Colorado Tumbleweed Continued.....

I realized that in my last post (see "Colorado Tumbleweed" August 26) I intended to "compare and contrast" the four places I've lived in Colorado, and I didn't compare and contrast anything. My high school english teacher would not be happy (especially since I didn't capitalize english). All I did was narrate my moves and give a little blurb about eash place. So why don't I make a school teacher proud?

Let's first summarize each place and my nutshell feelings about it:

Boulder - loved it
Colorado Springs - hated it
Denver - loved it (short but sweet)
Vail Valley - too soon to tell, but a bit lame at the moment.


Boulder was cool for a lot of reasons. I had friends for one thing. This isn't the doing of Boulder necessarily, but I was able to meet a lot of people through school and my living situation. I lived in a house with three other people. I counted one time and found out that I had eleven different roommates in my two and half years living there. The place was a swinging door of vagabonds. I definitely met a lot of interesting folks though. Boulder also had a "feel". A cool feel. By being a beatiful place, it attracted people with what I call "divergent" ways of thinking. I guess any college town has a bit of that feel, but Boulder was much more than a college town. I also heard somewhere that it had more psychotherapist per capita than any other city in the country. I don't know if that's true, but I believe it. For some reason, divergent thinking needs lots of psychotherapy. I don't know why. I suppose I could surmise, but that's a topic for another posting. Boulder was also comfortable for me. I was used to living there and it suited my lifestyle. Colorado Springs was the anti-Christ (metphorically speaking) of my lifestyle.

The Springs was strange initially because of it's size. About 400,000 people dwarfed Boulder's 100,000. There was more crime, slums, and of course, pawn shops. What is up with all the pawn shops in that town? I heard somewhere that all the military people would pawn all there stuff before they were shipped over-seas. Seems possible. I don't know if that's true or not. The people were totally different down there too. It seemed like most people my age were married with kids and owned houses. None if which I have. It seems like conservative people get married earlier and "settle down" earlier. Why is that? Another blog topic I suppose. I think they miss out on a lot. I may be rethinking my words in ten years if I'm still without all those stables of American "success", but for now, I'm pretty comfortable with my stance. I guess that the essense of conservatism is a low tolerance for risk. And if you define success by having all these aforementioned staples, then when the opportunity arises, you'd jump on it. Religion also harbours some of this sentiment I think. If you're brought up with this kind of mentality, it's all you know. Nevertheless, it didn't click with me. So when the opportunity arose to get out, I was on it like an evalgelist on late night TV.

Denver is a slick place. Its a big city, but where I was living (Washington Park) didn't really have the city feel. I felt like I was in the suburbs, but only about five miles from downtown. I know there are some pretty nasty places in Denver, but I didn't see it. Granted, I was living in a very desirable part of the town, but I got around a bit. Denver seems like an affordable way to live in a major city. Compared to east coast cities (or even Colorado Springs) the majority of Denver is safe. I didn't feel uncomfortable anywhere I went, even at night. There is a lot going on too. I would run in Wash Park and I couldn't believe the amount of volleyball being played. There must have been ten volleyball games going on at any one time on summer evenings. These people seem to be having a fantastic time too. I never got too into volleyball, but maybe I should. The people in Denver were, in my experience, more friendly than the Springs. There were more people I knew up there too, so maybe that helped, but overall, the feeling was more suitable to my personality. Plus, Denver is great because of the easy access to the mountains. Just a quick jaunt up I-70 and you're in the thick of it. But why be a quick jaunt away, when you can live there?

The Vail Valley is just a small town in my mind. A small town with a multi-million dollar ski industry and some of the richest people in the world rolling through whenever their little heart desires. It makes this small town a bit quirky. Everything up here revolves around the ski industry and the development brought on by the resort. Really, the only careers (that I see) up here are in the hotel management arena or the real estate and construction industry. Houses sell faster than Tickle Me Elmo's did about ten years ago (don't ask) and there is a real estate outfit in just about every commercial complex. I haven't gotten a good sense of the people here yet. They seem nice, but definitely into their own thing. It will be interesting to see how things play out, however, my feeling right now is that Vail (Edwards) may not be as welcoming as Denver.

So now with a pleased English teacher, correct capitalization, and a well compared state, the tumbleweed rolls on. Albeit in one place for the moment.