Denver

I woke up this morning just in time to hear the conductor inform us sleepy passengers that we were within minutes of Denver. Stumbling off the train, I glanced around for my grandparents. It’s been seven or eight years since we’ve seen each other, and when I finally spotted my grandfather, he was looking around in the same searching fashion. My grandma was likewise startled to see me, an updated version of my same old self.

We had an awkward and happy hello, then piled into the car to drive to Northglenn, the suburb of Denver where they’ve lived since my father was little and where my sister and I would visit as girls. Along the way they pointed out the house where my parents lived after they got married.

I forgot how beautiful Colorado is. In the Denver area you can see the Rocky Mountains bordering everything. They look so startling against the strip malls that even the fast food chains cannot take away from their presence. My grandparents showed off their house and I observed the work they’d done on it with a bittersweet feeling. In some ways Northglen was so much the same; the differences, however, clearly mirrored the way I had changed since my last visit.

I spent literally 24 hours in Denver, but thankfully it felt like a few days. My grandparents chatted with me and fed me. My grandma told me of spending the summer working in San Francisco when she was 23 and how she returned from that trip knowing that she wanted to teach. We watched Cash Cab and discussed John and Kate Plus 8. We talked about religion and politics growing up (Or not growing up. My grandma said she wasn’t sure she was really grown up yet). Grandpa asked me about school and my trip. Grandma used her favorite word (“serendipity”) and uttered some fantastic lines like, “I never wanted to be one of those sweet little old ladies” and “She’s 22 now. She can have her own adventures.” As the sun was setting we went to a nearby park and I walked around while they sat on a park bench.

 

This feeling of this whole trip is a peculiar one. I’m never in one place long enough to get to know it completely. I feel like I’m in a bookstore reading the backs of all of these novels I want to read, but I don’t have time right then and there to start any of them.