you might recall that earlier in this thread i had said that my hometown was once called Frogtown... there was a reason for that, the city rests on what was once a section of "The Black Swamp" as it was called...
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dpatridge, I thought you were being facetious and didn't want anyone to know where you lived... You know, with anonymity on the internet these days 'n' stuff...
heh.
Would I be out of line if I said that I hated living in Ohio every day of the five years I lived there? I hope not...
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Actually, I thought the same thing. Some people, rightfully so, are paranoid about giving away any personal info on the Internet so...I chalked it up to that as well.
Posts: 225 | Registered: Feb 2005
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haha, no, i'm not so very paranoid! i just like playing with people
as for hating Ohio, you're more than welcome to it! i hate Ohio myself, and Toledo is even worse. as soon as i can leave this miserable place to go out west, i will.
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Australia is lovely. If you head southwest, you'll eventually get there. That would be my recommendation... I'm trying to convince my wife to leave London behind for sunnier climes.
Ohio has one really good thing going for it: Cedar Point. If you love rollercoasters as much as I do, then that is one fine amusment park. Living in Toledo would be ideal in this regard -- not terribly far away from Cedar Point. Not far at all.
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Spent most of my life in Ohio and I happen to be partial to it. As soon as I get onto I-90 into Ohio, it just feels right. Cedar Point's Gemini and Iron Dragon. Love 'em.
Autumnmuse, we both used to live in the same area. I was in Wilson, North Carolina for a few years. Went through a couple of hurricanes, one of which really tore up the city.
Dpatridge, I thought you might be in North Carolina, since there is an actual Frogtown there, and roads with names like Great Swamp Loop, Marsh Swamp, and Wheat Swamp. Toledo. Whodathot.
Tasmania, hoptoad? How cool.
RavenStarr, I'm about an hour north of you, neighbor.
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Speaking of strange street names, in Fort Collins, CO, there's a whole bunch of Lord of the Rings-themed streets. For instance, Shire Ct., Glorfindel, Sundering, Weathertop, and my personal favorite: Hobbit St. There's a whole lot more, but I can't remember 'em all.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Hey, I was born in Fort Collins, too! Poudre Valley Hospital. Hadn't been there since I was born until last semester, and when I went in to the ER they still had my name on file from 18 (almost nineteen, by that time) years previous... it was kind of freaky that the computer knew me and my mom, since I'm pretty sure they didn't have that sophisticated a system back in '86, so they'd have had to do some intense file transfers.
Posts: 437 | Registered: Feb 2005
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The military had computers in '86 -- a lot of IBM PC Jr.'s, if I recall correctly. Not to mention some rather large mainframes to support a base-wide networking system. I wouldn't say they were sophisticated then, but the file system was essentially DOS. Databases haven't changed all that much -- at least in the way they handle data behind the scenes.
Besides, worse comes to worse, they could assign a few PFC's to manually enter in data from the hard-copy medical files.
I would have killed to have temp duty like that when I was in -- instead, I found myself knee deep in hazardous waste a lot (which could explain a lot about me, come to think of it). Maybe I should have kept my head down a bit more; maybe I should not have worn a tie-dye T-shirt around the base and during Physical Training. Hmm... well, you know... you learn these things as you get older.
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Actually, autumnmuse, I love those street names. I just think it's kind of strange they named them what they did. I'd never heard of them before I saw the address 1050 Hobbit St. while looking at a patron record. Then my friends and I had to go looking for this Hobbit St. and ended up finding that whole neighborhood has The Lord of the Rings streets. At Weathertop, we took a picture of us acting out the part where the Ringwraiths attack Frodo. I was the Ringwraith with the hood of my sweatshirt pulled over my head and one of my friends (the one that's only about four foot eleven) was Frodo. After that, we went around taking pictures of all the other streets. I love those streets.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
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HSO, you're probably right. I just didn't expect to walk into a hospital I hadn't been in for nearly nineteen years and have them still know right away who I was. I expected them to have to dig the file out of some backup database in the basement, you know? But it was all right there... it's kinda creepy how closely they keep tabs on people, really.
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Heh. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could get an apartment on Hobbit St. for next year, Jaina? Then we could tell everyone we know that we live on Hobbit St. All my LOTR-crazy friends at home would be like, "O_O Not fair!."
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I live in Loveland, CO. I've been to the Springs twice (I thought the Garden Of The Gods was stunning, and I'd like to see the coin museum next time I'm down there--I used to collect coins when I was a wee sprout). My point of origin was Walton, NY, then I lived for fourteen years in Dryden (it's near Ithaca) before I ended up out here.
Jaina & Shendi: You mean all those streets along Shields, right? I did a double-take the first time I saw that. But, hey, I live on a street named after a South American volcano. I think that's pretty darn good. (Besides, I'd rather live on "Gandalf Lane" than "Hobbit St." Any street named after a grumpy old man who can whack things with his staff appeals to me. Since there isn't a Gandalf Lane yet, I'll just have to dream.)
If there is ever a Colorado Writers Get Together, I call dibs on a corner seat near a window. (Take that, fiends!)
quote:Hmm Keeley, what part of DFW do you live in?
I live in between Dallas and Fort Worth. It takes about a half hour for me to drive to FW, but an hour to get to Dallas (driving at the same speed on the highway).
I used to live in Richardson. It was expensive, but nice. Garland didn't seem too bad either. We were thinking about buying a house there for a while.
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I have relatives that live in Garland. Haven't seen them in 23 years. Not even sure if I remember what Garland is like, come to think of it. Anyway, just pointing out the coincidence. Posts: 1520 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I haven't done an introduction yet, as this is my first posting, but I'm in Alexandria, VA. I'd be very interested in doing any sort of writer's events here.
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Scott: Yup, those would be them. I'd totally live on Gandalf Lane if it existed! That would be sweet. I seriously use that "wizard arrives exactly when he means to" thing all the time. Drives my mom nuts.
We should have a Colorado Writers Get Together. I mean, if the VA folks can do it, why can't we? I'm all for it. Though it's a bit of a drive for all involved, if we've got folks in the Springs...
Care to share whereabouts in Loveland? I've got family over there (and in Fort Collins, and in Brighton, for that matter...). 'Course, Loveland's a pretty big place. Especially since now it's starting to turn into Fortland... or Lovecollins... or something... the two towns are getting squished up next to each other is what I'm going for, here.
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Yeah, I had no idea that so many people live in Colorado. We definitely need to have a Colorado Writers Get Together. And I also have family in Loveland. They're always bugging me to come visit since I'm in Fort Collins all the time.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I live in Riverton, Utah. Riverton is 15 min. South of Salt Lake City if you take I15 and the Bangeter Higway. When I moved here ten years ago, there was one Maverick gas station, Peterson's grocery and the post office. We built on a 3/4 acr lot that was an alfalfa field, feeling sure we would be enjoying a pastroal lifestyle surrounded with meadows of larks and farmers cutting their hay. Then the developers moved in. All the farmers sold out and one by one the fields and orchards turned into houses. We are now entrenched on all sides by neighbors with barking dogs and all the meadow larks have moved away. For that matter, the entire Salt Lake Valley is one megasuburb now and Riveton, having lost all its character and charm, is just another one of them. Nevertheless, I am happy because I have made my 3/4 acre a garden paradise. I have created my own haven. But, sigh, I really do miss the larks. Judith
Posts: 142 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Life is full of odd little coincidences. I was born in August 79 at Poudre Valley Hospital. The year after High School I was visiting a college outside Calgary, Alberta, and I ran into a guy who had been born the same day as me at the same hospital, and who's brother was dating a friend of mine, but we'd never met before or heard of each other prior to that day. Odd, huh?
Anyway, I'd drive up to FortLoveCollinsLand for a meetup, if ya'll are interested. Or we could use Denver as a middle ground. Interesting that though several of us reside in CO, none are in the big city.
Monolith, I've only lived in the Springs since '98 so I can't tell you how much exactly it has changed, but my guess is quite a lot. If you remember Powers, a road way out east of town, it has now become a main drag with huge housing developments extending miles east of it. There are more than 400,000 people here now, maybe even half a mil.
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Ooh, we could. That's got potential, that has. Though it's not til October.
autumnmuse: that is odd. Though I don't know how strange it is that none of us are in Denver. I mean, look at where we are: Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Loveland. They're pretty substantial cities, too. And I lived in Brighton for a long time, which is a suburb of a suburb of Denver. Don't know what that counts for, but I usually told people from out of state that I was close enough to Denver that it didn't make much of a difference.