Colorado

I have taken more than a few trips back to Colorado, where I spent my formative years.  Well, not all that numerous, a few volleyball trips and the once per decade high school reunion trips. 

I went back there again this past week for an IEEE site visit.  Since I am the general chair for the ECCE 2013 conference, I had to go to check out the venues and look at the hotels. It was a boondoggle to beat all boondoggles.  I was wined and dined and I got to stay at a very nice suite in the Hyatt.  It's good to be the king!

Being back in Denver aroused a lot of nostalgia and a mixed bag of feelings both good and bad.  I did not realize just ho wmuch I missed the rockies, until I see them again.  I did not realize just ho wmuch I missed the west, untilIi see the wide open prairies and the wide open ethos of the place.  I did not realize how much I missed the vibrancy of Denver, until I walked the streets of LoDo and Larmer Square.  I suppose I will feel the same way when I eventually make it out to the mountains and hike around the mountains. 

It was pretty amazing to be driven from the Denver International Airport to downtown Denver and I had The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton flowing through my brain: the soundtrack of my youth.  The fashion sense, actually the lack of fashion sense never made an appearance.  So, in my short ride to Denver I relived my seven short years in Denver in my head.  Recalling friends, family, neighbors, and classmates.  It was both emotional and melancholy, recalling those who have left this earth and those who have become lost through the unrelenting march of time.