Last Cool URL

And, tonight, we did.

I’ve spent 22 months following this thing and helping as much as I could and I am spent. But happy.

Joe goes a bit into the process here.

And it only took like four years!

Bam, Amerikkka lives.

Edit: Holy shit, we’re all official and shit.

The Yanks have played their last game in Yankee Stadium and are out of the playoffs.

The Rocks have played their last home game for the year.

Baseball.

Today, I realized I’m just about getting comfortable. Where simple trips were once quasi-epic expeditions involving hurling myself into the unknown, now they’re mundane, just like they were everywhere else I’ve lived. Now, going to the bookstore isn’t a matter of grabbing the GPS, typing in the address and hoping for the best so much as typing Bookstore into Google Maps, then remembering to turn right here and left here. It’s pleasant, but it also kind of made me sad. But then again, I’m getting too old for grand adventures.

One thing I haven’t gotten used to is the sheer friendliness of people here. Granted, I spent a year in Norway, where you could ride on a crowded train at rush hour through the heart of the city and hear a pin drop because Norwegians don’t believe in talking to each other, to say nothing of the vast language differences that usually meant my daily conversation outside of work was limited to “Ja” or “Nei”, but even so, people here are almost creepily friendly. I went to the aforementioned bookstore today and the cashier asked, formally, “May I place your books in a bag?” causing me to come out of my daze and reply with a cunning “Bwuhuh?” It’s different from the Southern sort of friendliness, but it is pervasive. Hell, for the first couple of weeks I thought every chick was flirting with me.

Though they love their Broncos here. I’m Southern, so I’m used to a quasi-religious devotion to college football. Just to illustrate, in the recent hurricane that forced the evacuation of New Orleans, LSU–their stadium shares one of the three major interstates out of New Orleans–didn’t actually cancel the scheduled football game, but they were courteous enough to move it forward so the traffic wouldn’t screw up the evacuation as much. Which was nice, since the last time I evacuated they didn’t cancel the game and there was road construction on the interstate, which meant the entire city of New Orleans was evacuating down a single lane and New Orleans people can’t drive anyway, soooo…

But Broncos. I first got an inkling of it when we went to the local sports bar to grab some food and the joint was jumping. Unsurprising, since we’re in baseball playoffs, football season, all kinds of stuff is going on. But the two biggest screens in the room were showing a Broncos preseason game. I mean, early preseason, all the scrubs are in the game, everyone’s running out of the Wing T so they don’t show their playbook early, preseason game. The bar was rocking like it was the playoffs, every missed pass from Third String QB to Scrub Wide Receiver met with an End of the World groan, every flicker of success met with cheers and applause. Today, again, bookstore. Picture, if you will, a classy independent book shop with lots of tables, a decent selection, that aura of “bookstore” you want if you’re a nerd like me. Then picture yourself hearing a loud roar and “LET’S GO BRONCOS!” from the staff(!) and patrons huddling around the small portable TV one of them brought in. I mean, they LOVE them some Broncos. John Elway is the local deity, even. During the DNC, Elway’s endorsements/voting habits were the topic of daily radio news. “John Elway has said no comment to who he’s voting for, but we will let you know as soon as he does.” Seriously!

Anyway, yeah, Denver.