I changed the header photo on my blog the other day.  The first picture wasn’t that great – it was from a trip to Aspen with D for a bike race a couple years ago, during which time I took a hike with his teammate’s wife, Faith.  She took the picture.  It had good light but reminded me of the past.

My current photo is from my trip over Memorial Day to Sea Ranch, California.  I think it has a bit more bearing on my current situation than the previous.  In many ways I am looking seaward, wondering what’s in store for me on a distant coast. At first I was really sad to leave my friends and situation in Denver.  It was scary on so many levels – Denver felt so welcoming when I came here and I fell easily into a group of friends.  At first, D would regularly get angry with me for inviting him out with my friends because he’d been in Boulder longer and felt he should have more friends in the area than me.  Haha.  It’s just Denver.  It’s such a friendly and easy to assimilate into kind of city.  Everyone loves the outdoors, everyone wants to carpool to the mountains to ski, everyone is game to join your kickball or soccer league, everyone wants to meet for happy hour, or to see a good show.   It was such an easy place to fall right into a comfortable routine – which has it’s goods and bads.  On my old blog, I used to lament the lack of challenge and the fact that I was getting too comfortable, too quickly.  But, alas it is hard to argue with comfort.

It’s funny that R and I announced our move to our friends and expected that a lot of people would be sad to see us go, but before we knew it everyone around us seemed to have plans to move on and leave Denver as well.  I have at least three friends planning to move to Portland in the next month or so, others who are eyeing moves to the mountains, or back to where their family lives.  Denver’s friendliness comes with the caveat that people are friendly because almost everyone is new to the place to a certain degree.  And people are constantly new to Denver because Denver is a transient kind of place.

I hear Brisbane may be similar to Denver in certain ways.  It’s the fastest growing city in Australia, and the third largest.  I take that to mean there will be a lot of people in similar situations to mine – having just moved and not really knowing the ropes.  I hope this will be a good thing and that I’ll be able to find people to explore the farmer’s markets and coasts with me and warn me of the dangerous animals and bugs that might kill me.   (I have had about 10 emails from friends relating to me the various ways I could die down under – thank you.)  I really hope it’s a friendly and welcoming place.  If not, it may get a bit lonely.

More than anything, the thought of moving to Brisbane has made me cognizant of the myriad changes that have taken place in the three years I have been in Denver.  I came here at 26, got a Master’s, got some real world experience in the working world, got back together with D, broke up with D, met R and here I am taking some huge steps that I was never really willing to take for previous boys – like moving halfway across the world.  Sometimes I look at myself and marvel at my own growth – and also at the way I haven’t changed at my core.  It’s amazing the difference a couple years can make – and what a couple years in Australia might mean.

I have to admit that it’s a scary move for me and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out well.  I am also currently distracting myself from over-thinking it by trying to to find the right luggage rack to set up my bike for our bike tour from Missoula to Seattle – which starts in a week!   We’re also going to ride Mount Evans again before we leave, for kicks.  Should be fun, if not distracting.  By the way, if you know of a good rack system that goes through the hub – please tell me about it.  I am not really thrilled about the idea of drilling holes in my carbon frame as some people have suggested.