Very quick update. The awkward drive to Albuquerque got moved to next week. Also, a little highlight from my weekend in Muleshoe...
My Uncle Travis walked in the door with a beer already in his hand and after having a few stated that he doesn't consider himself a Republican. He's simply a conservative, but he would never vote for a Democrat even if it were Jesus Christ.
My family amuses me. Gotta love 'em!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
if you know me well at all, you might be in shock.
My boss gets random e-mail blasts from anywhere and everyone, most of which she just discards. This past week she got an e-mail about an event for this group called MIX Santa Fe, a social and networking type of group that's really just getting up and running. They have an event every third Thursday of the month at different locations, and this week it happened to be at a place called Corazon right around the corner from my office. Not sure if I have mentioned Corazon before, but I had tried to go there a couple of times before -- one time it was closed for whatever reason and another time it was their toga party for gay pride week. Didn't seem like the best time to check it out. So on Thursday night for the mix event I actually went. And no, I'm not kidding. If you know me well at all you know that I'm not a huge fan of going out in general, partly cause it's ridiculously expensive and also because I don't like large crowds of people I don't know. Some people may even say that I simply don't like people in general. That is definitely true to some degree.
So I get to Corazon, answer a couple of questions so I can get a free drink, and sit down to people watch and just see what happens. One girl came up to me and said "You look like you know just about as many people here as I do." And that was the start of a pretty good night. I met 6 girls, well women I guess, all in their mid to late 20s. Two lawyers, one life coach/artist that just moved back to town from Australia, a therapist and a physician's assistant, both who just moved here from Brooklyn, and one girl that just moved here from Germany where her husband is currently on a tour. Definitely an interesting mix of people, especially for me since I generally get along better with guys than girls. I have two friends that are girls, Martha and Kate, other friends that I have had that are girls have kind of disappeared. And for some reason it's easier for me to be myself around guys. No idea why, but that's just the way it is. Now back to the group I met. I feel kind of awkward cause I know that I'm the youngest one and the only one still in college, but I'd like to think I'm not your stereotypical college type. I don't spend my time binge drinking and looking for all the parties -- I'm much more of a low key person and don't think it's fun to see if you can get through class or work with a massive hangover. College students are weird.
Anywho, the group of girls I met all decided to leave Corazon and go grab some food. That was definitely interesting. We talked about everyone's jobs and how diverse they were and the talks about the physician's assistant and the therapist lead to more discussion about people's psychological and social behavior in general. One thing in particular that I thought was interesting was the notion that many people think they can basically go into a doctor's office and they'll fix them. In reality, there are an innumerable amount of things that we still don't know and can't treat or don't know how to treat. The majority of people that are sick don't have a textbook case, and let's face it, doctor's don't have magical powers. And even if a person can't be fixed or healed right away, they still feel better if the doctor simply has time to sit down and listen. Doctor's actually having time for a patient these days is not common.
After dinner we decided to make an e-mail list of everyone and plan to do regular hiking trips. Next Sunday we're going hiking up Atalaya Mountain, which I read has an altitude of about 13,000 feet I believe. This will be interesting for me. I'm used to being at sea level and I don't think my body has yet to fully adjust to Santa Fe's 7000 foot altitude. And I'm not in great shape. Going to the gym takes a lot of time once you factor in needing to shower afterwords and such, and I'm not a fan of working out when other people are there. Especially in the tiny work out room at my apartment complex. Very close quarters. But I am excited for the hiking part. I've been wanting to get out to some trails but just haven't yet, especially since I really didn't have anyone to go with. Should be a good experience.
Work is pretty much the same. I'm enjoying it -- been doing the layout for our new office and doing redlines for a project in Alamogordo. I talked to Marc a couple of weeks ago and he has gone back to KPF in NYC, taking the train an hour each way, probably working tons of overtime. I get the want to make a lot of money, but being a lowly intern in an office of 200-300 people does not sound like a good time to me. I also have no interest in designing skyscrapers. That kind of design work seems so impersonal to me. I want to design things for real people -- spaces that I can imagine and know how they'll feel on a day to day basis -- not a giant building full of cubicles for overpaid CEOs and business drones. I will also be getting to experience something new on Monday. The marketing guy in our office, Brian, and I will be going down to Albuquerque for a pre-prosal conference. I'm pretty excited to see what that's like and to see what kind of projects might be starting up in the future. I'm not sure how the drive will be -- I don't think Brian and I have ever had an actual conversation, so an hour-long car ride there and back should be interesting. I'll update on how that goes sometime next week.
Now I should probably get off the computer and go help my grandmother with dinner. I drove down to Muleshoe for the weekend and my great uncle and aunt Travis and Sue are coming over for dinner in a couple of hours. I imagine there will be a game of cards involved.
So I get to Corazon, answer a couple of questions so I can get a free drink, and sit down to people watch and just see what happens. One girl came up to me and said "You look like you know just about as many people here as I do." And that was the start of a pretty good night. I met 6 girls, well women I guess, all in their mid to late 20s. Two lawyers, one life coach/artist that just moved back to town from Australia, a therapist and a physician's assistant, both who just moved here from Brooklyn, and one girl that just moved here from Germany where her husband is currently on a tour. Definitely an interesting mix of people, especially for me since I generally get along better with guys than girls. I have two friends that are girls, Martha and Kate, other friends that I have had that are girls have kind of disappeared. And for some reason it's easier for me to be myself around guys. No idea why, but that's just the way it is. Now back to the group I met. I feel kind of awkward cause I know that I'm the youngest one and the only one still in college, but I'd like to think I'm not your stereotypical college type. I don't spend my time binge drinking and looking for all the parties -- I'm much more of a low key person and don't think it's fun to see if you can get through class or work with a massive hangover. College students are weird.
Anywho, the group of girls I met all decided to leave Corazon and go grab some food. That was definitely interesting. We talked about everyone's jobs and how diverse they were and the talks about the physician's assistant and the therapist lead to more discussion about people's psychological and social behavior in general. One thing in particular that I thought was interesting was the notion that many people think they can basically go into a doctor's office and they'll fix them. In reality, there are an innumerable amount of things that we still don't know and can't treat or don't know how to treat. The majority of people that are sick don't have a textbook case, and let's face it, doctor's don't have magical powers. And even if a person can't be fixed or healed right away, they still feel better if the doctor simply has time to sit down and listen. Doctor's actually having time for a patient these days is not common.
After dinner we decided to make an e-mail list of everyone and plan to do regular hiking trips. Next Sunday we're going hiking up Atalaya Mountain, which I read has an altitude of about 13,000 feet I believe. This will be interesting for me. I'm used to being at sea level and I don't think my body has yet to fully adjust to Santa Fe's 7000 foot altitude. And I'm not in great shape. Going to the gym takes a lot of time once you factor in needing to shower afterwords and such, and I'm not a fan of working out when other people are there. Especially in the tiny work out room at my apartment complex. Very close quarters. But I am excited for the hiking part. I've been wanting to get out to some trails but just haven't yet, especially since I really didn't have anyone to go with. Should be a good experience.
Work is pretty much the same. I'm enjoying it -- been doing the layout for our new office and doing redlines for a project in Alamogordo. I talked to Marc a couple of weeks ago and he has gone back to KPF in NYC, taking the train an hour each way, probably working tons of overtime. I get the want to make a lot of money, but being a lowly intern in an office of 200-300 people does not sound like a good time to me. I also have no interest in designing skyscrapers. That kind of design work seems so impersonal to me. I want to design things for real people -- spaces that I can imagine and know how they'll feel on a day to day basis -- not a giant building full of cubicles for overpaid CEOs and business drones. I will also be getting to experience something new on Monday. The marketing guy in our office, Brian, and I will be going down to Albuquerque for a pre-prosal conference. I'm pretty excited to see what that's like and to see what kind of projects might be starting up in the future. I'm not sure how the drive will be -- I don't think Brian and I have ever had an actual conversation, so an hour-long car ride there and back should be interesting. I'll update on how that goes sometime next week.
Now I should probably get off the computer and go help my grandmother with dinner. I drove down to Muleshoe for the weekend and my great uncle and aunt Travis and Sue are coming over for dinner in a couple of hours. I imagine there will be a game of cards involved.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
oh, family.
Last week at some point my mom told me that my Uncle Michael might be calling me because they were going to be passing through Santa Fe on their way up to Angel Fire (they live further south in Silver City, NM). Never heard from him, but my Aunt Rose called me on Saturday afternoon letting me know that they'd be driving up on Monday. First off, thanks for the wonderful advance notice. But of course they didn't know what time they were going to head out or what time they would be passing by Santa Fe (God forbid they actually plan something). I told them to give me a call Monday morning once they knew if they'd be here around lunch time so I could meet up with them on my lunch break. Didn't get a call until 2:30 Monday afternoon when they were still an hour away. So that didn't work out. They also said that I could drive up there one night this week and we could cook out, but considering it's a 2 hour drive and I wouldn't be able to leave here until 5-5:30 it would be an unbearably late night and a very tired next day at work. As I mentioned in a previous post I decided this weekend would be a good time to go to Muleshoe -- Bon Bon doesn't work and there isn't a market in Santa Fe. Rose said that maybe they could stop by here on their drive back home on Sunday, but I let her know I'd be in Muleshoe so she said, "Well if you're not going to be there then we just won't bother." As if it's my fault they're incapable of planning something or actually making an effort to see their family. They're about a 7 1/2 hour drive from Muleshoe and I bet my mom and I see Bon Bon and Jack more than they do. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
I've also started to think a little bit more about the getting my crap out of Santa Fe at the end of December situation. Considering it's going to be Christmas and I'll have a very short time period to get out of Santa Fe and get back to Boston for my final semester of college (besides the whole Master's part) I'm thinking it might be easiest to put all my stuff in storage for 4 months. This may be where seeing if my Great Uncle Travis has any spare room in his barn temporarily could come in handy, or I just put it all in storage here in Santa Fe and save the haul back for after the semester is over. We shall see. Another exciting prospect about the end of my internship/Christmas is my grandfather's idea of meeting in Las Vegas for Christmas. I would drive his car that I currently have up there and he'd take it home with him. I think that sounds like a pretty fun trade-off location. Again, however, that is still quite a few months away so who knows how it will pan out.
And finally, I have an opportunity to make a little bit more money. My boss asked me to watch her cat while she's on vacation in Michigan. Not a huge cat fan, but at least they're easy. And I'm fairly certain the cat's name is Miss Sparkle. I'm hoping that's just one of those creepy owner-pet nicknames, but I'm not positive at this point. Not saying that dog people can't be equally as crazy when it comes to their pets, but cat people definitely are of a different breed.
I've also started to think a little bit more about the getting my crap out of Santa Fe at the end of December situation. Considering it's going to be Christmas and I'll have a very short time period to get out of Santa Fe and get back to Boston for my final semester of college (besides the whole Master's part) I'm thinking it might be easiest to put all my stuff in storage for 4 months. This may be where seeing if my Great Uncle Travis has any spare room in his barn temporarily could come in handy, or I just put it all in storage here in Santa Fe and save the haul back for after the semester is over. We shall see. Another exciting prospect about the end of my internship/Christmas is my grandfather's idea of meeting in Las Vegas for Christmas. I would drive his car that I currently have up there and he'd take it home with him. I think that sounds like a pretty fun trade-off location. Again, however, that is still quite a few months away so who knows how it will pan out.
And finally, I have an opportunity to make a little bit more money. My boss asked me to watch her cat while she's on vacation in Michigan. Not a huge cat fan, but at least they're easy. And I'm fairly certain the cat's name is Miss Sparkle. I'm hoping that's just one of those creepy owner-pet nicknames, but I'm not positive at this point. Not saying that dog people can't be equally as crazy when it comes to their pets, but cat people definitely are of a different breed.
Monday, July 12, 2010
santa fe international folk art market.
I really don't have much to update with at the moment, but I wanted to put up a couple of pictures I took from the International Folk Art market. There were tons of people there, and artists from all over the world. Unfortunately I couldn't really afford anything that I liked. I really wanted this metal art piece from Haiti but it was out of my price range. There were also some beautiful scarves from India and Peru and other countries, but I'm not really a scarf person. Anywho, here are my two favorite pictures from the market. I'll put up more pictures of Santa Fe in general another time.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
getting ready for another move.
As I posted previously, my firm is moving into a new office. We now have the schedule and move-date finalized. Today I wore jeans because I thought my boss and I were going to be doing measurements of the new office, but that got pushed to tomorrow. Jeans two days in a row? I think I'm okay with that one. So tomorrow I'll be taking measurements of the new space and putting a plan of it into CAD. I'll be in charge of "design development" of the new office, a.k.a. placing furnishing and plotters, etc. And thanks to my experience with InDesign I'll be helping Brian with postcards to notify clients and contacts of the new location. He'll draw out what he wants, and I'll simply drop it into InDesign. If anyone else in this office dealt with the InDesign portion of it they'd probably be reading a manual as they went along and it would take much longer than necessary. I'm kind of excited for that part -- I'm starting to miss InDesign and Illustrator. Our overall goal is to have everything ready to move on June 30, then the following week while my boss is on vacation we can get everything organized and settled for when she comes back.
This past weekend my mom and grandparents were in town for the 4th, and I think the five days they were here was good. If they had been here any longer my mom might have killed my grandmother (although she still had another couple days to spend with her in Lubbock) or my grandmother may have even killed my mom. Let's just say I'm really glad I'm not in Lubbock with them right now.
They got here on Thursday afternoon and as soon as I got off work I met them for dinner then we caught a movie. My grandparents went to see The Karate Kid and my mom and I went to see Eclipse. They enjoyed their movie, and we enjoyed our movie. I was surprised that my mom liked it as much as she did. She seemed fairly bored with the first two movies, but with this one she didn't even want to get up to go to the bathroom. I'm going to have to see it again, probably this weekend, so I can really just enjoy it. I think the first time around I'm so concentrated on comparing it with the book that I didn't get to just sit back and enjoy it as much. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it and think it was the best of the three so far, but I still need a second viewing.
On Friday they met me for lunch -- we went to The Shed at The Plaza -- and it was very good. Very busy (we had a 40 minute wait at lunch time) but very good. I wouldn't mind going back there again. My boss had left for Colorado that morning and said I could leave early so I could spend more time with my mom, so I took her up on that offer, left early, and the fam and I went to Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino. When you sign up for the Player's Club you get $25 in free money to play the slots, which I lost all of, plus $20 of my own money. On the first $5 or $10 of my mom's free money she won $90, and left the casino up $180. Not fair at all.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty typical days for my mom and Bon Bon -- shopping and wine. I took them to Jackalope when we got up and around on Saturday (and we saw Ali MacGraw there, the girl from Love Story) then headed to the Plaza. We shopped for a little while then went to Maria's for dinner and margaritas. The food there was also very good, but both my mom and I agree that Habanero's margaritas are still better. Sunday we went to the wine festival, which was a pretty good deal in my opinion. It was $13 to get in and you got a glass with your admission and all the tastings you wanted. I ended up buying some cactus & pineapple jam and a bottle of wine called 'Girls Are Meaner'. Then Monday was the hurry up and go day. Bon Bon kept pushing up the time she thought they needed to leave, so the "let's buy Ashley groceries before we leave" was very rushed and stressful. That's when heads really might have gone flying. We finished that an hour before they really needed to leave, and mind you the only reason they really needed to leave early was so Bon Bon didn't miss 'The Bachelorette'. They need to get a DVR, or some blank tapes and do it the old-fashioned way. So they were off in a hurry, and after they left I was exhausted and spent the rest of the day catching up on shows and watching a movie.
And now I'm trying to figure out a weekend to go down to Muleshoe soon, scheduling it around Bon Bon's work and the markets that will be going on in Santa Fe. This weekend is the International Folk Art Market, two weeks after that is the Spanish Market, and four weeks after that is the Indian Market. I definitely want to get down there sooner so it's not too close to Labor Day when I'll already be going down there, so I'm thinking the weekend in-between the International Folk Art Market and the Spanish Market. I'm definitely excited about all the markets. It's too bad that my mom and my grandparents just missed them.
I decided a while ago that I didn't want to fly anywhere for Thanksgiving. I'm tired of airplanes and really won't have much time since I'll be working. With that said, my mom had the idea of going to Ruidoso for Thanksgiving -- kind of convenient this year since she'd only have to pay for one plane ticket. We booked a unit at Crown Point but I'm not sure if she's looked at airfare yet. It's pretty up there. So we'll see if that's actually going to work out or not.
Finally, Martha has decided to go to school in Texas (a decision that I never had much question about), at Midwestern State University to be exact. It's so far north in Texas that she'll basically be in Oklahoma, and also 500 miles from Santa Fe. About the same distance as a trip from Orlando to Atlanta. We're hoping to go skiing in the winter, probably right after she's done with finals and before I leave Santa Fe. Should be exciting considering neither of us have ever skiied before. Looking forward to the next 6 months.
This past weekend my mom and grandparents were in town for the 4th, and I think the five days they were here was good. If they had been here any longer my mom might have killed my grandmother (although she still had another couple days to spend with her in Lubbock) or my grandmother may have even killed my mom. Let's just say I'm really glad I'm not in Lubbock with them right now.
They got here on Thursday afternoon and as soon as I got off work I met them for dinner then we caught a movie. My grandparents went to see The Karate Kid and my mom and I went to see Eclipse. They enjoyed their movie, and we enjoyed our movie. I was surprised that my mom liked it as much as she did. She seemed fairly bored with the first two movies, but with this one she didn't even want to get up to go to the bathroom. I'm going to have to see it again, probably this weekend, so I can really just enjoy it. I think the first time around I'm so concentrated on comparing it with the book that I didn't get to just sit back and enjoy it as much. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it and think it was the best of the three so far, but I still need a second viewing.
On Friday they met me for lunch -- we went to The Shed at The Plaza -- and it was very good. Very busy (we had a 40 minute wait at lunch time) but very good. I wouldn't mind going back there again. My boss had left for Colorado that morning and said I could leave early so I could spend more time with my mom, so I took her up on that offer, left early, and the fam and I went to Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino. When you sign up for the Player's Club you get $25 in free money to play the slots, which I lost all of, plus $20 of my own money. On the first $5 or $10 of my mom's free money she won $90, and left the casino up $180. Not fair at all.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty typical days for my mom and Bon Bon -- shopping and wine. I took them to Jackalope when we got up and around on Saturday (and we saw Ali MacGraw there, the girl from Love Story) then headed to the Plaza. We shopped for a little while then went to Maria's for dinner and margaritas. The food there was also very good, but both my mom and I agree that Habanero's margaritas are still better. Sunday we went to the wine festival, which was a pretty good deal in my opinion. It was $13 to get in and you got a glass with your admission and all the tastings you wanted. I ended up buying some cactus & pineapple jam and a bottle of wine called 'Girls Are Meaner'. Then Monday was the hurry up and go day. Bon Bon kept pushing up the time she thought they needed to leave, so the "let's buy Ashley groceries before we leave" was very rushed and stressful. That's when heads really might have gone flying. We finished that an hour before they really needed to leave, and mind you the only reason they really needed to leave early was so Bon Bon didn't miss 'The Bachelorette'. They need to get a DVR, or some blank tapes and do it the old-fashioned way. So they were off in a hurry, and after they left I was exhausted and spent the rest of the day catching up on shows and watching a movie.
And now I'm trying to figure out a weekend to go down to Muleshoe soon, scheduling it around Bon Bon's work and the markets that will be going on in Santa Fe. This weekend is the International Folk Art Market, two weeks after that is the Spanish Market, and four weeks after that is the Indian Market. I definitely want to get down there sooner so it's not too close to Labor Day when I'll already be going down there, so I'm thinking the weekend in-between the International Folk Art Market and the Spanish Market. I'm definitely excited about all the markets. It's too bad that my mom and my grandparents just missed them.
I decided a while ago that I didn't want to fly anywhere for Thanksgiving. I'm tired of airplanes and really won't have much time since I'll be working. With that said, my mom had the idea of going to Ruidoso for Thanksgiving -- kind of convenient this year since she'd only have to pay for one plane ticket. We booked a unit at Crown Point but I'm not sure if she's looked at airfare yet. It's pretty up there. So we'll see if that's actually going to work out or not.
Finally, Martha has decided to go to school in Texas (a decision that I never had much question about), at Midwestern State University to be exact. It's so far north in Texas that she'll basically be in Oklahoma, and also 500 miles from Santa Fe. About the same distance as a trip from Orlando to Atlanta. We're hoping to go skiing in the winter, probably right after she's done with finals and before I leave Santa Fe. Should be exciting considering neither of us have ever skiied before. Looking forward to the next 6 months.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
finally a slow day.
After being insanely busy for the past couple of weeks, my boss decided today was going to be a slower day today. While I don't mind a break on occassion and a more relaxed day in the office, I also get bored fairly easily. I'm finding myself staring at the same thing over and over, rechecking it to see what tweaks I can make. Right now I'm doing interior elevations for a Senior Skills Center in Alamogordo, and let me say they are pretty simple elevations. I finished them this morning, looked over them and tweaked a few things, added some dimensions, and since then just keep checking and rechecking because I don't have anything better to do at the moment.
Right now, as usual when I'm writing this, I'm taking my lunch hour. Thankful from a break for staring at those elevations, but dreading 1:00 when I have to get back to work but I still won't have anything else to do because my boss will be at a lunch meeting until 2:00. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I weren't so anxious about tonight. My mom and grandparents are in the car, somewhere between Amarillo and here, and when I get off work we'll be getting dinner and hurrying over to the movie theater. So my grandparents weren't sitting at my apartment with nothing to do they are going to see The Karate Kid while my mom and I see Eclipse. Then tomorrow I might try to sneak out a half hour early or so. We shall see!
Right now, as usual when I'm writing this, I'm taking my lunch hour. Thankful from a break for staring at those elevations, but dreading 1:00 when I have to get back to work but I still won't have anything else to do because my boss will be at a lunch meeting until 2:00. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I weren't so anxious about tonight. My mom and grandparents are in the car, somewhere between Amarillo and here, and when I get off work we'll be getting dinner and hurrying over to the movie theater. So my grandparents weren't sitting at my apartment with nothing to do they are going to see The Karate Kid while my mom and I see Eclipse. Then tomorrow I might try to sneak out a half hour early or so. We shall see!
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