Day 3 (2nd half) and Day 4

I have arrived in Boulder. Let me tell you, if the character and atmosphere of the city were the qualifiers for what I was looking for, Boulder would be a very strong candidate indeed. I think the thumb nail version of what Boulder feels like is what would a city look like if the Hippies and the more benevolent Corporate Democrats came together.

My first experience with the city was a toll road that saved me thirty miles on my trip. But I didn't encounter a toll booth, I just drove into the city. I had to call my step dad and ask him to look up the max charge. Apparently they photo'd my licences and will bill me $6. I can live with that, but it seems a little sneaky...they made no bones about the fact that it was a toll road but how much they charge was ambiguous...

So the hotel I ended up picking was called The Root of the Mountain motel. It is basically a series of cabins created during the depression and kept in pretty good working order but its insanely close and within walking distance of the Pearl Street mall. And it is reasonably priced. Got into a nice conversation with the woman who checked me in about politics. She's from New Zealand. She told me to check out www.soverignman.com (or some such thing, I'll check that out later but it sounded interesting).

I was told to check out Old Chicago Pizza. It was indeed most awesome. Unfortunately due to illness I wasn't that hungry, so I only had one slice of the personal pan pizza. The pumpkin ale was...er...yeah. :) Cerveza de Calabaza no esta bien....at any rate, I ran into many interesting people at the mall. Including a guy playing a dijiourdo (that is not spelled right but my parking lasts an hour so I'm not going to look it up), a weird guitar player who had drawn a circle in the ground with tarot cards and was dressed as the Fool calling himself Ecoman who was trying to make songs to save the planet, a woman who was either on acid or (sadly more likely) schizophrenic and homeless that was politely ignored by everyone around her (I seemed to mildly freak her out by looking into her eyes, I guess she wasn't used to that), and a bunch of homeless(?) guys(vets?) who asked for my leftover pizza. One of them gave me a dufflebag belonging to Captain Howard G. Barak...I didn't ask one of them was he...since they all seemed a bit young to be captain and it seemed rude...so now I have someone's duffle bag and am not entirely sure what's appropriate to do with it...

At any rate, I decided to use the following criteria before I got wise (see below)

Women: A- This was going to be B namely because most of them were college age or stared at me like I was a Rapist until I went home and it was all dark. Very few street lights. At first I thoguht Boulder might be trying for the open skies initiative but then found out that they have outsourced streetlights to a corporation. Oh. Well that makes sense. Let me tell you, I am 6'5" and know Karate, plus I had a duffle bag I could use as a ...weapon or something. Sure I was breathing like I'd run 500 miles, but for 15 seconds I could wail on you like Frankenstein....only a Fast Angry Frankenstein and *I* was freaked out by how dark it was, I couldn't imagine how a woman on her own must feel....but the next day there were more women my age etc. So it rounds out.

Architecture: A+ Not only is it cool but there are VERY few corps in boulder, plus the ones that are here I like, like Steve Madden and Google (Google has an office in Downtown boulder, how cool is that?). Some weirdness though, like cookie cutter victorian houses...yes, that's right. Still, I like that kind of thing.

People: (Women count as people :) ) A-. Nice, friendly, helpful, open. I just didn't really 'connect' with anyone who wasn't either paid to be nice to me by serving me or that first woman I met from New Zealand. But this lack of connection is made up for by the fact that the people here are just COOL :) I like them....like the female owned groundskeeping people cleaning up outside of the library who have dogs and obviously love their job....they're like movie characters only better because they're real :)

Library: I judge a city most by its library. Boulder's library is a temple to light and knowledge. They have fish tanks and fully stocked shelves and internet kiosks and it is QUIET and there is sunlight and they have kindle functionality. In short, it is the way a library should be, and they have funding and it shows. The Decatur library used to be that way, but it is in decline.

Unfortunately, the most important qualifier...did I feel a sense of 'destiny' here?

Not really. :/ This would be a wonderful place to live, but that feeling I had before of 'meant to' in February didn't really click here.