tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89267632143934160062012-01-12T22:46:24.719-07:00~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.comBlogger101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-7718052164619914102011-08-29T14:58:00.006-06:002011-08-30T08:42:05.782-06:00

Esperanza Caminando A rather large element of what makes a neighborhood special are the characters who inhabit it: small moving parts of the larger fabric lending the area a particular charm,  or lack thereof. Denver, a sprawling city at 40 miles wide, has subdivided into a collection of smaller neighborhoods, each with its own unique feel. We’ve all noticed the personalities of these

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-30219870704899887142011-08-20T13:48:00.003-06:002011-08-20T15:22:43.883-06:00

So, we should talk. Yes, I've been gone for eight months, but I've been thinking about you the whole time. I swear. There haven't been other blogs. It's just that, well, once you spend a few months away, suddenly you feel the need to be perfect when you return, and then a little more time passes and then it's so awkward. How do you apologize? How do you start over? Give me another chance? This

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-39726808639193262202010-12-10T07:14:00.001-07:002010-12-10T07:50:31.538-07:00

Driving around Denver, one frequently sees old signs for businesses both extant and long-gone. You know the signs of which I speak: often rusted and sometimes swinging crooked from their shingles, and if they have affiliated light bulbs, a number of those are burnt out. When I was a mere youth, obsessed with the shiny and new as most youths tend to be, these signs seemed confirmation to my

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-1684284688083005062010-12-07T15:44:00.000-07:002010-12-07T15:44:26.758-07:00

When I think about some of the changes in my life occasioned by my move from Brooklyn to Denver, beyond missing my friends and my wonderful job many of the differences seem to gather around sensory experiences. Yes, the Big Apple tastes different, and life Out On the Range is a heckuva lot quieter. How do they stack up? Well, let’s start with two of the senses today: taste and sound. Taste:

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-53716881451590824612010-11-17T10:18:00.009-07:002010-12-08T19:55:10.815-07:00

New Yorkers are accustomed to encountering famous actors and authors whilst out and about doing daily errands, and generally the stars are doing the same. One notices someone famous, perhaps in a blur as they pass by, and thinks “Heeyyy...wasn’t that...” then shrugs and continues on one’s way. New Yorkers are seldom star-struck. We figure the famous are people, just like us, who buy groceries

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-90500136602162498552010-11-03T10:44:00.003-06:002010-11-03T16:00:01.040-06:00

In honor of the holiday just past, the Zombie Crawl on the 16th Street Mall, and the recent tv adaptation of Robert Kirkman's awesome series "The Walking Dead," I have a neat creepy-crawly to share with my reading public (Hi, both of you!). Cheesman Park, less than half a mile from my humble abode, is a lovely sprawling park that was converted from Prospect Hill Cemetery in the late 1800s. 

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-69032267043763783332010-08-26T10:13:00.004-06:002010-08-27T09:32:29.712-06:00

This past weekend, an old friend gave me a wonderful “welcome home” present: a Colorado license plate from my birth year, 1976. As anyone tuned into Colorado history will know, 1976 was a big anniversary for the Centennial State. While Denver and the mountainous regions had begun seeing significant settlement by white easterners with the influx of the gold rush in the 1850s, Colorado Territory

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-7228619002211082332010-08-18T10:08:00.007-06:002010-08-26T10:15:01.216-06:00

As an urban explorer and visitor from another planet, I plan on posting occasional observations on trivial cultural differences between NYC and Denver, with a strong emphasis on the “trivial” part. Think of it as a WWF match, in which both sides put up a lot of bluster, everyone screams, and the results are usually rigged. I. To begin: Cars. Out here in Denver everyone has a car. Most families

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-11413649286044968802010-08-12T20:13:00.009-06:002010-12-08T20:03:21.580-07:00

Having just driven approximately 1900 miles from Brooklyn across the continent, I feel I am especially qualified to sum up the Great Purpose of this Country: we are working our darndest to make sure we never run out of corn! Driving I-80, starting in Ohio and continuing all the way to Colorado, we saw fields of corn, corn and more corn. This, combined with the fact that your author cannot read

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8926763214393416006.post-63370772014861121022010-08-04T09:15:00.003-06:002010-12-08T20:07:40.407-07:00

An aunt of mine is famous for having noted that coffee is served weaker the further west you head from New York. In a time before cute little cafes, the ubiquitous corner Starbucks, and trans-continental truck shipping, her reasoning went, pioneers would need to ration their black gold--coffee beans--as they put miles between themselves and their suppliers. The descendants of these settlers would

~Laura Ruttum~http://www.blogger.com/profile/09664878553406750582noreply@blogger.com7