long time no see!

um, yeah. I haven't updated this in over a year... oops. Some major life changes in the meantime... Dad died Sept 17, 2007. Still in complete and utter shock about that one. For those of you that don't know, it was in his sleep, he was healthy, not a bad way to go. But devastating for the rest of us, he'd only just turned 59 on the 6th, no warning.


The good news is that he knew that I had just moved to NYC and started my veterinary career! He was so incredibly proud of me. I've been working at a small animal hospital on the upper east side in Manhattan, and living just a block away from work. I've become a thousandfold more confident, and have a clientele that is really growing and devoted. I love what I do and where I live.

My little sister Sara just got married last month. I still can't believe it, it was an amazing, wonderful wedding. It was hard without dad but he knew that it was going to be at the top of the sandia mountains in Albuquerque, and that's just how it happened. Absolutely stunning.


That's all for now. Wonder if anyone will notice this post, after all this time. Sorry! But life just gets in the way sometimes, you know?

Pilates and a date

Yesterday I went swimming AND tried pilates for the first time. I liked it but my lats are complaining today! :) Plus it was fun to catch up with my friend Jen from my last job. I also got invited to dinner at Melissa's cute new rental house and then had drinks with Ana (who just bought a home). So I feel like I have friends here again, such a wonderful feeling (and that I can't wait to get my own place again, somewhat nerve-racking).

So something I started while in California was that I joined eHarmony. I'm still not entirely sure why, but mainly I wanted to meet some new people and just have fun. Which I did! But then of course I moved back home, AGAIN. I had a first date with a new guy here in town, we'll see how that goes. I'm taking it slow since I'll be moving again when I find a job in NYC. Don't ask me what I'm thinking, I'm not totally sure myself! :)

The big news!

Ok, so apparently the trip report derailed me, I need to just let it go and move on! I thought about starting from scratch, but I'll just leave what I have and continue with where I'm at now.

The big news is, I PASSED MY BOARDS!! Very exciting, let me tell you. What a relief!

In the past couple months I hung out in California, then I went to Belgium, Scotland, and France, and then I did my first sprint-distance triathlon here in New Mexico this past Sunday.

Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things on here! I'm training for another sprint triathlon in Rocky Point, Mexico next month, and I'm working on my resume to start job searching. So both those things should give me stuff to post about...

Red Paint PowWow

After going through Las Cruces yet AGAIN (we stopped and had dinner with my parents) we made it all the way to Silver City, NM that night. The next morning (Sun, 1/21/07) we went to the Red Paint PowWow. The Red Paint tribe are the Warm Springs Apache that live in southern NM. It started out with a gourd dance which was rather ho-hum as it was very repetitive so we did some shopping in the morning amongst the Native American handmade jewelry. I bought a beautiful silver necklace from this artist.Some beautiful arrows that were for sale.This little girl was getting ready in the hallway. Her whole family had on traditional dress and was preparing for the contest.
During the 'Grand Entry' all the groups came onto the main floor one by one, until everyone was dancing and whirling around the center of the gym.We were invited to join in one of the dances. Petra was dying to try some of the moves she'd seen earlier but we just kept it to a step-slide-step-slide like everyone else.
Our only complaint of the day was that it really started so much later than advertised so we ended up spending most of the day there. We wanted to get out because there were predictions for MORE snow!

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Later that day, still Sat 1/20/07, we finally made it back to Las Cruces. As soon as I parked the car in my parents' driveway I realized that I'd forgotten my purse at the Quizno's in El Paso where we'd had lunch! Ugh. So we had to drive almost an hour EAST again, but luckily my sister convinced us to go to Mexico in the meantime since the border crossing is right there!

We took this Border Jumper trolley so we didn't have to worry about driving or parking or directions, and got out at an indoor market for an hour.
Chile peppers!Me wearing a sombrero! Just before we took this picture the store owner (who had offered the free pictures) said "$5 per picture" but we just pretended we didn't hear him. :)I bought a silver shoe necklace for $8 from this vendor.Us outside the market waiting for the trolley to pick us up.
There's a baby on her back in that sling.
A food vendor in the middle of traffic.Two street musicians.Buying a snack on the US-Mexico bridge.El Paso, TX from the bridge
We stopped at a hotel in El Paso with a beautiful stained glass dome before heading to the car.

Icicle Desert

That morning (Sat 1/20/07) we were trying to plan our next move over the hotel breakfast, which actually included waffles. A fellow traveler overheard us and shared her story of getting stuck at a gas station for several hours a ways down the road, then following a snowplow into town. She was convinced everything would melt by noon and that we should try going back through the mountains and continue on our original route. Petra and I were very worried about getting stuck somewhere and the roads and forecast did NOT look good north of us. We decided, reluctantly, to turn around and head back west and scrap our entire well-planned itinerary. This lady was very excited for us and STRONGLY encouraged us not to give up! When we pulled over to take this picture below she happened to be behind us and was sure we were having car trouble. We were just glad she wasn't on our road trip with us as I'm sure we would not have gotten a word in edge-wise!
We stopped at a rest area and in the time we were there the clouds lifted and the sun came out! This first picture was right after we stopped, you couldn't even see the mountains across the way!
This was farther up the road with blue sky!

Van Horn, TX

That afternoon, on Fri 1/19/07, we had planned to go to White Sands National Monument, but when we called to check it was CLOSED due to heavy snow fall!! Crazy. So we realized we had to skip that and instead headed toward Carlsbad Caverns via the southern route, through Texas, since that's what looked better on the Department of Transportation websites. Three-quarters of the way there there was a road block and the road ahead was closed due to snow and ice. When I asked the men in the snowplow where we could get gas and a hotel for the night he replied (in a VERY noticeable Texan drawl):
"Your best bet is prolly Van Horn to the south, but no one's been that way, good luck!"
Petra repeated it every chance she got for the rest of the trip.

What you can't see on the picture below is the icicles hanging from the bottom of the sign.Freezing rain coating the rosebushesJavier mournfully surveying the pristine snow in the parking lot, were we going to be able to get out of this town?!
Using a credit card to scrape the snow off the windshield.Making the most of it, and glad we were getting out!