so ariz

joe and i took advantage of a three-day weekend to head over to arizona to do some exploring. after a work party friday night we left early saturday morning for tucson. upon arrival we found out about a stupid gem & mineral convention going on in town basically clogging the whole city up, most notably the hotels & hostel, so much that, to our disdain, every place was both booked and double priced, leading to an extensive, multi-hour search for the lone available room in the city.

we found it, after combing the city for way-y-y too long, calling and stopping by any place we saw. our mistake was to stop at the unbearable flamingo suites, this was perhaps at hour four in our search and joe agreed to the room without looking at it first, apparently a terrible move but in our haste we didn't anticipate the disgustingness inside. and oh god was that place a dump. it smelled like ass. we spent about five minutes inside and realized that it was uninhabitable, even in our state, it was absolutely shady and disgusting. joe is still playing phone tag with lourdes, the only person employed at the place able to make refunds, so we wait and hope it wasn't a pricey mistake. luckily the holiday inn across the street from the flamingo was kind enough to point us in the direction of the only decent hotel within the city limits with an available, overpriced room.

lesson learned to never again go somewhere without previous arrangements. too bad because a reasonably-priced, chic-seeming downtown establishment called the hotel congress seemed to be a perfect fit, but alas all booked up. same with the hostel, who by the way doubled their prices for the gaddam gem show; i thought that hostels had some code of ethics against changing prices (c'mon, hostels are supposed to cater to people with little funding, right?) so anywho. we did get to see pretty much all of tucson about 48 times but not the way we would've like at all.

no photos of that day. should've snapped one of the flamingo though!

we got up in the morning and headed due east for the desert museum, which was chosen due to its proximity to saguaro east, which was our ultimate destination. the museum/zoo/nature preserve was pretty cool, packed due to amazing weather. there were some interesting things to see there, but the hike in saguaro was much better overall, less tourists, more freedom to roam. we went on a four-mile hike up to a ridge and back. it was beautiful & weird & everything like that. those cacti are crazy...and they're everywhere, thick like a forest.


hummingbird at desert museum


joe at top of hike


typical saguaro shot

so then we hopped in the car and headed 90 miles south to bisbee, passing through tombstone, which we heard sucked so didn't stop. OK corral, wyatt earp, whatever, seemed like a tourist trap. so onward to bisbee, where we checked into a haunted bed and breakfast. then we went and got a big mexican meal in town & went to bed shortly afterwards. joe seems to think something spooky happened during the night there, and i'll admit that i was up on and off all night, probably mostly due to the screaming in the streets because of a nearby bar. but the b & b was really cute and old-timey.


B is for bisbee

bisbee is a mining town built into the mountains, with lots of old historic buildings and the like. but the copper & gold mining went bust half a century ago and so the town is in semi-disrepair, mostly inhabited by weirdos and hippies now. lots of art galleries and things, lots of empty houses or houses that should probably be condemned but are still used. mixed in with some really beautiful spaces and buildings.


bisbee decor

we spent today wandering around the town and we had a really nice breakfast at dot's diner. it was great but a half day of wandering was pretty much enough to see everything, plus the vibe there is strange, the locals didn't seem too welcoming even though tourism probably is the main source of money for the town. there seemed to be a lot of vagrant-types, a guy that lived there was talking about how the hippies retreat to the mountain tops to live in caves during the hot summer, then come down and display art or something in the winter, but i really didn't see any good art at all, just some crappy-ish stuff in some gallery windows. i think it seemed like the potential for the area was very high but something was a bit off about it all. the best part was the architecture, the labyrinth of stairways between houses and streets, and the european-scale of the town since it was built mostly before the turn of the century before cars were wide-spread. so that was neat.

as usual, lots of photos up on flickr. okay i'm going to bed!

the owls are not what they seem

It has certainly been a long time since my last blog; many things have happened in the meantime, but rather than recap everything I figure I may as well just start where I left off—infrequent & by no means all-encompassing notes on, well, pretty much nothing special. Guess I’ll just include a few photos from lost time & let them speak for themselves.


(me and rebecca hiking in cloudcroft, white sands in the far background)

I don’t know what prompted my bloglessness, & I especially understand that I have probably by now lost most all of my already small reader pool but I shall carry on as though they’re there. There is no there there.*

We had a low key weekend, probably partly due to joe’s illness, and my newfound interest in embroidery. I just started this abstract embroidery montage thingy, which led a friend to insult its lack of thing-ness and burst my bubble. Thanks Rebecca. Just kidding.

We went to see ‘there will be blood’ and that was definitely the highlight of the weekend. It’s an amazing film; a tour de force, Daniel day-lewis’s opus, blah blah. I highly recommend it & joe and I can’t get it out of our heads. I can’t quite interpret exactly what they were getting at; the lead character is repulsive & magnetic & there is no redemption in the end.

It’s been a long January and it seems like ages, not weeks, since we were back home in Minnesota.


(reece on xmas)

Now it’s back to the old routine, which is pretty much a conveyor belt of the same old thing, centered on work. There is a good energy with the kids in the program so that makes it easier. Other daily living things, cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc. take up most of my free time. That and the twin peaks series which is also amazing. We are about half way through & it’s the default activity of the moment in a good way.


(laura palmer from twin peaks)

Musically still in the animal collective/panda bear phase which has been set for a good long time now, since we saw them in el paso several months ago on a whim not having heard them much. Also dorn brought over some interesting early 80s records the other day, so have some new things to explore.

Am looking forward to a mid-march trip to Puerto Vallarta followed by a much-anticipated visit from my mom. Hoping to see anna when she comes into Albq for a few days this month. Hoping that the hurt family stops over sometime in april when they move. Trying to figure out what to do once summer comes…definitely thinking a lot about a japan/hong kong trip, mainly because we’d have places to stay so mostly just the expense of airfare would hold us back. Also that it may be really super hot during that time.


(joe & joe at chaco canyon over thanksgiving)

I’m reading ‘the places in between’ by rory stewart, about his walk across Afghanistan in 2002. It’s been a fun read, I mean a good read, because I don’t envy what he was doing & I certainly don’t think he had a ton of fun doing it. But it sheds light on a foreign world that’s largely unknown to outsiders. Some of the culture out there seems completely outrageous to the western mind. Or at least my western mind. Anyway you should read it. I needed some non-fiction in my life.


(here's a typical scene at our house. nothing too exciting.)

Work-wise things have been busy but I think going relatively well. Aside from building & improving the program I’m also taking a hard look at myself and my management style (or lack thereof). I’ve never really had to manage others much, apart from the summer camp last summer, and it’s been difficult at times. I used to just assume that people would inherently do whatever they could to improve the program (this is in the context of the non-profit world, I don’t really know much about corporations or anything since I’ve never really worked for them, but I imagine that motivation there is mostly purely economical)…well anyways I’ve found that management is more delicate than that. I’ve also found that it’s hard for me to delegate tasks because I’d rather just do them myself in most cases since then they’ll be done my way, but that has led me to near-burn out several times since this new job & I can’t do that anymore, there’s just too much else I need to focus on. It’s been a good learning experience for me.

Enough about work. I shouldn’t be thinking about it on a Sunday night anyway.

We’ve been making good tofu, joe’s been messing around with the new loop pedal & the voice recorder, I’ve been loving my new camera (although not traveling enough to really use it as much as I’d like), olive’s been a superstar. Yes that’s corny but if you have a pet you know what I mean. If you don’t have a pet then you probably just barfed in your mouth a little bit. Too bad.

Thinking about the future, as always, as most people do. Have no idea exactly what to do, but what else is new? hopefully the new future includes some blogging!

*Gertrude Stein quote, for roy, who for some odd reason knows who Gertrude Stein is, and can answer trivial pursuit questions about her.

I'll leave you with a series of jungle-themed glamour shots!

linky

hey minnesotans,

here's a link to a salon.com article by garrison keillor about the bridge collapse.

sincerely,
mo-bot

back in black

after a brief, unexplained haitus, i'm back !! yesss! thank you, mr. hurt, for your phone call which prompted me to recover from my bloglessness. therefore i just dumped a bunch of photos onto flickr and looky looky at us (we've changed over the past two months):

hey juney juney juney juney june

hot. sweaty. desert in the summer. 100 or so is the norm right now, and while it is not *quite* as uncomfortable as say, minnesota at 100 degrees, it's still burning hot. the worst possible place to be is in a car. unfortunately, due to how this city is set up, the car is unavoidable in most situations. biking may even be worse--but i don't even want to try it.

so, summer camp is in full swing; four weeks down, two more to go. this has been taking up a major amount of my time, including weekends, so that i am behind in not only blogging but also basic survival tasks. well, it's not that bad, but i'm definitely in the work zone right now. the kids make it a lot of fun, it's the work that goes on behind the scenes that is exhausting and sometimes tries my patience. owell. i'm sure i will look back with fond memories of this crazy experience. next week we will have a float in the electric light parade for the 4th of july, then the following week a big luau party with 300+ expected. after next week, camp will end, with a final wrap-up week for my americorps program, including a graduation party that i am coordinating at la posta de mesilla friday, july 20th. my new job starts monday, july 23rd. in the meantime, joe, fresh off a trip to nyc, will be heading to MN for 10 days starting sunday. i have no doubt that the time that passes while he's gone will go quickly, as i'll be in the thick of things with camp.

remember when joe and i went to marfa, texas last october for the chinati open house? well, just found out last night that sonic youth will be playing the free concert there this year...which is amazing! we were planning to go anyway, because it's such a great time, but now...! wow. we can hardly believe it.

am very much looking forward to starting the new job. it is really a great opportunity that popped up seemingly out of nowhere. the potential for this project is huge, since we are starting from scratch. i know it won't be easy, but i like a good challenge. and the salary is icing on the cake. since we have lived so cheaply for so long, i'm hoping we can continue to do so and save up for travel & the like.

more on the job. i will be the after school arts coordinator for a new initiative in gadsden school district, at gadsden middle school. it is located in anthony, new mexico, 20-odd miles away (yes, there is a bit of a commute, but i will be splitting my time between there and alma/court youth center, joe's school). this is made possible by a major grant from a national funder, and there are 5 sites around new mexico, serving what was identified as some of the neediest areas. anthony being a border town, it is 98% spanish-speaking. and low-income. the program is a comprehensive approach to improving students' lives including health services, key family supports and then our component, after school arts classes. middle school, while a challenging age, is a critical time in children's development...i certainly learned that by my experience working at the high school level this year. many students have so many issues coming into high school, and i had often thought that if only they could have been reached earlier...so, yeah, the potential is great. i also believe that the support system at alma/court youth center is great for a project like this, so i really look forward to getting started. however, as i've said, right now i am absorbed in my current job and haven't been able to get in too deep with the new job, with the exception of a conference in albequerque last week. i learned a lot about the new program then and met a lot of interesting new people. should be great!

and, of course, joe is thrilled that he can stay & continue to teach. they really love him over there, not least the students, so i think overall that things will turn out well. i am admittedly a little disappointed that i won't have any time off between jobs, since our original plan had been to move. there is a romantic lure to floating & being unsure of what will happen, but that can also be super stressful too. altho las cruces itself isn't ideal, there is so much more to explore around new mexico & the southwest in general so we should be able to keep ourselves entertained.

we have flirted with the idea of moving into a different house, but since our lease is month-to-month now, it's not urgent. if something great pops up in the next month or two, we'll move. if not, it's not the end of the world. i'd like to have a washer & dryer, less bugs, and more energy efficiency in terms of cooling/heating. plus an oven that works correctly. altho i haven't found anything in our neighborhood (where we'd stay, due to the proximity to alma), other houses are so cheap in general that i think we could upgrade substantially without paying much at all. or, we'll just stay here. we'll see.

uhm, yeah. just found out that joe and i will be headed to ruidoso for work a few days in july...heard it's beautiful and also that it is 15 degrees cooler up there in the mountains so that will be a nice mini-escape for me...i'm going to need it by then!

minne yay!

got back from a great trip back home on sunday night; unfortunately, work has been so crazy that i haven't had time to post all the photos yet. here are some samples:





that's my nephew, reece, with whom i spent the majority of my time. that was great since he started walking and talking since i saw him last at xmas. plus he really loved hanging out with me, so we charmed each other.

basically, i got there and we (my mom, and brother's family) headed up to ely to my aunt's house for three days, which was relaxing and we did a couple of hikes around the edge of the boundary waters. that's where we saw the lady slipper. ely was a nice change from the desert i'm used to.

back in the cities, i babysat my nephew with my mom during the day because my brother and his wife, andy, just bought a house so they were moving out of their apartment. i hung out a lot with my dad, which was really good, and i also spent a day each with both sets of grandparents and other extended family.

i went to minneapolis and ate at yummy restaurants that i miss out on being down here. we went out with dwyer, tiffany, jesse and katie, carter and adam friday night at peninsula on nicollet. saturday katie and i went to the walker, shopped around uptown, ate indian. then dwyer and tiff came back and jesse and katie had a big barbeque for eiko and trevor's birthdays.

so now back and the summer camp i'm supervising started monday, so it's been busy. working lots. i'll check back with the blog soon i hope. also working on some cool packages to send out.

joe good, cat good. getting hot. that's all for now!

about to embark

on my trip back home to minne. got off work tonight at 9pm, came home & packed in 45 minutes and now i'm sitting here looking at my pack and thinking that either i am getting really good at packing, or, i am not bringing nearly enough because its a small amount. no checked baggage, no monkey business. biggest concern is how to entertain myself during a 4 hour layover in denver. but my book is fat and getting to be quite good so i just may be set.

work has been intense and will be even more hectic upon my return, so i will really savour the free time in MN. hope to see some of you there!

g'night.

chiricahua

here's a few photos from our hiking/camping trip this weekend in southeastern arizona. it was amazing.

view of the chiricahuas:


joe and joe, near the end of the hike:


cactus flowers:


we (8 of us) got there after dark friday night and set up camp. woke up around 6am saturday morning in order to have time to make breakfast & coffee and break down camp before 8am. went to the chiricahua national monument visitor's center to catch the free shuttle up to the top of the mountains. from there we took a nice leisurely 7.3 mile hike all day down through the monument and ended up back at the visitors center. the rock formations were crazy! then we took a gravel mountain road through the park which took two hours even though it was only 19 miles long. we picked out a nice, isolated forest campground for the second night and made a big meal and a nice fire. next day was relaxed, hiking around the forest and playing in the creek. overall a beautiful weekend...it felt really good to get out of town and take advantage of the southwest.

check out my flickr page for lots more photos.

past week

things have been hectic but i got a much-needed day off today, so here's an update:

joe's surprise birthday potluck went really well. i had told him that i would make dinner and we would go out afterwards, but our friends and i coordinated a mass entrance at about 7:30 for dinner and drinks at our house. i made fig and olive tampanade, orange ginger tofu, strawberry poppyseed salad and garlic mashed potatoes. friends brought over sushi, pasta salad, fruit, stuffed mushrooms, chips, cake, bread, wine and beer. the neighbors performed a song about joe, and we eventually went up to the mountains to enjoy the full moon. i think joe was really happy about how it all turned out.



on thursday, joe and i worked this big picnic in the park for my americorps program. all the kids in our afterschool program were invited, along with all their families, to celebrate the end of the school year. there were hundreds of elementary kids running around, and joe and i had the most intense face painting session he's ever done. it was nonstop (free) facepainting for hours. that was crazy.

friday night was the opening for the museum show that joe's in. it was great. i'm going to leave him to blog about that one.

this weekend was big for me, because we had an americorps event that i coordinated, with the help of some of my coworkers. basically i had been busting my ass the past few weeks getting together everything for this neighborhood beautification project. our budget for the project was nearly zero, but we were able to secure donations for everything: we worked with the city of las cruces codes enforcement, habitat for humanity, a local community center called 'the dream center', etc. what we did was go into this low-income neighborhood and completely repainted a house, put in a bunch of landscaping and seeded and fertilized the lawn. all the paint, tools, most of the landscaping materials, 100 flowers, etc. were all donated. we even got 25 pizzas, bottled water, soda, and medeterranean food donated to feed the volunteers both days. we had 45 volunteers between americorps members, their friends, local kids from the shelter and the group homes and even walmart sent over some employees to help. it was awesome, and i'm really pleased with how everything came together. the couple that lived there are very happy too. so that was both saturday and sunday, all day long, plus lots of overtime the past few weeks for me, hence my day off today. i'd like to post a photo of it, but i'm not sure if that's kosher or what...especially because some of the kids we had helping out aren't supposed to be publicly linked to the shelter/group home etc.

saturday night we hung out with our friends ilana and joe, who are moving back to DC for the summer after finals this week. that was bittersweet, since they won't be back in cruces until after our americorps contracts are up, so we may not see them again.

so, yah. it's been fun. a big thank you to anna for sending me a letter from france, and to chelsea for sending a package from guatemala. nothing beats getting things in the mail. i've got some packages to send out myself, hopefully today.

see ya

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!

yay birthday fun time. just before we started dating, i think when i was turning 17, joe sang the beatles birthday song for me. he doesn't even remember it...but i do, since i had a huge crush on him. i still do. love ya babes!

so this is about the best youtube has to offer for that song: