a) an enclave of endurance athletes the world over, a kind of near-mythic utopia where Kenyans, Ironmen/Ironwomen, Olympians and various other superjocks come to train as we mere mortals gaze in awe as they fly past us and choke gratefully on their dust
b) the home of the University of Colorado, one of the nation's biggest party schools as rated by Playboy
c) that sleepy little town where that little girl was killed on Christmas, or
d) the setting for Mork & Mindy
There may be other associations of which I'm unaware, but I think this pretty much covers it. Inside of Colorado, it's a different story. Boulder is the liberal holdout, that trippy-hippie pseudo-city where, it was once rumored, California liberals headed when Berkeley got too conservative for them. Conversationally, anyone's perception of you shifts immediately once they realize you're from Boulder. Get a Letter to the Editor published in a Denver newspaper and you're bound to see a response in a day or two blasting whatever it is you wrote about based on the fact that you reside in Boulder.
That said, I love living in Boulder. I'll take my self-indulgent, overly intellectualized, flagrantly liberal, often entitled little city over anywhere else on the planet any day of the week. We get over 320 days of sunshine annually here. We have more grocers selling locally-grown, organically-harvested products than we know what to do with. We have a generally healthy, upper-middle class population and consistently rank as one of the healthiest places to live in the United States. Kids start hiking, cycling and rock climbing when they're still toddlers. The accolades go on...and on...and on.
That said, we are definitely still a liberal haven, as was demonstrated recently by throngs of protesters upset about our country's skyrocketing unemployment and slumbering economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, congregated at the convergence of a couple of main streets in the downtown area:
OK, so, you can see protesters anywhere. In fact, it's kind of welcome in a nation that's enjoyed an incredible span of total public apathy. In other countries, when they don't like what their government is doing, the population takes to the streets. They go out and protest en masse. And they achieve, at the very least, a lot more of their government's attention.
But this is Boulder, and protests are SO the norm, that I was at once convulsing with laughter and nodding in agreeement when I saw the anti-protest protesters:
Talking with them briefly while we were stopped at the intersection they were anti-protesting on, they gamely discussed the need to end protesting in Boulder. They were about a block away from the throngs of actually-protesting protesters, and we thought they were a riot. I love this picture in particular:
because he was actually saying to me, "We need to put a stop to all of this useless picketing!"Ahh, Boulder. How can you not love this town?
I especially love that I snapped those photos (with my phone, hence the lousy quality) the same day as witnessing other Boulderific sights, such as this guy who was really, REALLY bent on going climbing:
Nice crashpad mounted on his back whilst riding the scooter up to, presumably, a nearby bouldering or sport climbing route. I guess in this case it serves a dual purpose, just in case some overcaffeinated multitasking soccer mom fails to notice his presence and rams him with her SUV.God, I love this town.
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