The Side of the Road

I was pulled over by a cop recently, for the first time in my life (other than the time I was a passenger in Dad's car). I had no idea why.

The given reason:

going 61 in a 55 zone.

6 mph too fast. This is generally in the range of my speed at any given time on road trips due to my lack of cruise control. I would say there is a good chance that at any given time I am driving the speed limit +/- 6 mph. In fact, the next time I passed the same copy (since he had turned around), I was driving 60 mph up a hill in a 65 mph zone. I am such a speed threat.

I almost laughed. And then I was confused because at the time he pulled me over the speed limit was 65. He claimed he clocked me in a 55 zone. I am convinced he must have clocked me while I could see the 65 mph sign and was speeding up towards it. Either way. Don't they have better things to do in Gila County? Like maybe bust meth labs? At any rate, he didn't give me a ticket - just warned me to watch my speed. I didn't even beg or cry. I was just confused. But for the remainder of my drive through Gila County, I was sure to drive the speed limit so I wouldn't actually get a ticket. Unfortunately this stretch of road includes the beautiful Salt River Canyon, with speed limits decreasing to 35 mph. Yup. That's how fast I drove. For multiple miles. I'm glad I didn't get run off the road into the canyon. Although there are worse places to be.

Premonitions

So a few blogs ago I discussed a "scare" that our landlady had put our house up for sale but we decided it was not true. It turns out that was based on a false assumption, but today the landlady did in fact show up at our house with a For Sale sign. Weird coincidence. She is selling it herself, apparently because she cannot afford a real estate agent. She apparently also got trapped in a sub-prime mortgage. Way to go. So if anyone wants to buy a 736 square foot house in the up and coming part of Albuquerque (soon to match Santa Fe's Canyon Road!), all you have to do is part with $182,500. Personally I think it's way over priced, but it is in line with the other stuff on the market on Mountain Road. It is unclear whether she is selling both lots with it or only the back one. So anyway, I guess tenants are allowed to stay until the end of their lease even if there is a sale, but I'm thinking we need to start looking anyway.

I also finally got a formal offer from the State, and now I too will have to commute to my job. So Matt will be going an hour south while I go an hour north. So maybe we need to be closer to the van/bus/train stops anyway.

Well that's my life. What are you all up to?

It's Windy Out There...

...and that's why I'm in here being a bum. Winter was finally here but today it's 60. Last night it poured so hard the rain came in through the swamp cooler vent. (I was up at 4 in the morning rescuing my Care Bears.) And tomorrow we're going skiing. Last week my little sister came over and helped us decorate for Christmas and bake cookies. So I guess it really is December.

3 weeks until Christmas vacation! Unless I get fired before then. In which case "vacation" will come a lot sooner. I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut. And my old boss wants me back for half a year. See this is why I haven't written in so long. I have nothing coherent to say.

My journal article was finally accepted, 2 years after I wrote the first draft. I may also have some other published items in the works, but I won't blog about them until they come out.

Enjoy the storm!

This Weekend is Me Weekend

Matt is gone, in the Valles, hopefully getting a lot of field work done. Hopefully enjoying fall, or maybe winter at that elevation, and hopefully not getting shot by hunters. Surely enjoying his dinner at Los Ojos.

I am here.

I like to get up in the mornings, after Matt leaves, so I can have some me time. Taking the bus makes this kind of hard because I only get up early enough to eat, shower, and walk down the street. So this weekend I am catching up.

I am reading - I'm in the middle of two books. One I am reviewing - Managing Water: Avoiding Crisis in California by Dorothy Green. One I am enjoying - Plenty by Smith and Mackinnon. I will be sure to post about Plenty when I am done with it - I am sure I will recommend it to everyone, even if you don't have pipedreams like I do to someday follow a 100-mile diet.

Actually I'm also in the middle of Monkey Wrench Gang, an Umberto Eco book, and Milagro Bean Field War. Maybe more. I tend to get distracted when books don't immediately grab my attention. Sometimes I go through periods where I hardly read anything, and then I stumble upon a book I love and I remember that I love reading. I'm just very specific about what I want to read.

Reading has motivated me again to be more faithful in pursuing my writing. My first front page article came out this week - granted it was on The Independent, but I guess it still counts. The editor even managed to spell my name right this time. (Oh and I finally got paid by LAT.)

I also pitched a story to HCN, submitted to Writers on the Range, and sent an old essay into a literary magazine - something a professor suggested I do years ago.

And I have another job possibility - actually in my field this time. And since I'm taking some me time, I've decided that I don't have to feel bad if I leave my current job. I have to do what's best for me. Maybe the other possibility won't come through. Maybe I will decide I like my job. Maybe I will learn to be happy in the present rather than always searching for better things for the future. Maybe I will enjoy this moment.

Halloween Activities

Last Saturday night, we went out to McCall's Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty for some scary fun. Our friends, typically, were slow so we got there about 2 minutes until 10. The lines for the haunted attractions were 2 hours long, so the dude would only let us go into the daytime corn maze, which had no line. So we went in with flashlights (see picture) and got lost and tried not to get too much dust in our eyes from the horrible wind. It was pretty fun. But we still don't have pumpkins.

I love fall. The leaves are turning yellow and red, the temperatures are dropping, and it even snowed at the party I was catering last Sunday (where I also got a $60 tip). So it's like fall and winter all at once. Stupid high desert. And there's farms with corn mazes (or maize mazes) and pumpkin patches and hay rides. Yay!

My Last Day of Weekday Freedom

Starting Monday I will be gainfully employed. No more Wacky Wednesday's at the Putt Putt, no more sleeping till 7 or 8 or 9. No more staying up until midnight. No more taking off for Phoenix at the last minute. No more inventing necklace holders. (Isn't it cute? This is a piece of a wire shelf system we are not using. I was never able to find a necklace holder that was tall enough.)


But we will have money, so that's good. No more watching my bank accounts deplete.

In the 2.5 days left before I start work, I have to write a book review, go out to a local farm and take pictures and write a feature, work a catering shift, and do laundry. Hmm, maybe I should be working on one of those things instead of blogging.

While working, I plan to keep catering and writing for the paper as well as volunteer for Albuquerque Open Space and participate in the New Mexico Riparian Council. I think I will be busy. Oh, I'm also planning to join the gym with a corporate membership. So I can get in shape for Ecuador.

In other news, Brownback dropped out of the Presidential race and Hastert will be resigning before his term is up. What is it about Larry Craig that he doesn't quit too. He is a national laughingstock. I almost feel sorry for the Republicans. Almost.

What Would You Do?

If you sent a rent check to your landlord and she was out of town and her roommate told you your check didn't show up and that it was probably stolen and you should cancel your bank account and instead you canceled your check and wrote another one out of another bank account and you paid $25 to cancel the first one and then your landlord came home and told you her roommate had been wrong and the first check was there all along, would you deduct that $25 from your next month's rent or would you just suck it up?

If your landlord tried to tell you that she was going to charge you for the heater man to come over and get the furnace ready for the winter, would you just accept it, or would you tell her you thought that was the landlord's responsibility (which for the record it is according to New Mexico law)?

If your landlord told you she didn't "like your attitude" and that you were "hassling her" because of the aforementioned heater question and she kept bringing up the $25 you deducted from your check that she agreed to in writing, would you just give her the $25 to make her stop holding it against you?

If your landlord would not come over to inspect the large cracks inside the house that keep getting bigger, would you worry that the house might fall down?

If your toilet bowl was draining when a lot of water went down the shower drain, indicating a plugged vent, would you agree that switching your type of toilet paper would solve the problem and not insist upon having a plumber come over?

If your landlord did not believe that it was the vent that was clogged and told you to go outside and unscrew the caps to the sewer line to see if the line was clogged, would you do it, or would you suggest that was not your responsibility either?

If your landlord made your life miserable for at least an hour once a week, would you try to figure out a way to terminate the lease early?

LifeChanging

By the end of this week, I will have been unemployed for 2 entire months. That is not entirely true since I am employed by a catering company, but you get it. This is my longest stint of unintentional unemployment ever. In a job market with only 3.9% unemployment.

Well, I finally have a job offer. I think I am going to take it. It involves advertising market research, and I would be doing data analysis and report compilation to start. The pay would be half of what I was making last year. But I was ridiculously overpaid last year. And there seems to be a lot of room to grow in this company. So, LifeChanging. This job will not involve water. At all. Unless I somehow get to work on an ad involving water resources. But most likely it will be bottled spring water. And then I will have to feel bad about myself.

Someone suggested I keep my hand in water by volunteering my time. I will have to think about what I could do. I would also like to freelance a bit on the side, but it will be hard with a 9 to 5.

Maybe I will like advertising? Maybe someday I could apply it to sustainable businesses or to marketing water resource conservation and education. Maybe I can justify it that way. I would like to explore and expand my creative side. And this company is not afraid of me being a hydrologist, which seems to be common among other companies. Except for the consulting companies. They are afraid of me not being an engineer or a chemist. Catch-22. Double Jeopardy. Do I understand the meaning of jeopardy? Not really. But this is how I landed at an advertising research firm in Albuquerque. I will tell them later today or tomorrow. I may push a start date back two weeks to allow a few more interviews in the water sector. I may take a small vacation since my time off will be reduced to 2 weeks. So, LifeChanging.

But this means I don't have to go to work at the coop, which I was supposed to start tomorrow. I get to make more than $9 an hour although I will miss out on the 18% discount. That guy is not pleased with me. Matt will have to do all the coop shopping from now on. As he already does. But I will have more than one day off for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we will actually be able to go home.

LifeChanging.

Happy Anniversary (to my blog)

This past Saturday was the first anniversary of my blog! Can you believe it? To celebrate, Natalie, Liz and I got some balloons and had a party...



Just kidding! Well it was the anniversary, and there was a party, but it was a baby shower! One more month to go! There was posole and tostadas and nachos and veggies and beer and lots of presents and games and men watching boxing and watching the kids in the driveway. And it was cold! Good times were had by all. Except for we partied so late we missed Oktoberfest. (Sorry EEE.) Of course we are old so I was home around 11pm. But anyway, congratulations Liz and Glenn! I can't wait to meet Olivia. And thanks everyone for reading! We'll see how many more years I have in me.

The Life of an Unemployed Woman, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Live Like My Sister. Only Without a Gainfully Employed Husband.

You might be wondering what it is I do all day. I wonder that too. And yet I feel like I am always busy.

Matt beat me to the post about my parents' visit. See it here.

Since my last post I have received two more rejections - one from the CDL camp and one from an engineering company that apparently discriminates against hydrologists. I've also applied to about 20 other jobs. That brings the total up to at least 65 in Albuquerque alone. I have lost count. No joke.

I have an article going in the LA Times health section this Monday (and hopefully they will give me another assignment despite my need for extensive editing). I have a story lined up for High Country News if I can get Duncan Hunter (California Congressman running for President) to speak with me. I might also have an article with Plenty or This Old House. So at least there is some money coming in. Maybe. Eventually. Certainly not enough to pay the bills.

My lovely sister and her husband sent me a natural food gift basket to feed me in the hard times. Aren't they sweet? I am particularly excited about the cookies. And the cheese puffs. Luckily Matt will be gone for three days so I don't have to share with him.

In other news, I have to iron a tuxedo shirt tonight. I don't think I have ironed since I left my parents' house. Any tips?

I was wrong

We do have NBC. I found it on Channel 4. It is almost watchable.

On a side note, I am looking into making these throw pillows out of shredded plastic bags, but it requires batting. Buying organic batting would amount to about $12 per pillow, which is pretty ridiculous for something that is supposed to be ecofriendly and a hobby. So anyway, does anyone know where I can get batting that has maybe already been used or is considered scrap or something of that nature. I know there's crafty people out there. And this is not a rhetorical question :).

I had an interview today for a job that would apparently require a CDL. Who knew. Who wants to. This is my life.

Oh yeah, and check out my poll.

Speaking of my blog title

The Office Season Three came out on DVD September 4th (also Matt's birthday. Unfortunately no one got it for me for his birthday. For him I mean.). I managed to wait until September 7th to pick it up at Target, as a reward for my successful interviews. At Target. For the sales floor, making $7.50/hr. They are supposedly trying to find a better job for me - one where they don't think I will leave quickly.

I have an interview for a slightly higher paying, albeit part-time, job tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me! But don't jinx it.

But oh yeah, The Office. So funny! I love it. I actually lent out Seasons 1 and 2. Can you believe the trust I have to have to let go of my favorite possessions. I finished Season 3 last night, but there are many hours of rewatching still available. The actual season starts September 27th, but we don't get NBC. I may cry.

Target misses CA and Mesa Bridge is Falling Down

Apparently when you bring your own bag to Target, you are by default required to bag your own items. Now I realize that it is slightly difficult to fit a bag on the handy little bag holder for easy dumping, but it really isn't that hard just to bag items on the counter either. Nevertheless, the cashier just set everything on the counter while I tried to bag and run my credit card at the same time. This despite the fact that Target (at least in California) now sells reusable, fold-up bags that fit inside your purse. I know because my landlady bought me one. Trader Joe's and Wild Oats cashiers don't seem to have trouble bagging with canvas bags. Alas.

The cashier then proceeded to question whether the items on the registry were the only gift items or if I had others. I did indeed have others - could she print a gift receipt? She seemed to imply that I needed to identify exactly which items were gifts, but this was not the case after all. Meanwhile I noticed that she'd forgotten one of my items on the conveyor belt. I asked her to put it on. She did something. I then asked if the price on the little machine included that item and she told me that I had to press OK first - it was the only way she could find out. I had not asked for cash back because I had $10 in my wallet. However, as it turned out the forgotten item was not on my bill, so she asked me if I wanted to pay for it separately. NO, I don't want it anymore. Whatever. Why would I bring it to the checkout if I didn't want it (I know this happens, but not with me). Anyway, I then had to spend half my cash buying this item that she forgot to ring up because she couldn't possibly have added it to my credit card purchase which had not yet been processed before I hit OK. HOW HARD CAN THIS BE? (I realize that this probably makes no sense, but it didn't in person either.)

Anyways, the other interesting tidbit of my return to Mesa has been seeing part of the Loop 202 bridge lying over the canal in pieces. Yes folks, last week sometime part of the bridge they are building over Power Road and the canal fell right down into the canal. Apparently they haven't cleaned it up yet, because you can see it both from Power and from the other side of Thomas. How hard can it be to build a bridge that doesn't fall down? I've taken a statics class and properties of materials. I know about center of gravity and stress and strain. There are fairly simple principles at work. At least the bridge in Minneapolis was 50 years old or so. This one was brand new! Some things never change I guess. Anyone remember the Zilwaukee?

Blogging Delay

I must apologize for the delay. Once I get to LA and the internet, I will try to back-blog about the following:

• Memorial Day visit to Santa Fe
• Our new house
• My visit with Nic in Baltimore
• My orientation in DC
• My trip to LA
• Why we still don't have internet at our house.

Pictures and commentary to follow!

Albuquerque

We spent parts of Tuesday and Thursday in Albuquerque looking for houses and hanging out with our friend Arun on his birthday. We managed to get ourselves invited to his parent's house for his birthday dinner by calling his cell phone at about 10pm Monday night and having his mom answer. Oops. Apparently Arun, who lives about half a second from his parents, left his phone at their house again. So anyway, on our way to meet Arun for the family dinner, we thought maybe we should get him a card. And maybe a present. So we stopped at the Smith's by his house, picked up a great pickle card, a six pack of New Belgium spring seasonal, and a $1 DVD called Kill Cruise, starring Elizabeth Hurley. It was originally a German movie called Der Skipper and has been dubbed into English for our viewing pleasure. What a great movie! Not in the traditional, artful sense, but it really was hilarious. We kept inventing alternate scenarios, none of which ever panned out. I think appreciation of this movie is related to a very narrowly defined sense of humor, so it might not be right for everyone. But if you are bored and live near a Smith's that happens to carry $1 DVDs, I recommend it. Good times were had by all. The fajitas at dinner were good too.

On a more sour note, we still have not made a moving decision. We found this gorgeous casita in our price range that we are really tempted to lease, but then we found out that Matt probably won't be able to get a seat on the vanpool next year. In other words, if we move to Albuquerque, he would have to drive one of our vehicles 150 miles a day, 2-4 days a week. That would suck. Our latest possibility is to get one small place in both cities to try to have the best of both worlds. And I don't even know if I have a job, so that is another hitch. I had another interview yesterday, but I don't think I want to work for them anyway. So yeah. We have two weeks left to clear out of our current house, and nowhere to go. Except a storage shed. And LA...

Back to Life, Back to Reality

After we returned from the mountains, we had an ant infestation in our kitchen, so we decided to order pizza for dinner. For the second time since we have lived here, we ordered Pizza Hut delivery. For the second time, they failed to bring my soda. Since the delivery guy last time never brought one to me, I refused to pay this one until he returned with it. Shockingly enough, he returned in about 2 minutes (Pizza Hut is not very far away).

The weirdest thing about this is that neither time did the delivery guy seem surprised or apologetic that they had forgotten the soda. It was like it was a given. So my question is, are they really just stupid, or is this some sort of scam that they pull on everyone? I mean really, what are the odds that 100% of the time they forget the soda (despite the small sample size). And then say nonchalantly, oh, I'll have to come back with that. What is with this state?

In relation to state weirdness, when we were on the trip this weekend, two different people were describing how great their neighborhoods were. And then, as an afterthought, discussed the gunshots and drug deals and thefts that go on all the time. So crime is just a given to people in Albuquerque. Whereas I would not think a neighborhood was great unless it was low-crime. I guess this is something we're going to have to get used to.

Fair Housing Act my Ass

I look at craigslist about 200 gazillion times a day to try to find somewhere to live in Albuquerque. On May 4th, the absolutely best thing came up - A 600sf 2 story loft with patio and rooftop patio in the perfect area of town and within our budget. The property manager won't let us even look at it because she says it's not big enough for two people. Karen has informed me that their flat in Geneva is also 600sf, and it has two bedrooms! I tried to find out if this qualified as discrimination in the Fair Housing Act, but apparently 'familial status' only applies to people with children. What a bunch of ass! Shouldn't it be up to us to decide if 600sf is too small for us? This is the second time I have run into this in Albuquerque. What in the world is the deal with this state?

The Not-so-sappy Love Story

I was recently reading a MySpace blog of someone I know, and it inspired me to write my own love story. She wrote the story of how she and her husband met and started dating after he dumped his girlfriend, and I have to say, I think it had some errors. But love makes us forget things I'm sure. And change facts around. And omit things. Yup. At any rate, I am going to put this out there, and if anyone thinks I may have an altered state of mind, please fill in the gaps.

So when I started grad school at the University of Arizona, Matt was a second year student. He encouraged me, as he did everyone, to play frisbee and volleyball with the department and to partake of drinks at No Anchovie's afterward. Besides that, he wasn't terribly outgoing. One of my newly-made friends confessed that at the prospective day the previous spring, she and Matt had had 'a thing.' She was drunk and couldn't remember much from it, but he hadn't been friendly to her either since she arrived at school. I thought it was too bad that he wasn't nicer to her, but shortly thereafter I learned he was dating an undergraduate. The horrors! Anyways, in October, our research group took a field trip to Albuquerque for the Annual Meeting, otherwise known as SAHRAfest (trademarked by yours truly). Somehow during this meeting, I was hanging out with Matt all the time. He was so much fun. (Incidentally, it was at this time that I first became friends with Kristin as well, so it was a good trip.) When I got home I told my friends how I was 'in love' with this guy, but that he pretty much had a girlfriend (although not according to him).

Anyways, we started hanging out back in Tucson and were basically known as the department drunks I think. I probably drank more than I should have so that I could flirt with him shamelessly. The other girl hardly ever came out, and sometimes Matt dropped by her house with me in tow, I think basically to make her jealous. They were obviously on the outs by this point. Then the day before Thanksgiving, Matt called me to see if I was coming over to his house that night and mentioned that he and the girl were done. Once again, I got wasted during drinking-games and couldn't drive or walk myself home that night. Matt offered to let me sleep in his bed and he would go sleep somewhere else. I coyly told him he was welcome to sleep in his bed as well. GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER! That night was pretty innocent, and in the morning he kissed me goodbye. I had been expecting him to pretend nothing happened, so I was impressed.

About a week went by before anything else happened. One night he drove me home and I invited him in, but he just said, "Maybe I should take you out to lunch." So I think the next day we went to Pei Wei together on our official first date. I'm pretty sure I had been drinking beforehand at Gentle Ben's as well. At any rate, it wasn't anything to write home about, but ever since then we were basically together.

We definitely had some rough patches after that, what with Matt making plans to get his PhD and me having another year left for my Master's. At one point he said he was going to Canada without me and didn't want to do the long distance thing, so I made him take all his stuff out of my apartment and leave his key behind. A few days later I called him and asked him to come over and basically begged him to take me back. At some point in that time period I yelled at him, literally, that he was stupid for thinking I didn't mean that much to him. He claims at that point he realized I was right. When he found out he couldn't start school in Canada until the folowing January, he asked if he could move in with me. That fall we decided to move to New Mexico instead of Canada. And then in December he told me for the first time that he had been looking at rings. He didn't propose until almost the end of February, leading to some awkward situations with our parents, but it was a fantastic proposal and worth the wait. And then we got married the next year.

So we are currently a few months shy of having known each other for 3 years and have been married for nearly 3 months. I had some hesitation back in the beginning what with the girl he was dating and the girl I was friends with, but it all worked out. I found out his not-girlfriend had voted for Proposition 200 and then didn't feel bad at all about breaking them up. And my friend was totally okay with everything and we definitely still joke about it. And now - well the love story is ongoing right?

Shout Out to My Girls in AZ

You guys are great! I seriously needed some quality friend time, and you provided it in an awesome way. My mini-vacation has improved my mood, my outlook, and even some other things I'd rather not discuss online ;). Four Peaks, In N Out, and some baseball is always a fantastic combination. And remember, ya'll are welcome to NM anytime or LA this summer. And I might be back, eventually.

Today I got A Field Guide for Science Writers in the mail, and I am pretty stoked about it. Can you believe I'm going to be published?! I'm also working on letting go of the need to have something lined up for August. You guys inspired me with all your potential adventures, and I need to have the opportunity for things to suddenly come up as well. Just because I'm married doesn't necessarily mean I should stop doing interesting things with my life, right?

I hope ya'll have a great day, a great week, and start figuring out what it is you want to do with your summers or your lives. Thanks again!

Socorro People, Part II

So I was previously discussing a girl who verbally invited me to her bridal shower and then didn't give me an invitation. It gets better. Last Wednesday, I was on campus at a lecture with Matt, when she came over and said, "So I didn't have your address, but my shower is on Saturday if you want to come." To which I replied, "Wow, that's soon. Can you send me an email with the details or something?" First of all, she works in the same building as Matt. I'm pretty sure she could have gotten our address any time she wanted. Second of all, she never did send me that email or give the details to Matt. Needless to say, I did not go to the shower. What in the world though? Who does things like this? If you don't want me to come, don't bring it up, but if you do want me to come, get your act together. I mean seriously. PEOPLE. Maybe only one more month of dealing with it. Hooray. Although it was beautiful and peaceful here this weekend and I kind of hate to trade that for a noisy city.