Addison & Jace ::: en route

Sitting on my balcony enjoying a beautiful morning. 70 degrees and a light breeze. Sun is shining, and the sky is a gorgeous shade of blue. It’s going to be such a delightful day that I even brought out my shorts for the first time since moving to the Wild West. My legs are an awful shade of translucent white, but even that sad reality can’t spoil my mood with weather like this. I can’t wait until Addison gets home from work so that we can take Izzie and go enjoy the afternoon. Until then, I’ll be sitting on my balcony, basking in the fact that, maybe, just maybe, spring has arrived in Denver.

It’s been ages since I’ve actually written a blog post. It’s because life in Colorado started off very fast and a bit out of control for me because I started work only two days after our arrival. Fortunately, my lovely wife has kept you informed about our travels and the beginnings of our life in the wild, wild west.

But here is my perspective in an easy numbered format.

1.  The trip out was long but exciting. I loved driving through states that I have never visited. Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas. They were all beautiful in their own way, though, admittedly, some more so than others. It would have been awesome if we could have taken our time and actually spent time in some of the great cities we drove through, but we had to stay on schedule to make it to Colorado in time for my first day at work.

2.  Finally arriving in Denver was amazing. It was incredible leaving the Eastern Plain part of the Colorado to enter the Front Range region because the view changed from flat plains for as far as the eye can see to gorgeous mountains off in the distance. Just as an FYI, Colorado is broadly divided into three regions: the Eastern Plain (very rural area where farmers live), the Front Range (the area that contains the three biggest cities in CO: Denver, Ft. Collins, and Colorado Springs, all of which line the Rockies), and the Western Slope (rural, mountainous area that can be tough to get to from Denver in the winter because of all the snow).

3.  Getting settled into our Denver apartment wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d hoped. Our furniture and boxes didn’t arrive until a few days after we did so we were left sleeping on an air mattress for several nights. Once the boxes finally arrived, our place was a huge mess as we (more Addison than me, though) tried to unpack 1200 square feet worth of stuff into 640 square feet worth of space.

4.  Now that we’re all settled in, our apartment really feels like home. It’s small and cozy, especially compared to our 3-bedroom house, but we don’t need a lot of space. Addison did a wonderful job decorating and making the place look nice so it doesn’t feel like we’ve given anything up in moving from our old house to our new apartment. Plus, there are some really great things about our apartment. I love our stained concrete floors, our huge shower / bath tub, and very close underground parking. I also really love our “walk out.”  What I mean by “walk out” is that we have a door in our apartment that leads outside. Because we have it, we can enter and exit our apartment without having to walk through the halls of our complex. This makes our place feel a lot less like an apartment and a lot more like a cozy little house.

5.  Our apartment is in City Park South, a very cool neighborhood of Denver. We’re close to downtown (where the Rockies play and a lot of other exciting things happen like concerts and events), and we’re also very close to Capitol Hill and Uptown, the gay neighborhoods with all the bars we like to frequent. Perhaps the best part is our proximity to City Park; it’s the biggest and, arguably, the best park in Denver. We love walking around its pond and letting Izzie run and play. According to an article I read recently, City Park South is the new “it” neighborhood—with a lot of growing diversity because it’s close to the park and to great restaurants and shops.

6.  As many of you know, my job offer to work at One Colorado, a statewide LGBT political advocacy organization, was one of our primary reasons for moving. And I’m so very happy to say that I absolutely LOVE my job. For years, I said that working at a LGBT organization was what I wanted to do, and I was right. I am so passionate and energized about my work. I get up in the morning and am excited about getting to work. And I don’t even mind the work I have to do sometimes on the weekends and in the evenings.

7.  At my job, in just a month and a half at my job, I have written an op-ed on anti-LGBT bullying in schools; organized a campaign to gather over 1,500 signatures on a petition calling on a US Senate candidate to retract the awful stuff he said about gay people; and planned the roll-out, strategy, and messaging of a political campaign that we’ll launch in January. This is the work I’d been dreaming about doing for years. I’m involved in work that will make a difference in mine and Addison’s lives and in the lives of all LGBT Coloradans. It’s incredibly important, and I feel so lucky to be doing it.

8.  Addison and I are making a lot of great friends here in Denver because we’re so involved in the community. My job requires that we attend a variety of events, and recently, we’ve attended a meet and greet with a Democratic US Senate candidate, a “Transgender 101″ meeting, and a number of political rallies and gatherings. If we were home-bodies in Columbia, we are far from it here in Denver. And we’re loving it. Being out and about is helping us meet people and get plugged into wonderful Denver. We already have as many friends here as we had in Columbia!

9.  If you read our blog regularly, you know that we recently took a little road trip to Boulder (a great, bohemian town) and to the Rocky Mountains National Park, and it was incredible, amazing, sensational. Seriously, the Rocky Mountains are gorgeous. I can’t wait to go back and hike, ski, and just explore. When people talk about Colorado being beautiful, this is what they’re talking about—the Rockies. It’s spectacular.

10.  Addison and I are so happy here in Denver.  But the hardest thing about living in Colorado is being far from family. We really miss our parents, our siblings, and our nephews, and it’s tough to not be able to see them. It’s going to get even harder because we won’t be able to travel to South Carolina for Thanksgiving or Christmas because Addison can’t get any time off from her new job. The holidays are going to be pretty tough and lonely, but we’re hoping to make some fun plans (like snow skiing on Christmas) for staying around here to distract us. We’ll see…

-Jess

So far, Jess and I have really been loving Denver.  We love our apartment.  We love our neighborhood.  We love our new friends.  Jess loves her new job.  Things have really been falling into place for us.  Of course, it would be wonderful for me to find a job that a love (or even a job at all,) but besides that one minor detail, we have been so happy.  And lucky.

Our apartment it great!  It’s small, but it’s just the right size for Jess, Iz, and me.  It has stained concrete floors (very cool,) and nice carpet in the bedroom and closet.  We have a washer and dryer in the unit, which is a semi-rare find for Denver.  Our furniture fits, for the most part.  It’s a new building, so the paint is fresh, the appliances are new, the bathtub is clean, all of that kind of stuff.  There’s a pool and a gym and underground parking for the car.  Seriously, it’s great!

Our neighborhood is great, too!  We can walk to Starbucks, Chipotle, Jersey Mike’s, Pete’s Greek Food, Trattoria Stella, a bike shop, a head shop, Izzie’s vet, and so so much more!  Don’t forget, we’re less than one block from City Park.  City Park is Denver’s version of Central Park.  It’s huge!  There’s a world-renowned zoo, a planetarium, a golf course, a pond, lots of geese, and tons of walking and biking trails.  Izzie loves it!  Plus our neighborhood is cute.  It’s residential, quiet, and most importantly, safe.

We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to hang out with people here yet (hey, we’ve only been here 1 week!) but Jess has already met some incredible people.  They’re gay, they’re liberal, and they’re the kind of people I want to surround myself with and just soak up their knowledge and experiences.  It’s wonderful!

In general, Denver is just so liberal and gay-friendly, especially when compared to Columbia.  It feels different here, and I like it a lot.  Plus Jessica’s job is so important to us.  She’s fighting for GLBT rights.  It means so much to her to be directly involved in the fight, and it means even more to me that she’s able to do it.  It’s not just a job; it’s a job that directly affects our lives, and I feel lucky that we get to be involved in such an important part of our history.

Anyway, Denver’s great!  That’s all there is to it!  So far, we love it love it!  And every day I look forward to what we’re going to discover and experience in our new city.

-Addison