bloom

i just had to take some more photos tonight. yes, it seems like i am obsessed with my yard. but i really wanted to share some pictures of all the different flowers currently in bloom.

this is just a small sample; there's more on my flickr page as well.

took a hike today

check out my photo page for new sets! one is just a few photos from around town; the other set is from a 4.5 mile hike in the organ mountains, the pine tree trail. there is one photo of a hummingbird but you have to look hard to see it--looks like just branches but the hummingbird's up in the right corner.

joe's back is bothering him today, not sure why. we went to a 20's themed party on friday night. watched 'walk the line' last night. ran some errands, etc. that's about it. it was nice to get out into nature. joe added comments to the hiking photos too.

looking forward to heading home to minnesota this weekend!

that's all for now, better get to bed.

ugh

i had a shitty day. SHITTY. partly because we met with the first teacher (so far) that we will be working with in the school and he basically ripped us apart about our program. it was extremely negative. if we can't get the teacher(s)' support, it's going to be a very difficult year. i feel like, i'm trying to do something good. i'm getting paid less than minimum wage. why do i have to deal with b.s. like this ? it gives me a headache. i feel so insulted.

furthermore there are so many unanswered questions about how everything will happen with the job, and this really bothers me. what is so difficult about COMMUNICATION? i could go on and on, but i will spare you, dear reader. but i just wanted to vent a little about my frustration. things are so different here...

joe just went to the bar. i should've went but i'm not feeling it.

turnip head

well i just got home from volunteering at the museum of fine art. i'm helping with art classes for kids every other saturday. today we did watercolor bird drawings. the kids are anywhere from about 4 to 8 years old. it was fun, and the museum is only a block away so i think i'll really like doing this. i'm also going to begin working with the museum's collections too, which is closer to what i did in my last museum job.

last night joe and i went to the only thai restaurant in town, Lemongrass. pretty expensive and it wasn't great. i guess it was okay. i asked the waiter if they could substitute mock duck in any of the dishes, and he said 'i don't even know what that is' (!) think we're going to have to stick with mexican and southwest food when we go out.

then we went over to the neighbor's house, where 4 Americorps people live from joe's school. we all walked to a brew pub, where they had lots of good beer they brewed themselves. the music was really random (i.e. bad!) and the place itself was like a converted house. it was pretty dead inside but there was a nice little patio outside.

we recently watched 'howl's moving castle' by miyazaki. it was amazing, of course. not quite as good as 'princess mononoke', more on par with 'spirited away'. if you haven't seen any of his movies, i highly recommend checking them out. they are some of the most the most imaginative and fantastical films i've ever seen. here's a link about miyazaki.

we plan to take a hike tomorrow. i need to get some suitable shoes. i also get a really reduced fitness center membership through my program for me and joe (only $15/month), so i tried to get some running shoes the other day. every place i went said they don't carry any shoes in my size (5 or 5-1/2) . they said i may have to get kids shoes! how annoying is that? i am going to try again today.

i got three funny emails from my friends andy hurt and ben late last night. andy, who lives in san diego, is out in washington D.C. for some marines training. so i got him in touch with ben, who lives in NYC...they went out in ben's neighborhood and went to a bunch of cool places that joe and i went in may. i am SO SO JEALOUS! i miss new york! and those guys too! i feel like las cruces is the opposite of NYC.

i am reading 'love in the time of cholera' by gabriel garcia marquez, which is amazing so far. we've also been listening to prince.

lazy sunday

we've been laying low this weekend, didn't want to spend any money. today we cleaned the house and did yardwork. we'll probably go to a movie tonight. that's about it. olive's been really good about going outside...and she is obsessed with it.

i posted a bunch more photos on flickr. some are the same ones already posted on shutterfly, but there are new ones too. if you already checked out the house photos before, look again at the 'house' album on flickr. i put some photos taken today mixed in with some older ones.

by the way, thanks to everyone who has sent us mail since we got here: Anna, Mom, Roy and Nancy, Katie and Jesse, and Eric. it's super fun to get snail mail!

We have been getting weird bug bites on our legs. the bugs down here are extra gross, especially the cockroach-type things that love to crawl into olive's water dish and drown themselves.

one more thing

my pal john sonderegger suggested flickr and so i started a new page. it's much easier to post my photo albums on flickr than on shutterfly. that said, i am currently working to add photos to my new photo page. i'm putting a link to my flickr gallery on the left side of this blog...check it out. there are currently some neat photos of gila and white sands posted there.

click on MY PHOTOS to the left.

past week

last saturday night we went with faith and another joe (alma d’arte americorps members) to a huge pond (there because of the rain) which smelled super weird but even weirder were these freakish frogs that sounded like goats. literally i had heard one earlier in the neighbor’s yard and i thought they had a goat. a goat or eraserhead, one of the two. anyone who has seen the film eraserhead will know exactly the noise i’m talking about.

anyway, on sunday we drove 3 hours northwest to the gila mountain catwalks which is basically a really beautiful area with a two mile hike carved into the canyon. catwalks meaning that there were some parts of the hike that were suspension bridges or catwalks affixed to the rock. there was a beautiful stream with lots of waterfalls all over the place. afterwards we went to silver city for dinner, and it was extremely difficult to find any place open for dinner on a sunday night. we found one place, spaghetti western, which was an extremely bizarre experience. i think everyone was freaked out by this place. but silver city seemed like a really nice town in the mountains with friendly people at least those we talked to on the street. silver city definitely has a charm that las cruces lacks.

GILA:


i started americorps on monday, so i’ve been there a week now. it is hard to judge at this point how exactly the actual work will go because we have two weeks of training first. this week included lengthy CPR training and a defensive driving course. i did get to briefly see the high school i’ll be working at. it’s still early and i will update once i get a better handle on the details.

wednesday night joe and i drove out to white sands, which is about an hour away. we got there just as the sun went down and watched the full moon rise. white sands is a crazy place...there really isn’t anywhere else like it on earth. i felt like i was on a different planet, or in a sci-fi movie. it’s huge and beautiful. there were lots of kids there sledding on the dunes. i look forward to going back again and again, especially when bringing our guests out there.

MOON:


what else? i bought my tickets to come back to minnesota for my brother’s wedding labor day weekend. i’m flying in early-ish on friday and then we are driving up to international falls that day. i’m glad i was able to work that out...it’ll be nice to spend the weekend up there and see family.

briefly

been pretty busy lately--went to the gila mountain catwalks sunday (see photo above), started Americorps monday, and just got back from White Sands to see the full moon tonite. tried to blog yesterday but was having trouble posting. tomorrow after work i'll sit down and explain more about whats happening.

for now i need to get to bed!

greener pastures

as a result of all the rain in the past week, take a look at our lawn! It was dead and brown when we got here, as you can see.

BEFORE:



AFTER:




Hopefully we can keep it alive after the rains pass.

Las Cruces has been fortunate, but nearby El Paso has been completely flooded.

And yes, I know that watching grass grow is about as boring as you can get. what can I say? I've had a fairly uneventful week. But that's all going to change...we are going to take a trip out of town this weekend, and then I start work on Monday.

domestic

**quick disclaimer: i've tried several times to upload photos to my blog in the past few days and it hasn't worked. i'll post more photos as soon as i can.

i haven't updated in a while, and that is simply because not a whole lot is happening. biggest news is that i did accept the americorps position, and i start monday, august 7th.

other than that, i've been domestic (cleaning, organizing, cooking, shopping, laundering) and that doesn't really amount to riveting news. my various errands have given me a better sense of the city...at least in terms of utility and i must say that it'll take some getting used to. we were pretty spoiled in minneapolis. examples:

-only one cafe in town serves falafel, which i tried on monday. they were hard as a rock. and expensive even.
-went to the co-op in town (housed in a strip mall), whose produce section is no bigger than my couch, and a 1/2 gallon of milk was $4.49. yes, i'm glad the co-op exists and good for you for trying, but jeesh.
-the mesilla valley mall is a complete nightmare. don't think i'll be going back there.
-the art supply store is expensive and has a pretty small selection.

i'm thinking all this could be a good thing, however, since our Americorps stipends will be so small. don't have to worry too much about being tempted into making purchases.

i need to get out of the city this weekend. hoping to do a day trip. i'm feeling a bit bored (it's only been two weeks since I left my jobs in Minneapolis, but i was so used to working so much that these lazy days are getting to me.)

there has been lots of rain the past week. there were massive flash floods in el paso, about 40 minutes SE of here. luckily las cruces has had only passing rain clouds, which have amounted to mild weather and our yard is turning green. we also have a big bush in the back yard that has recently bloomed little pink flowers.

we watched a film last night that joe borrowed from an americorps member from his school. it was called 'what the bleep do we know' and it combined pseudo-scientific quantum theory with quasi-religion based upon peptides and nerve connections in the brain. idea being that we create our own reality...even claiming at one point that we could walk on water if only we put our minds to it. it was fluffy and made some pretty outrageous claims. i can't say that i recommend it. in fact, it was purely sensational and at times annoying. there were a couple of decent ideas within the muck but overall bogus with some lame special effects.

Next up: a thrilling trip to the post office, bank and property management office. i know i'm creating a pretty bleak picture here, which is not my intent. overall things are going well.