubbleweed.