Living a Mile High

In the days when I had visited Denver, but not yet moved there, I concluded that it was the Columbus, OH of the west. Both places are incredibly flat, suburban, and spread out, with I-70 running through them, and are filled with residents that have an affinity for football. The chief difference it seemed, was that one could easily escape Denver for the mountains, whereas in Columbus you would be stuck in the center of Ohio, surrounded by a wasteland of suburbia and corn.

Seriously, this isn't far from Denver. 

Upon moving to Denver, I found that the affinity for football is significantly less profound than in Columbus. People like the Broncos, but they have every major team sport at their disposal, plus a number of smaller ones and skiing and other extreme sports in the nearby mountains. The interests of Denver sports fan are less concentrated on one team. something I find to be more bearable. In no way does it bother me that other people like sports, but it does bother me when I get re-routed halfway around town and can't get where I need to be because of sports. That's just obnoxious.

I love some sports. 

When the husband and I moved there in 2012, the cost of living was pretty reasonable and comparable to where we had moved from in Louisville, KY. That didn't last long, but at that time we were able to live right in the center of town in Capitol Hill near Uptown & Downtown. I prefer to live either in the heart of a city or in the middle of nowhere as there's something about the suburbs that depresses the hell out of me. I think that the thing that to some people represents stability and comfort to me represents stagnancy. I also have a borderline irrational hatred of shopping centers and their traffic control methods.

I think that the tall buildings are a part of my attraction to cities as to me they act as a sort of artificial mountain, making flat terrain more interesting and inspiring a similar feeling of awe and smallness. An urban mountain, if you will.

I'm sure the feeling isn't the same for everyone. 

Denver has a lot of things going for it, what with the large number of music venues and all of the glorious sunshine. There are some solid restaurants as well, though overall I feel like Louisville, KY has Denver solidly beat in this category. Denver does some things really well, craft beer for example, but also tends toward relatively uninspired fare and has the unfortunate tendency to put green chile sauce on absolutely everything. A lot of places in the area also think green chile sauce is a soup, something I severely object to.

That sunshine is no joke. 

Denver has gotten incredibly expensive, no doubt for several reasons. There are a lot of jobs in certain fields, particularly tech, or so I'm told. Recreational pot is a thing, something I'm not sure I'll ever be entirely used to. I also suspect people have discovered how nice the weather frequently is here. 

I need to share more pictures like this. 

We could never have afforded a place in Denver, so we bought a house in the mountains. It means a lot of commuting and less convenience, but it's one hell of a lot easier to hike and ski. Also, rent is about as much as our mortgage, so there's that. When we moved out here, we drove across the country with a car full of whatever stuff we could fit and three drugged cats. We had no job and nowhere to live and we worked it out. I can't say I'd recommend that now. In fact, if we hadn't come when we did, I'm not sure we would have been able. 

The two remaining felids - R.I.P. Poe...

I love Colorado, particularly the mountainous part (a lot of people forget that half of the state is basically Kansas) and I like Denver, despite it's flaws. I don't know if we'll be here forever, but we both find the area to be significant improvement on Appalachia and the Midwest - better weather, more interesting terrain, way better skiing, and a more developed film industry. The relevance of this will be discussed more in depth later, but we started our film production company here and are working to get our first feature financed. Stay tuned!