Occupy Albuquerque

On October 1st about two hundred protesters marched down Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico to demonstrate against corporate greed. This response came in part to the national call to stand in solidarity with the protesters who have set up camp on Wall Street in NYC.

Upon showing up to the protest I noticed it was a small, but very loud crowd. It seemed as time went on the crowd grew bigger. I had come to the scene with curiosity and with my trusty camera wanting to know a little bit more about what the 99% was all about. 

Just like many people in America I saw the video of the female protesters getting maced as well as protesters getting arrested with no just cause during the Occupy NYC demonstration, and was horrified.  I was hoping that an event like that would not occur at this protest.  Thankfully our police department handled the protest quite well, and there was no incident.

By then end of the protest and after a few shots with my trusty camera, I left the protest informed and moved by the passion of our American people.

We are the 99%.

From the Occupy NM Facebook page :

This is OUR MESSAGE:

1. We are in solidarity with the global occupancy movement.

2. We are here to inform and empower the people.

3. We are working against corruption to find cooperative solutions as a community

4. We challenge systems that compromise (access to) basic human needs.

 

Great video made of the events on October 1st.

30 @ 30 Update

Hey everyone,
I hope you guys had a great holiday weekend. My holiday was a bit busy celebrating our engagement with friends and family. We also took some time to go and look around at a few venues around the area. I have to admit, it has been a bit of a struggle finding somewhere within our budget. It appears the wedding business flourishes by ripping people off. I nearly choked when a lady told me that my wedding guest would be expected to eat $6,000 worth of food and drink at least 2,000 in booze in order not to be charged a penalty. Ya, no thanks lady. I'm not going to let your business wipe your butt with our money. Needless to say, we have gone back to the drawing board and  are going to look at a promising venue later on this week. 
Back to the subject at hand. I know it's been a while since I've given you guys an update on the 30@30 list. I have seriously had an adventurous last couple of months and it has been awesome! 
Here is the check off list. 

2. Get a city library card

 

The sweet folks at Albuquerque Library were awesome enough to give me a tour and let me know that I can check out videos with my card. I can't wait to browse the interesting collection they have.

14. Purchase a bird feeder for the backyard

Photo to come soon! Believe it or not, the fat Morning Doves in our backyard put too much weight on the feeder and broke it. 

20.  Road trip to somewhere

We traveled to Northern, NM and stayed in a haunted hotel. Braved Ikea in Denver, CO. Relaxed and got Engaged in Breckenridge, CO. Celebrated the Señors birthday camping in Southern, CO.  

Best. Road. Trip. Ever! 

28. Spend the night somewhere haunted

This was exciting! Staying at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, NM. I got absolutely no sleep and got the shit scared out of me. Upon checking in to the St. James we were taken back on how classic the hotel looked. We were also told we were staying in the "Mary Lambert" room. Mary Lambert was the wife of the first hotel owner and is known to still haunt the room. We then proceeded to the room which was down a hallway that looked like it was straight out of "The Shining." We entered our room and  just for fun, I downloaded the Ghost Radar App. If you ever are bored and want to get a rise out of yourself, download this app. I turned it on in the room and while looking at a picture of Mary Lambert in her garden, the app said "HEART." and then I kid you not..I could smell rosy perfume. Now, the Señor thinks that perhaps there is some mechanism in the room that lets off a rosy perfume smell randomly in the room, but I didn't care, I was a believer DAMN IT!  We then went to the bar to have a few beers and checked out the gunshots in the ceiling. Before we went off to bed we checked out the history of the hotel on the 1st floor. They had some interesting information about the owners and the famous guest who had stayed there, such as Annie Oakley and Jesse James. We then headed of to bed and that is when things started to got weird. Of course, the Señor dozed off straight away and left me to fend off the ghost myself. The St. James is and old hotel with no modern air conditioning, so it was really hot.   However, there was times when It would get  freezing cold, mostly around my legs.  It was like a ghost was sitting on them. Then there was various crazy noises out in the hall. Tapping, creaking, and even a weird scratching noise above my head. I pretty much had to scare myself to sleep. It was a great experience, and the Señor didn't dump me!   

Mary Lambert's Room

The haunted room where the bad ghost lives

The hall that looks like it's straight out of "The Shining"

Gunshot ceiling

Jesse James Room



It has been an exciting summer!

June 8th

June 08: Sunset


I have to admit. I've cheated. These photos were taken yesterday at sunset, but I just  had to share how freaky the sun looked yesterday.
This pink/reddish looking sun is due to the Arizona wildfire that is currently 0% contained. The raging fire  has been affecting our air quality and visibility with a cloud of smoke that has made it's way to the Albuquerque area. These terrible conditions have been a huge bummer for us folks who like to exercise outside. The smoke really thickens at sunset and you can feel it burning in your lungs and hurting your eyes. It almost feels like we live on Mars. It's quite eerie.

photo from Killbox on flickr
 This evening I tried to take a photo of the sunset hoping for a repeat of yesterday, but the smoke conditions have blocked out the sky so that you can't even see the mountains. So, I figured it would be better to just stay inside for health reasons.  I hope and pray that they contain the wildfire in AZ soon, and that no one gets hurt in the process of doing so or evacuating.
Cheers.

More info on the fire:
www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/08/Arizona-fires-spread-n...

Weather Records and Free Downloads

So this week has been amazing in regards to weather!
My city set back-to-back records in heat and precipitation! For example on Wednesday I went for a run around my neighborhood and it was a beautiful 65 degrees and I was in a T-shirt. New Mexico set a record high for this day and had ski/snowboard bums crying everywhere.  Well, it looks like the weather gods felt their tears because it's rained/snowed all day long on Thursday and Friday morning. So, This crazy NM weather lead to my first ever run in the flurries and it felt awesome! However, this NM chile loving girl needed some motivation to get out in the 33 degree weather.
 So, thanks to my hilarious facebook friends who gave me this advice and motivation:

Greg: the Navajo Way is to roll around in the first snow and holler out loud:) (There was not enough snow to do this awesome suggestion by Greg. But I will definitely do it next time) 

Haroon: Imagine yourself as Rocky training against Ivan Drago in Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union. (Rocky IV) (I'm not going to lie, this actually helped get me out there. Visualization is key!) 

What is your motivation to run in the cold? I'm looking at your northerners!


On the topic of motivation I was able to jam out to some new music today! I discovered free music downloads on the Nike Women Facebook page.  They have some great artist from Japan and Sweden that motivated me to keep my pace up and on occasion sing along. (Sorry for all the dog walkers I scared out there with my singing.)
So, get your free downloads and add some new motivation and mix to your daily workout routine! 
Click Here. 


Here are a couple of my faves!
First Aid Kit: Sailor Song


The Suzan: Home

New Mexico ♥ Our First House Guests

Hello Amigos!

This past Labor Day weekend Patrick and I were happy to welcome our first out of town house guests!

Kihiro & David who hail from Seattle and decided that they would like to come out and get some NM sunshine for Kihiro's birthday. We were so excited when we heard that they were coming out to visit!

 Patrick and Kihiro have traveled to several different countries together and they have some amazing stories of their travels. Kihrio and I have never actually met, so I was thrilled to finally meet in person the adventurous Kihiro (I love her name) and her boyfriend David!

Kihiro & David

We started our adventure by picking them up at the airport and driving them straight up the mountain to  see the sunset at the crest. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early and rented a Kia Soul (awesome little car)  and drove 4 hours south to White Sands National Park. It was a long day of traveling, but we had so much fun as soon as we got there! We bought a sled and made the most out of the beautiful white Dunes. 

You can get with this, or you can get with that!

I could not get the Kia Soul commercial out of my head while driving this car.

Check it out here!

So happy together

We then wrapped up their trip by taking them to the hippie town of Madrid, NM and enjoyed the art and had a great coffee and pastry at Java Junction (check out their cute website here.) I recommend going there if you ever stop in Madrid, NM.

We had a short pit stop at Santa Fe, Brewing company and then continued on to Santa Fe to have dinner at The Shed. I recommend hitting up The Shed as well if you are in  the Santa Fe area and looking for a good place to eat wit moderate prices. However, they are very popular so make sure you make reservations!

So we rounded up our trip with breakfast the next morning and Kihrio and I had an 8 mile run in the foothills before they left. She is currently in training to run a marathon in Athens at the end of October and she handled the hills like a  pro.  
So we bid adieu to our dear friends and they headed back to Seattle. We had such a good time and miss them so much already. We plan to meet up again soon, hopefully on the beach in Croatia! 
I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend! 

home

This was the first thing we saw after 

getting off the plane from Portland. Just New Mexico's way of welcoming us home.

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Fin de Semana

You know you had a good weekend when you come to work on Monday in a chipper and happy mood that annoys the shit out of everyone!

This weekend I had an amazing time with my amore Pato. We scored some free passes to Ojo Caliente Hot Springs and got to soak away our stress in the most amazing NM setting.  We also decided to took a detour to Chimayo and ate at  Rancho de Chimayo Restaurante a place with great food and great chile.

We wrapped up the weekend by going to see Avatar in 3D. Holy amaze balls that movie rocked and we are glad we paid the extra money to see it in 3D.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and you are currently annoying the shit out of your coworkers on this lovely first Monday in February.