Skip to main content

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....

Comments

Popular Posts

Thoughts on Phish

  The first time I heard about Phish was my senior year at Episcopal back in 1992. At that time in music history, grunge was just beginning to explode on the scene. Pearl Jam was about all we listened to. But I always kept time for my jam bands. I had already seen The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic and many others. CDs were still the way we listened to music, but cassette tapes were still around and were what you got all your bootlegs on. The internet didn't exist, or at least not to the public. Hearing about new bands was largely done by word of mouth. And that's how I heard about Phish. My first taste of Phish was their album "Lawnboy." I remember being impressed with the musicianship. I thought there was some Zappa-esque arrangements going on, as the music seemed to dart in crazy tangents. I also remember seeing a picture of the band and I thought they looked like a bunch of Trekky nerds. They definitely didn't look like MTV material,...

From Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"

"It is not advisable to venture unsolicited opinions.  You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener."
  At some point recently, the kids and I were telling each other stories. I can ’ t remember who went first, but Wyatt and Pepper each told their stories amid interruptions and corrections and suggestions. Let’s say for the sake of argument that Briar wasn’t talking yet, so it became my turn. Rather than the usual stories of kingdoms and unicorns and the garden variety stuff I usually went for, I decided to pull from my memory of past events. The kids listened in amazement, not really understanding  what I was talking about. The story was a hit. And I think I’ll share it with you now. It was the summer of 1993. I had finished my first year of college at The College of Charleston. At the end of summer, I would be transferring to NC State. I enjoyed College of Charleston very much. I loved the 9-to-1 girl-to-guy ratio. It had been a great year. But I had spent most weekends driving up and back from Raleigh to see my girlfriend Marcia. At some point during the year, I had decided...

Malkovich

Malkovich malkovich.  Malkovich, malkovich?  Malkovich malkovich malkovich. Malkovich malkovich, "Malkovich, malkovich malkovich malkovich."  Malkovich.  Malkovich malkovich: malkovich. Malkovich... malkovich, malkovich.  Malkovich!!!

Hillary F-in' Clinton

For the second day in a row, these god damn Hillary volunteers have taken up residence at my go-to coffee shop.  The bitch is campaigning here in NC tomorrow, so these fucking idiot children are all excited about the prospect of seeing their savior walk on water. And these god damn children are barely old enough to vote.  They still have their little heads in the clouds, thinking that Clinton gives a single damn about any of them.  This is the exact class of morons that can single-handedly ruin this country.  Them and the latinos, who probably won't be voting legally anyway.  But these kids haven't been out in the real world.  They haven't worked, sweated and then had asshole liberals tax them like crazy.  They'll see.  When their savior turns around and burns every one of them, they'll know they were stupid little fuckers all along. I'm really just pissed because I'd like to go to my coffee shop in peace and read my book without hearing these stupid fucking...