And in Colorado, that story is likely to involve the dreamer's ex. A new study by myvision.org catalogued almost 10,000 google searches to determine the most common dream for residents of each state and major city. And the subject of the most common dream in Denver specifically is the same as the most common dream in Colorado writ large: an ex.
While this can hardly be healthy, it's not as bad as the focus of dreams in other states: In Alaska, people dream most about being murdered; in West Virginia, they dream most about pulling weeds. We’re not sure which is worse. Then again, Colorado dreams aren’t nearly as good as those in Kentucky, where residents dream of flying, or in Oregon, where everyone is apparently having sex dreams.
Come on, Colorado. We can do better. We don’t need to pine for the past, or have night terrors about that one terrible romantic mistake we made. There are other options.
Here are ten Colorado dreams that should be more common than those about a broken heart:
Time Travel…Back to the Days of Affordable Housing
We used to complain that there were too many Californians moving to Denver. We still do, but now we need them, because they’re the only ones who can afford Denver real estate. Ah, to be looking at houses in Whittier or Five Points or Highland...and also have it be 1992, when normal people could actually buy them.
Flying Down the Slopes
If there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving to Colorado some 25 years ago, it’s that no one is satisfied with how well they perform on the slopes. If you're like me, you want to be able to ski passably well, preferably without screaming in terror and splitting the seat of your pants. Or even if you've conquered black diamonds, you’re still wanting to do more. You want to ski backcountry, you want to telemark, you want to handle the moguls better or deliberately catch more air. There’s always another level to reach —which is why so many of us prefer staying in Denver and day drinking on patios.
Day Drinking on Patios With Our Dog
Speaking of which, we might as well dream about our weekend plans and live the Sunday-Funday life while we’re out like a light. Dream of watching tourists clogging up Interstate 70 while you hang out with your friends on the patio, drinking beer and spilling just a little for the dog.
The sopaipillas were dreamy, anyhow.
Every Denverite is dreaming about the reopening of the new Casa Bonita, albeit for different reasons. Some want nothing to change, while others want to see South Park characters walking around like it’s a profane and merciless Disneyland. Still others dream about actually eating food that isn't just palatable, but downright delicious. Dream on.
Mousetrap Traffic
Here’s a real-life nightmare: You're stuck in traffic on I-25 or I-70 or, God help you, where the two wind around together in cloverleaf knots with on-ramps and off-ramps and service roads and lane closures. But since this is a dream, you use the ejector seat that’s now standard in all Subaru models so that you can abandon your useless car and fly the fuck home.
Suffering Blucifer’s Wrath
Seriously, if the demon horse doesn’t already make the occasional appearance in your bad dreams, then you haven’t been out to Denver International Airport nearly enough. Peña Boulevard is calling, beckoning you to pay allegiance to Blucifer. Look into his eyes, ye mighty, and despair.
Roslyn, how we miss you and all the grilled items that we never ever saw.
Lots of Denver’s drinkers had this dream at the height of the pandemic shutdown: drinking their way along the bottoms-up mile from the Lion’s Lair all the way down to Satellite Bar, hitting the Squire Lounge, Sancho’s, the 1Up and Nob Hill along the way. And since this is all a dream, go ahead and stop at the late Streets of London, the Irish Snug and the Roslyn Grill one more time, too.
The Second Coming of Elway
The Broncos faithful have been dreaming of it since the ’90s: the new John Elway. Sure, Peyton Manning was fun to watch, but Denver wasn’t his only team. The Broncos still belong to Elway, at least in fan fantasies that involve the resurrection of a hometown hero leading the men in orange to another Super Bowl. Gives a whole new meaning to a Hail Mary.
The Denver Dream
Over the last dozen years, Denver had a proprietary Dream, capital D. It was part of the LFL — which first stood for Lingerie Football League, and later, by the time the Dream was rebooted in 2017, Legends Football League. The Dream team played three games back in 2009 and lost all three. The one 2010 game was canceled. From 2017 to 2019, the squad played a dozen more games…and lost all twelve. Now the team has once again been reborn, this time as the Denver Rush, and in July will again take the field at Loveland’s Budweiser Events Center, still dreaming of that first victory.
Snow. Just Snow.
Denver is looking at what could very well be its shortest snow season in recorded history. Climate change might make the snows of yesteryear a thing of the past in this very high desert of ours. Dreaming of the white stuff — especially around the holidays — might be a thing of song and story and dream, but not so much reality anymore. Maybe we’ll finally take the environmental crisis seriously. Maybe we can still turn things around. Who knows?
We can dream.
