My mother forwarded this e-mail to me, and I’ve kept all of the ones that I think are true.
- You eat ice cream in the winter. (Who doesn’t?)
- It snows 5 inches and you don’t expect school to be cancelled.
- You’ll wear flip flops every day of the year, regardless of temperature.
- You have no accent at all, but can hear other people’s. And then you make fun of them.
- “Humid” is over 25%. (And the horrible things it does to my hair…)
- Your sense of direction is: Toward the mountains and away from the mountains. (My husband still doesn’t get this, even after living here for seven years.)
- You say “the valley highway” and everybody knows which interstate you’re talking about,
- You think that May is a totally normal month for a blizzard. (Any month is a normal month for a blizzard.)
- You buy your flowers to set out on Mother’s day, but try and hold off planting them until just before Father’s day.
- You grew up planning your Halloween costumes around your coat. (Puffiest unicorn EVER.)
- You know what the Continental Divide is. (Both a location and an excellent beer.)
- You don’t think Coors beer is that big a deal. (…does anyone?)
- You went to Casa Bonita as a kid, AND as an adult.
- You’ve gone off-roading in a vehicle that was never intended for such activities.
- You always know the elevation of where you are.
- You wake up to a beautiful, 80 degree day and you wonder if it’s going to snow later.
- You don’t care that some company renamed it, the Broncos still play at Mile High Stadium.
- You actually know that South Park is a real place, not just a hilarious show on TV.
- You know what a ‘trust fund hippy’ is, and you know its natural habitat is Boulder.
- It’s still “Elitches,” not “Six Flags.”
- A bear on your front porch doesn’t bother you.
- When people back East tell you they have mountains in their state too, you just laugh.
- You go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels “sticky” and you notice the sky is no longer blue.
And here’s a few of my own:
- You know the Colorado Creep as a driving maneuver, not just what your underwear does when you’ve been hiking too long.
- You instinctively know how to dress in layers for every occasion.
- You’ve ever considered wearing your hiking boots to a job interview, because they’re the nicest shoes you own.
- You know that all the bad drivers come from California and Texas. Yeah. That’s the problem.
- Your bicycle is probably worth more than your car.
- You go to other states and are shocked by how few marijuana dispensaries there are.
- You think the Platte is a big river.
- You’ve seen the world from 14,000 feet but you’ve never seen the ocean. (True for me well into my twenties.)
- You’ve made it to the top of the Flatirons, and I don’t mean the mall.
- You have to keep a checklist of which breweries you still need to try out.
Anything to add, my Colorado friends?