More reasons I heart Aspen

Yesterday, since it was unseasonably warm, I decided to take Ellie for a stroll through town.

I was meandering down Cooper Street, watching some visitors load their kids in their rental car, when the mom says "Hey, I know you!" to me.

I'm thinking, huh?

"Yep, I hiked the Grand Canyon with you!"

Sure enough, standing in front of me was one of the people with whom I had hiked the Grand Canyon Labor Day weekend of 1998. This being the life changing trip which led almost directly to me moving to Aspen the following Memorial Day weekend.

I hadn't seen her since a party shortly after I had decided to move here.

Encounters like this are such fun. I've had multiple since I moved here.

One day I was walking down the street when a car pulled up next to me. The driver rolled down his window and said my first name, which just happens to be a name I stopped using when I was in 9th grade. Turns out it was someone with whom I had gone to grammar school. He was in Aspen with his whole family including his parents who are very good friends of my parents but who now live hundreds of miles away from where we all grew up and even more hundreds of miles away from here.

Another day I was walking up the street and happened upon one of my old bosses from over twenty years ago.

I also live down the street from a retired judge from Skokie who worked with the father of one of my high school friends.

I recently spoke on the phone with a gentleman whose eight kids all went to my grammar school. When he asked if he needed to spell his last name for me, I said, "No, I went to OLPH."

Just some more reasons why living here is different from living most other places.