life on the hill

As most of you are aware, Shauna and I have recently moved to The Hill. For those of you who are not familiar with the Boulder terminology, this means that we have moved to a more adventurous area of the city—the area where most of the 30,000 University of Colorado students reside. Let’s compare the new place with the old:

New: Within walking distance to everything—shops and restaurants on Pearl St. and The Hill, CU, homes of friends

Old: Within walking distance to the Boulder Lumber Yard, the jail (where that creepy John Mark Karr is being held), the airport, my insurance agent’s office, homes of friends (we are sad to leave them)

New: A porch (complete with porch swing) and a huge, enchanting yard!

Old: A tiny deck.

New: No dishwasher—just a strangely placed sink.

Old: Dishwasher . . . but we didn’t really need that anyway, right?

New: 100-year-old house with lots of character.

Old: 25-year-old condo.

New: Squeaky floors.

Old: Upstairs neighbors squeaky floors . . . causing us to have squeaky ceilings.

New: Loud frat boys for neighbors.

Old: Never really saw the neighbors.

New: A huge room for storage!

Old: A tiny closet for storage.

New: What I hear at 3 a.m.: latin dance music and lots of loud voices.

Old: What I heard at 3 a.m.: an occasional train whistle and coyotes barking (I think that’s what you call that noise.)

All in all, the new place is great! Sure, there are some downfalls of living on what seems to be the middle of frat row, but we’re trying to view them of part of the adventure. We’ve got three really sweet girls who are seniors this year living on the first floor, a female grad student in the basement, and, also in the basement, a mysterious guy whom we have yet to meet.

It’s just amazing how the culture of a city changes from one mile to the next. Here, the people, the sounds, and the smells, are all different. With Buena Vista Social Club blaring out of the stereo next year, across the yard, and into my room, and from another window, the smell of smoke (not always that of a cigarette) floating in, I’m definitely feeling more like I really live here in Boulder.

Just before we moved, my friend Chris asked me if I saw this move as an adjustment to the life I’ve been living in Boulder or as a completely new chapter. I’m fairly sure it’s a mixture of both . . . perhaps “Life on The Hill” will be a new subhead to the chapter I’ve been writing for the last year and a half . . . only time will tell.