Back to the Valley?

It dawned on me last night that I may want to move back to the Aspen valley. This thought comes as a large shocker, because I swore that I'd never step foot there ever again. But the reasons for that declaration was largely due to the fact that I was a drunk and a junky during my last stay there. I hated myself during those years and I would have in turn hated anywhere I was living. So in all fairness, the valley was an innocent victim.

What I am really looking for these days is a quiet place to live where people will leave me the hell alone. I really want to quietly be a nobody and go thru my days with little disturbance. I thought that I could achieve this goal at the beach somewhere. Like, say, when I win HGTV's "Dream Home Giveaway" and I move down to the Keys. Or, I could move to a mountain town and get the same effect.

The thing I always liked about the valley was that just about everyone who lived there was there because they WANTED to be there. They had all made the conscious decision to move there because they wanted to ski or fish or hike or whatever. But they want to be there. Unlike many, many places around here (NC) where people live where they grew up, or where work mover them...

Being around people who are excited and happy to live where they do is pretty special. You see it in the way they take care of their town and they way they run their town. The valley was like that. People really dug living there. And they'd travel from all around the world just to live there. And they were stoked. Really, really stoked.

And people in the valley all seemed to look at work as what you had to do to afford to live where you loved. Meaning there wasn't a stigma on any occupation because you were living in the valley. So what if you worked at a liquor store or the post office or a restaurant or anywhere. You still got to ski over 100 days a year, or fish the world's best trout rivers or look at the Bells every single day. The playing field seemed to be much more level. And that's good for someone who really doesn't want to do much more than just get by...

And then there's the whole quiet, lack of people thing. The valley really isn't that populated. You really can go just about anywhere and not be in a very big crowd. And you don't hear these ghetto wanna-be MF's who blare their damn car stereos, hoping that maybe we're impressed that they listen to gangsta rap.

And now that I've gotten away from TV (it's almost one year since I owned a TV), I really don't have the fanatical sports desires that I used to. I have no desire to go to UNC games. I really don't need to watch any sports. I read about the big game the next day. The Super Bowl articles were just fine, and I got thru them in less than five minutes, instead of 5 hours! The articles on UNC beating Duke this past weekend were concise enough that I got what I needed.

So I really don't have any reason to be living here in NC. Granted my parents and my sister live in this fair state. But the family has been in close proximity since the beginning. I don't think that my breaking away for a bit will change things much. Especially since the clan still goes skiing once or twice a season. And since I listen to WCPE online, I really don't have one single reason to call NC home any longer than I have to...

So, sounds like I need to pack the bags for those ole Colorado mountains....

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