Weblog

Well, I have a job now. I'm working in Downtown Denver right in between Coors Field and the Pepsi Center. In less than a month, it's going to be the Democrat's Mecca. I really do like the part about working downtown. Whatever you need is within walking distance: work, bank, food, night life… it's all there. The restaurants are great and close. In just the building that I work in, there is a Moroccan restaurant, a Starbucks, a Chipotle, a Noodles & Company and a Qdoba. If those restaurants aren't sufficient, there's the whole Sixteenth Street Mall to pick from. If there is a lack of anything, it's parking, but that's not a problem for me because, being the environmentalist that I am anyway, I take the bus. It's also convenient because the bus terminal is just right across the street.

It's a pretty upscale environment. However, I wanted to one day get out and walk around the place and fulfil the part of me that is an aimless wanderer, so, yesterday, I did.

I took the shuttle down the Sixteenth Street Mall down to Civic Center Park. From there, I set out into the neighbourhood. Now, there's a saying in Washington, D. C. that says that anything west of the capitol is uncharted territory for your typical suburban-dwelling schmuck. That same rule should apply in Denver. It was a unique experience that I wouldn't really have the time to write about everything. It was quite different to see one of those small, postmodern emergent churches with an obvious ministry to the homeless and, right across the street, a colossal Episcopal cathedral.¹

On one of the street corners in this neighbourhood, I met a man.² This guy was psycho. He was holding a sign that made it obvious that he was begging for change, but when I talked to him, it took about ten minutes for him to actually get around to asking for the money. He started going on and on about how he was some sort of rock legend, but his girlfriend died, and something else happened to him, and something else… I couldn't really quite tell what he was talking about. I really doubt that he could have made any sense from his monologue laced with the fuck word every other phrase about… well, that's the point: it wasn't about anything… at least, as far as I could tell. I knew that if I didn't cut the conversation short, I would still be listening to him now, so I gave him a dollar for some food.

Going back down Colfax Avenue toward the capitol. If downtown was upscale, this part of town was lowscale. Broken concrete sidewalks replaced the nice flagstone pavement on Sixteenth Street. Dive bars replaced your garden-variety microbrewery.³ None of that really bothered me.⁴

As I was walking back, I met a man who wanted some money. He needed bus fare to get on a bus that would take him to the north side of town and then hitch hike to South Dakota. I started to give him a dollar, but when he saw that I had two dollars, the price for a local bus fare, I gave him both of them.

It was a different story today. I walked down the mall to an Arby's for lunch today with a coworker. At just about every street corner, there were people soliciting for Save the Children, advertising a sale or trying to get you to register to vote or something. I felt like such a schmuck for not paying attention… to the people asking for money for children; I couldn't give a crap about some sale. It's just a sad world that we live in, and I can only do so much, but I know that I have to do something.

1. Still dwarfed by the Catholic cathedral in Denver.
2. «de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme»
3. Well, in Denver, microbrewrys are at least common enough to warrant a class of garden-variety microbrewry.
4. Well, the porn shops certainly did. I hate them.