The thing about Denver...

The thing about Denver is...it definitely has its own culture that isn't too hard to quickly pick up on. And being a natural overanalyzer and also having my degree in Sociocultural Studies...I think it's super interesting.

It's basically like freshman year of college all over again.  Except instead of 18 year olds fresh out of their hometowns....it's 20somethings that graduated college a few years ago and recently left their home states. Most of the people I've met either just got their first "real" job here which is why they moved....or they moved here just to try something new and had to just find any job right away to pay the rent.

And buy ski passes.

But really, it's such a young city...any restaurant/bar you go to is full of people under the age of 30.  And I've maybe seen one nursing home.  Maybe.  I'm not sure if it's a nursing home or an apartment with lots of wheelchair ramps and a sunshiny/dignity-giving sounding name.

Everyone is willing to befriend new people pretty quickly.  The first thing my friend Alex told me when I got here...is not to ever be hesitant about inviting myself to things.  People don't look at it the same way as in the midwest.  It's not annoying, it's welcomed because everyone is wanting to get to know more people and make new friends here.

No one is originally from here.  Well...at least it doesn't seem like it.  If you're a Colorado native....you're super rare.  Honestly, I've maybe only met 2 or 3 people so far that grew up here.  And they have bumper stickers that say so.

Freedom is highly valued.  Not the typical "I'm an American, hear me roar" kind of freedom...but the "I just moved away from everyone and everything I know, so don't hold me back, I'm going to climb every 14er, meet lots of people, and enjoy every second of this stage of life" type of freedom.  You don't find too many people in dating relationships.  And of course it goes without saying that everyone is super outdoorsy and adventurous.  And healthy.  And outdoorsy. And drives a Subaru or a Jeep.  Um...and outdoorsy.

Skiing/Snowboarding/Camping/MountainBiking/Hiking/Climbing/TrailRunning.  If you live in Colorado and don't do any of that...why are you even here?  Girls that wear plaid downtown get hit on more than girls who wear skirts.  Okay maybe that's not entirely true...well...yeah it kind of is.

Well, I'll stop there, because I've only lived here for 8 months and I don't want to get too stereotypical.  But I think most people that live here can agree with most of that.  If I'm wrong, well, I'll buy you a Clif bar.


Okay, unrelated to the main point of this post...but I went to Washington again this weekend.  Of course I had an amazing time and it gets harder and harder to come back to Colorado each time (which is saying something, because Colorado is awesome).   I got a motorcycle ride, got to watch boyfriend play in his softball tournament, hang out with a bunch of his friends, meet his three grandmas, learn how to wakeboard and go tubing while out on sunny Lake Washington for 6 hours!! So much fun.

I love Instagram...but really I'm not super into the faded and old fashioned picture look.  It's sort of pointless to me.  It's like moving backwards in photography.

So here's a few of my favorite (anti-Instagram) pictures from the day on the lake: