u/colorado_sunrise86

I know I'm bragging, but we live in a rural area without a village or family nearby, and I just needed a place to gush and be a proud parent for a minute.

My little girl is 3 months and 5 days and yesterday she started turning pages in her cardboard books. I was holding her in my lap facing out and reading to her as we have done since she was just a few weeks old and low and behold she started flipping the pages. I'd get them started for her (because she can't quite punch) and she'd reach forward and smack them over. She did this repeatedly for 3 books!

Dear Durango,

You've changed so much over the years, I hardly recognize you. Maybe it's just the passing of time, or the grass is always greener, but most days I'm just bored and frustrated with this town in a way I never used to be.

The housing prices are high for homes that aren't even that nice, and rent pffffff. The tourists are rude, most of the good restaurants are gone, the trails are packed and we live in a food desert with just a couple packed grocery store options. The traffic and parking are horrendous and don't get me started with downtown. T shirt shops, cheap junk, expensive/bad food. WHAT HAPPENED?!

Water, fire, beetle kill issues. I've dropped my water consumption yet my water bill has gone up. $170 hr for a mechanic.....?! And forget flying with the current prices. Long/multiple connections and who are these visitors?!?! I remember waiting at the gate and it smelling like patchouli and being packed with people sporting chacos and beat up Ospreys. Now I look around and it's blue hairs and bedazzled leather bags.

Winter sports? With current lift ticket and gas prices, nope. Can't afford the hot springs...

Education system here is not great, and don't get me started on the child care crisis. 1 year waiting list and 2k+/month if you can find one with availability. Jobs and upward mobility?? HA!

Did you know our planting zone has changed? Yep. Anyone remember when it used to rain every day between 3 and 5 during the summer? I remember snow on Thanksgiving, often. Once, not long ago we didn't need AC.

The only good thing I have to say about Durango these days are the locals. You guys are still so nice. I've traveled a ton and Coloradoans are just so nice.....we always have been. And the DMV. We have a fast DMV.

But damn Durango, the height of socializing has been diminished to the Farmers Market, Snowdown, and the occasional political rally.

I've been here so long and deeply miss what this town used to be. I suppose I have accepted it's never going back. Do I sell and leave, or is it just like this everywhere? Maybe I am just describing the entire state of the US rn. So tired of paying so much to live somewhere that now seems to offer so little. Someone offer me some positive perspective because I am over it.

Anyone else? I can't be the only one who cried unconsolably (along with my baby) at the two month vaccination appointment. Why wasn't I warned? I pulled it together for her and consoled her, of course, but seeing her in pain struck a chord in me I wasn't prepared for. Looking back, I hadn't yet seen my baby experience pain, so to see her cry in that opened mouth way where no sound comes out absolutely destroyed me. Yes, I'm a first time mom.