1208New Mexico/visit w/ Mom

[evile]

Feb. 18, 2003

 

 

I had such a faboo weekend! On Friday, my plane got delayed in
Austin, then in St Louis, and I didn't get in to Albuquerque until
like 3 a.m. but my mom was there, and it was great.

I met a couple of cutie-pie boys on the plane. Austin to StL was a
civil engineer who was into Fight Club (he commented on the 'safety
card' as the stewardess was giving the demo, so I *knew* where he got
it from, and he ended up telling me I was the most
interesting "single serving friend" he'd met). He was flying to StL
to propose to his GF on Valentine's Day. Aww!! He was a recent
college grad and she's still got 1.5 yrs in school, so I hope they
believe in long engagements. So young to be making such big choices!
I tried not to lecture in "obnoxious older sister" mode, but I may
have failed. He told me his big sis is gonna be 30 this year, and I
told him she's a lucky gal, gave my '30's are the Goddess Years'
spiel....yeah....obnoxious. But it was nice to talk to someone on the
plane & spend time interacting with intelligent humans for a change.

StL to Albuquerque, I sat next to an ABQ native who lives in Boston &
works for Pepsi. He was a doll--tall, big blue eyes, strawberry
blonde, great smile...*sigh* He was precious. I gave him gum. We
mostly slept on that flight. I asked him what I should do while I'm
here and he said "there's so much, but definitely ride the tram."

Seriously, though, I love being 30. I love having enough confidence &
not-caring to talk to attractive young strangers and not get all
flustered or stupid about it. It's awesome.

So, New Mexico. *sigh* It's gorgeous. I want to go back. Albuquerque
has the best water--it's like San Antonio water was before they
messed it up by fluoridating it. All clean and tasteless, except for
a bit of 'hard mineral' crispness. yum yum!

Saturday morning, I slept in a little, and then we got up and had
breakfast at my mom's house. The space is so 'her'. It's this cool
adobe house and she has left it very uncluttered, with her altars
here and there. She does Feng Shui in her house. It feels very 'home'
to me. She has really cool birds that come to her birdfeeder, little
finch-y things, some odd-colored pinkish sparrow-things, and
Stellar's Jays and Red Wing Blackbirds. Then we went and saw
petroglyphs. The 'Smoking Weasel' was the best--it made us laugh.
(I'll post pictures one of these days)

We had lunch at the Route 66 Diner, which was awesome. They didn't
have any local beers on the menu, so I got a Shiner Bock. I was
worried about the altitude messing with my alcohol tolerance, but it
didn't. Of course, I didn't test this by drinking too much, but it
seemed normal. Matter of fact, I didn't notice any effects from
altitude. Hm. Maybe I have Andean-Indian in my bloodline somewhere...

We went into Old Town Albuquerque, which was cool. I saw the sun set
and the moon rising over the old town square, which was just awesome.
San Felipe de Neri church is just beautiful. It was very cool.

We parked on a side street a block or 2 from Old Town, right across
the street from Casas de Suenos, which has a very strange
architectural feature up front, this tile and glass sculpture that
looks sort of like a seashell and sort of like....a UFO, I guess.
Very cool.

Then we just kind of drove around Albuquerque a bit, and then went on
home & went to bed early-ish.

Sunday, we went to the Tram, and saw snow at the peak. The clouds
were really low, so we didn't see much of anything else. But it was
still gorgeous. We hiked around in the snow for maybe 45 minutes or
so, then went inside the High Finance restaurant & had a light lunch.
I tried an Albuquerque Amber, a nice local beer. It was yummy. The
clouds cleared a couple of times and the view was incredible. I
cried. It was great.

Then we drove up to the Jemez valley, stopped and tasted wine at
Ponderosa Winery and went to the hot springs. That was so awesome.
The bath house had these big stone & cement bathtubs, with two taps,
one of the hot spring water & one of cooled spring water, so you
could adjust your bath temperature. They had home-made shampoo/soap
to use, and when you got out there was a table of lotions & body
sprays, some home-made & some commerical, that you could put on. We
soaked for 1/2 an hour & just felt GREAT afterwards. All of their
services were so reasonably-priced, and it was just very simple &
homey in the bath house. It was cool. Mom's going to take my stepdad
there when he comes to visit for Spring Break--they'll probably
reserve the outdoor cedar tub and soak together. cool!

On the way through Albuquerque, I saw billboards for the Albuquerque
Isotopes! I laughed and laughed! Life Imitates The Simpsons! I wanted
to find a T-shirt for my sweetie, but I never did. The grocery store
we stopped at for dinner fixin's had baseball caps with the logo, but
Sweetie doesn't really wear caps. I wanted to get him something he'd
actually use.

Anyway, we got olives & artichoke hearts & cheese to have with Indian
bread for dinner. It was yummy. I also got pate, but it was not
yummy. We fed it to the porch cats.

Then I packed & we watched The 13th Warrior. It was cool. Got to bed
around midnight & got up at 4 to go to the airport.

It was a great weekend. Not nearly long enough. Mom & I had a good
visit--everything is kind of far apart so we talked & drove quite a
bit. I wasn't sure I'd like New Mexico, but it was really beautiful &
there was plenty to see & do. I could live in Albuquerque.

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