Since I’ve moved out of Capital Hill, 7 miles east from Fashion Denver into the beautiful 1930’s Browndie Palace, I’ve really come to love the quietness and being away from the city. I know I’m not far from the city at all and some may say that I’m still in the city but compared to being right in the hustle and bustle of the action, I would say, I’m definitely OUT of the action. And it feels just fine. 

Things I’ve had to get used to:

- Commuting 7 miles into the city to get to Fashion Denver. It used to just be 7 blocks away. On the commute, I have quite a bit of options to go every day. I can drive down the beautiful 17th Avenue, past the old mansions, tree lined streets. OR, maybe I want to see the craziness that is Colfax and see the old hotels and independent businesses. Either way, it’s like a chose your own adventure on my commute. Sometimes I just hop on the 15L and take in the people. Which by the way, I’ve learned that many of the fellow bus commuters are on work release heading to their jobs.

- Less noise: I’m used to hearing my neighbors argue almost every night. Or the thud of the bass from my upstairs apartment neighbor. Or the sound of drunk people heading home from Charlie Brown’s. I still hear noise. But it’s different noise. It’s the noise of the neighbor starting his truck to go to work at 6:00am. Or the sound of his kids playing outside just as soon as the sun hits our street. The change is nice actually.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be even further away, where the only thing that we hear are the wild animals or the occasional plane overhead. 

- Not being so easily accessible to the fun that ensues in the city.  It seems like nowadays, I have to plan more if I want to go out on the town. Where as before, I could just decide at the drop of the hat if I wanted to head out to go dance. And everywhere that I went was less than a mile from me so it made the decision easy. Now, I have to plan on driving and getting home safely. And like I said, we’re only 7 miles to Fashion Denver so we’re really not that far, but it sometimes seems more of a challenge to make the decision to go out.  

Sometimes, just having a glass of wine, listening to and playing music, reading, and being out on our back deck under the stars and the coolness of the evening seems to suit me just fine.