Adventures with Creede

Hey everyone! This weekend Thomas and I took a much needed mini-break to Santa Fe and Taos. Creede is now living in SF so he showed us the sights and we got to spend lots of time hanging out. There is much to see and do in the Plaza - tons of restaurants, cool shops and more galleries than one would think possible. In Santa Fe we stayed at El Dorado Hotel. I highly recommend it - it has one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept on and nice, large rooms. We stayed at the Taos Inn in downtown Taos and it's a funky hotel that is blessed with fireplaces in each room. I found Taos to be a bit of a letdown after Santa Fe and remain baffled as to why Julia Roberts chooses to live there. But it was fun for a day.


Here are some pics of our trip:

Santa Fe

And here are some of our more memorable moments:

• Dinner at The Shed with Creede - easily the best guacamole I've ever had and great margaritas. The restaurant is housed in a building that dates back to the 1600s.
• Meeting Igor the Misogynist Parrot - Creede's new pet is beyond adorable and has personality to spare. Though he is a famed woman-hater, he seemed to like me. I felt very Sally Fieldish.
• Seeing all the kooks in NM (it's no wonder Igor's fav word is cukoo - he should be the designated town crier). Aside from being just generally wacky, I also finally found a place that's more liberal that Boulder. One group protesting Bush/War in the middle of a busy intersection included a guy juggling and wearing a Nazi armband. Lovely.
• Taking the 90 minute Custom Tour by Clarice - we learned a lot about the history of Santa Fe, drove all over town, got some great ideas of what to do the next time we're in town, and heard about Shirley McClaine's ill-fated attempt to build a house up on the tippy top of the town's highest peak. Wouldn't have missed it
• Touring the Larredo Chapel and viewing the miraculous staircase. This chapel was absolutely beautiful and we were properly amazed by the staircase and its story.
• Gallery hopping along the plaza. We're not fans of the typical Santa Fe style art, but there are plenty of other options in this town - all kinds of art and artists. Our favorite was Lynden Saint Victor and his surrealist works. We were mightily tempted by a print or two.
• Taking in all the pueblo style architecture. Some ordinance was passed in Santa Fe in the early 1900s that everything had to be covered in adobe. It's bizarre to see everything from McDonald's to Target in that style.
  
• Having a beer at Evangelos in downtown Santa Fe. First off, Evangelos is my favorite kind of bar - it's been there forever, people were friendly, it's kind of divish and it has a history. There were a couple of huge photos of a WWII soldier behind the bar that piqued my interest. I asked the extremely nice bartender about them and it turned out they were of his father, Angelo Klonis who first opened the bar. He was a sergeant in the army in WWII and his photo was taken by famed photographer Eugene Smith. The picure ended up on Life magazine and was commemorated on a postage stamp in 2002.
  
• Dining at Doc Marten's in Taos - we were having a very nice dinner when this middle aged white lady comes in decked out in American Indian gear, introduces herself to a table of people, sits down with them, and in short order proceeds to pull out some marraccas and start chanting. She then reads a story about a wolf. After a bit, one of the men finally interrupts her and tells her they're going to talk about something else now, but she is welcome to stay. So she sits there and watches them eat for the rest of the meal. You can't make this stuff up.
• Walking along the bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge outside of Taos. If it sounds familiar it's because that's where Mickey and Mallory of Natural Born Killers got hitched. Like those two we declared our eternal love but also promised not to go on any killing sprees.
  
• Driving past the world's largest earthship subdivision outside of Taos. You have to see it to believe it. I know where I'll be staying should I ever return to Taos.
• When we entered Creede, around Blue Creek lodge, running down the middle of the road right in front of us was what I thought was a donkey. Instead, it turned out to be a big horn sheep. It trotted down the road for awhile and then scrambled up the cliff and I nabbed a picture of it. I've been coming to Creede my entire life, and I've never seen one; whereas, most people manage to spot one on their first visit. This has made me very bitter. But now, I'm bitter no more! I got a very close up view of the sheep and it was adorable.
  
• And finally, swinging by Plan B of our house that's being built. It definitely exceeded expecations. The first floor of the structure is up so we got to climb the stairs and check the view. It is unbelievable - 360 views. I cannot wait for its completion. It will be terribly hard not to find some reason to move there for good.

Santa Fe Bumpersticker of the Day: Be nice to America or we'll bring democracy to your country.

And or course: Gore 2008

-sunday

Show Me the Money!

Hey everyone, The most unbelievable thing ever happened last night. There's a new show on ABC called Show Me The Money hosted by William Shatner. lt's kind of similar to Deal or No Deal. The premier guest was none other than Matt Marr of Lone Grove, OK, also known as my mom's all time favorite student. We was up there for 45 minutes with Shatner answering questions, dancing and generally being an ideal contestant. The best part is he actually won $590,000!! I could not BELIEVE what I was watching. He is a great guy - I'm so happy for him. Now I just have to figure out how to get on the show myself.

Congrats, Matt!

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: My other car is a Tardis.

-sunday

Fall Book Reviews

Hey everyone! Literacy and Longing in LA by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack. I tend to be extremely suspicious of a book written by two people. I just don't see how this works. Though I've never written a novel (it's on my todo list), it seems like it would be intensely personal. I get how you'd bounce ideas off people, but actually share in the entire writing of the book? Weird. Thanks to the description, I decided to give this one a shot and I'm really glad I did. The protagonist, Dora, is a 35 year old woman obsessed with books. Whenever she gets down, which is fairly often, she goes on a book binge and locks herself in her apartment spending several days devouring books. Anyone who's an avid reader has probably done this, fantasized about it, or can at least imagine it in concept. Luckily for Dora, she is living on the remnants of an inheritance that supports this type of behaviour. She also has a rich, kind ex-husband, a crazy Teamster friend named Darlene, and a crush Fred, the local book store's literary guru. The plot meanders a bit, covering Dora's half-hearted quest to get her old job back, her conflicted feelings for both her ex and Fred, her thoughts on all sorts of books and authors, and her compulsion to help out friends and even acquaintances in need. If you're a booklover, you'll probably enjoy this one for both it's heroine and it's many great quotes. Here are a few of my favorites:

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." Oscar Wilde

"I divide all readers into two classes; Those who read to remember and those who read to forget." William Lyon Phelps

"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." Logan Pearsall Smith

There are many, many more. But L&L had me for good when it referenced Eudora Welty's, "Why I live at the P.O.", my all time favorite short story. Like most pieces of fiction, I was introduced to it by my English-teaching mom. She gave me a shot at cutting it for one of her speech students. I loved it so much that I was envious beyond all belief of the girl that got to perform this piece because it felt like it belonged solely to me. To this day, I sometimes dream of becoming a postmistress. If you haven't read this piece, you are missing out on one of the funnier reads of your lifetime. As the authors in L&L note, "Reading her (Welty's) stuff is like watching slapstick - the timing is impeccable", and "Next to Shakespeare, she has the best high comic dialogue I've ever read."

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Baby Proof by Emily Griffin. Now that Helen Fielding is no longer writing diaries for Bridget Jones, Griffin has fast become my favorite chick lit writer. The reason is simple: her books are so realistic. Many chick lit books tend to go over the top with their characters and their plots. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy many of these, but every once in awhile, realism is called for, even in your escapism. And Griffin delivers it in spades. Her first novel, Something Borrowed remains my favorite and will likely be one I re-read. Her new book, Baby Proof tells the story of Claudia Parr, a woman in her 30s who is surrounded by all things baby, but is determined not to join the club. Initially she is joined in this sentiment by her husband Ben, but he ends up changing his mind. Not wanting a child makes her a bit of a pariah to her friends and family. Everyone is convinced that she will grow out of it, but Claudia stubbornly holds her ground. Griffin succeeds in covering all sides of this prickliest of issues and does a good job in creating a multi-faceted protagonist. One that has good and bad traits and one that is all too real. She also provides several secondary characters who have interesting storylines. This is the fatal flaw of all too many books and Griffin bypasses it with ease. I anxiously await her next novel.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Josiah Bartlett for President

-sunday