I’m pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog already knows this, but I wanted to give a big shout out to one of my favorite girls, Erin Culhan, who got engaged on Saturday.  I met Erin and Michael in high school and they’ve been two of my best friends since then.  After dating for about a million years, they’ve gotten engaged and we are all SOOOO incredibly excited.  Congrats, you guys!

yay!

Yes, that was the quote I heard shouted at me from across the street while running through UNM’s campus the other day.

So, I frequently run to UNM’s campus from my apartment because it’s about a mile away and the other day I decided to run there, take the perimeter road around campus and then run back home.  The altitude is still killing me and I usually have to walk about every 30 seconds (at least that’s what it feels like).  I stopped to walk when I get into campus and a guy coming out to his car shouted at me.  Here was the convo…..

Random Guy (RG):  Hey, do you know if they check these meters in the summer (referring to his parking spot)

Me:  I have no idea.  I just moved here.

RG:  Oh yeah, where did you move from?

Me:  South Carolina (yes ,still shouting at full voice across the street)

RG:  (chuckle and a shake of the head)  Why the heck did you move HERE?   That place is BEAUTIFUL!

Me (in my head):  This is so depressing.  Even the Albuquerque natives know that SC is better.

So, just when I start to feel comfortable here and I’m not quite as homesick, I have random strangers reminding me of how absolutely wonderful South Carolina is.  Just DANDY!

I’ve been here for exactly 4 weeks now (it seems like 4 months).  So far it’s been really good.  I’ve still been in that “vacation” mode where everything feels new and I’m still discovering the city.  Since I’m going to be substituting this year, I will hopefully start working in about 2 weeks.  I think that will make me finally feel like I actually live here.

Because Albuquerque sits on the west side of the Sandia Mountains, the hiking/camping/trailrunning/skiing/etc scene is really popular here.  There are a ton of trails up on the mountains for hiking  and on the east side of the mountain is a ski resort.  One of the most popular hiking trails is called La Luz.

La Luz is an approximately 8 mile hiking trail that rises 4,000 ft in elevation and spans across 4 different climate zones.  It’s really only a one way hike, so most people hike up from the tram parking lot (9.5 miles) and then take the tram down or the take the tram up and then hike down.  Each year they have the “La Luz Trail Run” which is about 9 miles and it was dubbed one of the “12 Most Grueling Trail Races in North America” by the fall 2001 issue of Trail Runner Magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Luz_Trail

Every weekend Justin and I have gone up there and attempted to trail-run La Luz.  I think the first three times we got about 2 miles up and then ran back down.  I had noo idea it would be that hard.  The elevation is so high which makes the air thinner and it is a pretty strenuous course.  So, because Justin started school today we decided to try and conquer the entire trail this past Saturday.  I mean, how hard can hiking 9.5 miles be if you’re just walking and not running?  HAH.  If only I wasn’t so stupid.

We started out and were feeling good for the first 3 miles or so.  We even thought we’d get adventurous and run a little bit…not the smartest idea.  By the time we hit 4 miles, the trail changed from smooth, sloping desert-like terrain to forested, steep, rocky terrain.  I don’t know about Justin, but my lungs were on fire around 6 miles and my legs were about to give out at 7.  We even spent about an hour at one point taking switchback after switchback trying to get over a rockslide.  A stinkin’ rockslide!  It didn’t even look like we were following a trail anymore (thank goodness there were other people out there to assure us we were on the right path).  So, what started out as this fun athletic adventure turned into a painful crawl to the finish.  When we finally saw the sign that said the tram was only 1.1 miles away, the trail smoothed out again and we got a small burst of energy to run about half of it.  After 3 hours and 46 minutes, I couldn’t believe we were actually at the top.

When we got to the top, we bought a ticket for the tram and looked around the ski resort while we waited for it to get up there.  We rode it down and got straight into the car to go get some lunch.  I think I had a moment of amnesia because as soon as the exhaustion wore off a little bit, I was planning our next trip up there.  Haha, we will see about that.

By the way…the best time anyone has ever run the La Luz trail run was 00:57:40 in 1978.  Are you kidding me?!

http://www.laluztrailrun.org/pages/La_Luz_Winners.htm

Justin’s sister and her husband own a cabin up in Angelfire. It’s a small little ski town about 3 hours north of Albuquerque, and you have to drive through Santa Fe and Taos to get there. We decided to take a little road trip and see all of these wonderful little cities and then go play in the mountains.

Santa Fe ended up only being about 45 minutes away. It was awesome. Everyone calls it the Asheville of NM, and it’s this cute little hippy town with shops and old churches and a big plaza where everyone is just lying around doing nothing…siesta!

We stayed in Santa Fe for about an hour and did some shopping and sightseeing. We went into this one church where we saw the “miraculous staircase”…http://www.nmia.com/~paulos/loretto.htm….That is the link to the story.

Apparently this church needed a staircase to get to the choir loft, but all of the carpenters said the space was too small to build one. Then one day an old man shows up and says he can do it. He spent 8 months working on it and then disappeared without getting paid. There is not a single nail in the winding staircase and engineers today say that there is no possible way the staircase should be standing. The sisters at the church believe it was a saint.

After Santa Fe, we headed to Angelfire. We hiked in the mountains, looked for elk, played frisbee, and got in some paddle boats on the lake. We even saw deer in the backyard of the cabin. Incredible! There weren’t a lot of tourists there because it is a ski resort and there was no snow, so it was fun to go to the shops and cafes and hang out with locals.

On the way home we stopped in Taos which is another really cool ski town. It was kind of like Santa Fe except a little smaller. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time there, but it was still nice to walk around the plaza. Everyone seems to move at a slower pace in New Mexico and I kind of like it. It makes me wonder what I am always in a rush for, planning my days out to the second and leaving no time to relax. I like seeing that people take things a bit slower and enjoy their time.

After Taos, we headed back to Albuquerque….fun little road trip….but now real life is about to set in. Justin starts orientation on Monday, and I will start substituting the middle of August. I guess vacation can’t last forever.

This is going to be short…

Albuquerque is in New Mexico, which is a desert.

A desert is a landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. (wikipedia)

To me, that meant that I was moving somewhere dry, somewhere it didn’t rain very often at all, somewhere SUNNY….wrong

I just want everyone to know that I think I’m bad luck or something (maybe it could be good luck, since it’s a desert), but it has literally thunderstormed, lightning(ed), thundered, and poured rain every single solitary day that I have lived in Albuquerque.  What the heck is up with that?  I find it slightly odd that it is raining more in the desert right now than it has rained in Greenville, SC over the past 3 months.

Ok, that’s all….but a little sunshine would be nice!  yeesh

by the way, it’s monsoon season here which could be an explanation.  but seriously…monsoon season in the desert?  that’s ridiculous.

Tomorrow’s forecast – just for proof

Today Tue, Jul 22 Wed, Jul 23 Thu, Jul 24 Fri, Jul 25 Sat, Jul 26 Sun, Jul 27 Mon, Jul 28 Tue, Jul 29 Wed, Jul 30

Hourly Forecast more details

6am 66°F Feels Like 66°F

9am 72°F Feels Like 72°F

12pm 79°F Feels Like 80°F

3pm 85°F Feels Like 84°F

6pm 82°F Feels Like 81°F

9pm 79°F Feels Like 79°F

So if you don’t know, New Mexico has a very prominent Native American culture. In fact, there are a couple of indian reservations and one of the largest happens to be only about 3 miles away from Justin’s sister’s house. I don’t know about you, but in my little brain you have an indian reservation, you have a casino. The two just seem to go together…..and lo and behold Sandia Resort and Casino.

Now, you need a bit more information for me to continue the story….Nambe (nom-bay).  Nambe is this line of dishware/silverware/decorative-ware, really anything that goes in or around your kitchen and the artist for nambe is from Sante Fe which is about an hour from Albuquerque.  It seems very plain and boring when you first look at it, thick and silver with a bit of curviness, but everyone in New Mexico goes crazy over it.  It seems to be the wedding gift equivalent of Bed Bath and Beyond in South Carolina.  So, this stuff is handcrafted, local, and popular…..therefore quite expensive, which leads me into the rest of the story.

Wendy, Justin’s sister found this warehouse sale for nambe gifts with savings up to 70% off and she really wanted us to go with her.   And where else would this sale be other than a small ballroom in the back of the……….SANDIA RESORT AND CASINO.  woo hoo!  Yes, I am a tride and true Southern Baptist South Carolinian and I know gambling is wrong, but how exciting to walk into a real casino for the first time.

So, we get there and walk through and it’s crazy.  My guess is that it was nowhere near as flashy as Las Vegas, but there were definitely colorful lights and huge slot machines and game tables everywhere.  There was a luxury spa in the back of the lobby, fancy restaurants, fitness centers, and a beautiful sparkling pool through the back doors.  After we made our way through all of the pretty lights and things, we found ourselves in the back of the lobby in a tiny ballroom crammed with nambe and about fifty 60 and 70-year old women and men throwing bows, stepping on toes, and being just down right rude.  I was sitting there thinking “are you kidding me?  I’m not going in there.  I want to go back to the flashy lights where the people are nice”.  But we went in anyway, fought our way to get a look at some of the stuff and found a few things we liked.  Wendy agreed to wait in the 2-hour long line while Justin and I went out to the casino.  Dun, dun dun…..

Like I said, I’ve never been into a casino, so I got really excited and I just wanted to put a quarter into one of those slot machines and press the button.  But I guess that’s how it starts, huh?  Pretty soon I’m bringing my paycheck straight over, cashing it in the lobby, and going to town at the blackjack table…..kidding.

I put a dollar in the slot machine (i had no quarters), won a few credits but eventually just lost it….BORING.  Where are all the fun games?   So, in the midst of Justin cracking up at me, he suggests going to the roullette table.  I don’t know how to play roullette, but I thought it might be fun to try.  Justin puts down $20, ten for me and ten for him.  It goes up and down for a while, I lose 5, gain 10, lose 20, so and so forth, until……I decide to get bold and put a chip on a lone number, red 23 (smaller odds of winning, bigger win).  I’m watching the  little ball roll around the spinny wheel and it stops…..on RED 23!!  yay.  I wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but the guy at the table (the same one who had been laughing at me for half an hour because I didn’t know what I was doing) told me I just won 35 dollars!  Cool huh?  We played one more round and  we both lost so  Justin was completely out of chips and I was left with $32.  I probably would’ve kept going if Justin wasn’t out (it’s harder than you think to quit when you’re winning).  But we got our ticket, cashed it in and I gave Justin his $20 back and I WON 12 DOLLARS!

Haha, may not seem a lot to you, but I was excited and therefore I have been repeating those words to everyone I’ve seen the last 2 days.

I WON 12 DOLLARS!

So, I’ve made it to Albuquerque, NM! After 4 days of driving, 4 cities, and 1589 miles, I’ve made it across the country. This may be the most nerve-wracking, exciting, scary, and adventurous thing I’ve ever done. We stopped in Tulsa one night to see some of Justin’s best friends. We went out on a triple date and had sushi and ice cream. It was so much fun. Then the next day we drove to Oklahoma City and spent the day with Justin’s brother, Matt. We got to go to Bricktown and the Oklahoma City bombing memorial. Then, Matt took us to the OU campus and showed us his lab where he makes all of his robots for Mars…smarty pants!

When we finally got to Albuquerque, I couldn’t believe I was actually living there. I honestly felt like I was on another one of my international trips. The landscape was completely different and it still felt like vacation. However, I must say God gave me a nice little sign as soon as I got there that everything is going to be ok.

A double rainbow in front of the Sandia Mountains, perfectly visible from end to end. It was incredible, something I’ve never seen before, and it was the first comforting thing I had experienced since I left Greenville.

So after a night at The Roman’s house and a brutal day of moving up 3 flights of stairs, I’ve settled into my tiny, cozy humble abode. Today I painted some of the rooms and it feels like mine finally. I’ve learned my way around the apartment, now if I could only find my way to the closest grocery store. In time, I guess.

Last night we got to go to Justin’s sister’s house and cookout. We had margaritas, chicken, and lots of excitement with the kids and Papa Roman’s new bulldog, Buddy. Oh and not to mention LOTS of green chile. Apparently it’s the staple in every New Mexican’s diet. Yummy, but it’s no grits

Ok…that’s all for now. I’m here, I’m alive, and I’m actually enjoying myself! If only my family were here .