mountain drive with a side of nature

Fifteen years ago I was 11 and the drive from Albuquerque toward Moriarty seemed like it took forEVER. Like bring a snack and a good joke book (Joke books! Classic 11 year old hobby.) because we're startin' the oregon trail, yeehaw type of trip. And this was before instant text messages and internet news updates every microsecond so I guess I'm saying kids have always had a problem with delayed gratification regardless of the current technology. Take that, Huffpo article about Kids These Days.

Needless to write, now that I have 3 to 5 gray hairs, the trip into the mountain feels like seconds.

I think the current technology at the time I was 11 was the encyclopedia on CDs my parents kept by their PC. If I wanted to look up cucumbers I'd have to find the "C CD" and put it into the CD drive and wait for it to pop up on screen and the little hourglass would flip over and over because things like that took actual minutes back then. Also, our email domains were either netscape or aol. I think my email was lilyofthevalley95@netscape.com. Or maybe lilyofthevalley95 was my password. Good password incidentally. Back then, using letters AND numbers in your password was very high level hacker. By the way, what were we using our emails for back then? Probably emailing our own family members who were living in the same house as us. Ha. Classic 90's internet.

Anyway.

We took a drive to the top of Sandia one Saturday this past summer. Here are the pics.

The scenic drive reminds me of John Denver album covers. And the 70's. It's probably not fair to the flora and fauna of the current wilderness. I can see their arguments now: 'heeeeey maaaaaan, just because nature became a "thing" in the 70's doesn't mean you can't give us a more up to date analogy.' You're right, nature. The drive up the mountain reminds me of the three wolf moon shirts I saw at the MEN show from last week. Owww-WOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!

This was all underwater 200 million years ago! Wouldn't it be cute if dinosaurs had blogs? And they would write their thoughts on the web. Like, actual webs. From spiders.

Albuquerque, presented to you by Bill Gates.

Something about this feels very World of Tomorrow even with the capris and REI hiking sandals.

On the way home the wind filled in our silences. We stopped for a quick minute to watch middle-aged retired hippies hike along a trail. They reminded me of John Denver album covers too.

Goodbye summer mountain day! See you next year.

random night #567

I can't remember exactly why I didn't post this... maybe it seemed too insignificant at the time.

Judging by our hair styles and length, pallor and winter coats I'd judge these to have been taken last December or January.

Our first World on Fyre show.

My mid-winter snack that will most definitely give me rotten teeth. I promise to come up with a better winter snack by next January. Literally anything will be healthier than these sugar bombs.

Gas Station on Zuni where it splits into Lead and Coal.

Healthy green leaves at the grocery store in January.

Well. (It was very insignificant). I think there were stories or maybe burps of memories from those nights but I can't remember them. The arrangement made it seem special, although I guess we'll never know!

don't talk to me before my second cup of coffee

I'm sleepy plus angry (slangry?). Why is the world run by morning glories who want me awake before 10 AM??

ANYWAY.

It's GAY PRIDE WEEK :) and the fab gay pride parade in Albuquerque starts in an hour and a half so I'm about to finish up my coffee and figure out what I'll wear this year. Maybe my neon tights with rainbow dress? My blond mustache with my orange wig? My gold bikini with cutoff shorts? This is gonna be great!

Gay Pride Week to me is like graduation from a whole year of feeling good about everyone's differences. It's so tear jerking and emotional to be around everyone celebrating love. It's more love centric than St. Valentine's Day! Plus, on Valentine's Day you don't usually see a row of men clapping their butt cheeks or grannies riding a twenty foot dildo :)

Cheers!!!!

tricks of the trade

My yard sale sign monsterpieces:

Not as weird or grotesque as I originally recalled. Maybe I'm just remembering the dark highs of unintentional Sharpie huffing.

I stayed up late on Thursday night leafing through old books, unhelpfully peering in past journals and diaries, unfolding love notes written on notebook paper, reading the extravagantly staccato statements of an ordinary 16 year old, lyrics from Fake Plastic Trees written in amateur calligraphy on certain days... green plastic watering can... Names of boys I'd fall in love with for a week and then forget about. Thomas... Casey... Ian... Patrick... (wow, did I go to an Irish school?) Sometimes referring to boys by their secret code names. Smoking Anarchist, Curls, Messenger Boy, Quiet Stranger.

Saying good-bye to dresses and jackets and shoes that were there for all the midnight spells and tingly first dates and late night trips to Smith's for ice cream. Threads and zippers that have heard me yelling or sobbing or laughing or kissing, sometimes all in the same night. Clothes that have seen more of me than any one person has. Clothes that really do not see or hear. That have never been more than the mass produced fabric that they are composed of, still I mourn the idea of saying good-bye to these little tangible parts of my memory.

I sat and remembered for hours, saying good-bye to everything and Marc piled all his shit near the door without circumstance. Sometimes we are so different I can't imagine how we get along outside of sex and the mutual appreciation of Star Trek: The Next Generation :) TMI!!!!!!!!!!!!

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cutey kitties

It's beautiful, really beautiful outside today in Albuquerque. Like, super sunny when you're walking down the sidewalk, but chilly in the shade. Those trees with tiny white blossoms are hiding birds' nests, I think. I don't know, I haven't seen any nests, but I've been listening to bird songs all morning. All of our windows are open. We're letting that sunlight ridden wind clean the dust for us. Typical spring. Typical Sunday. For somebody out there, it's Easter Sunday, which sounds so ridiculous to me right now, I feel I'm dreaming. Can you imagine sitting in a church listening to stories about somebody's account of somebody's account of somebody's death today? Like, really, can you? I seriously hope somebody's church was smart enough to hold today's service outside where you can look for shapes and signs in the clouds...

Anyway, Marc came back from skateboarding and ordered me to put on my clothes, "I won't let you miss the day. It's too nice to miss." Ok, alright, no problem. I think I'll put on my shorts, sweater and Navajo boots. We're going on an adventure today :) I hope you are too, if you're in the mood.

Here are some photos I took of Moshe being weird and cracking me up:

Is this normal cat behavior?

Shall I set up an additional mirror so you may get a full 360 vantage point, your Laziness?

You're only pretending to nap in this photo.

I secretly spied on Baby rolling his back into the porch pavement:

Cats and sunshine on their bellies, a long held tradition.

Whoops, you spotted me!

Did I rattle your sublime moment rolling around in the dirt and sun? I'm sorry!

Time to come inside!

oh right, balloon fiesta

Lawdie! How! Have! You! Been!? It's like we're stuck in summer here, huh? Only recapping the antique summer memories, we might as well watch the OC together for old times sake. Lots o' weird stuff going on. This is not one of them tho. We'll catch up later. LOL (lots of love).

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta TWO THOUSAND NINE! (Prepare to get a boner for New Mexico.)

Marc's Stache is holding up pretty effing well.

This pic looks like a nuclear explosion went off in the background. But it didn't.

Obviously, Marc made us get there at nerd o'clock for the Glowdeo. What would you do? Really. I'd like to know. If you were completely sober and stuck waiting in an unwashed mob of hillbilly tourists and Christian Republican families for four hours without any money or alcohol/drugs or ipods or mags ... WHAT WOULD YOU DO?!

WHAAaaaaat WOULLlllllddd YOOOoooouuu DOOOOooooo?!?!?!?!

Food and other commercial nonsense. It looks, smells and sounds like entertainment, but it feels like burning your newly transacted, crisp dollar bills. Empty source of fun. But, I'd bet you a quarter you'd give your pinkie toes to smell that lovely roasted green chile.

People-watching was just ok. Once you've seen one sweatshirt wrapped around a waist, you've seen them all.

The sun was still pretty high when they started to roll out the balloon fabric.

It felt orgasmic when the first two balloons went up. After spending four hours in the atmosphere of a middle school assembly on obesity, that first presence of a hot air balloon felt that much more fantastic. Everyone gathered around like the 2nd coming (on our faces) of Jesus Christ.

Bet ya can't guess what this is!!!!! Hint: KHHhhuuu-HHHuuuuh (raspy breathing).

What? This is normal. Best part was how the crowd treated them as actual police.

Bla bla bla jokes about huge gaping holes.

You could really tell who was from the North and Midwest. They were wearing coats as thick as mattresses.

Danger! Danger! FIRE DANGER!

I guess if I had to go full-EMO and pinpoint what is most magical and touching about the ABQ BALLOON FIESTA, it'd be the feeling that you, as an observer, can do your part to lift these hot air balloons. There is the obvious distinction between the actual balloon teams/workers and the paying audience, but unlike any other massive-scale entertainment you are communicating and interacting directly with the event.

We walk under the ropes and talk with the wranglers. We stand close to the torch engines and warm our bodies before moving on to the next balloon. We anxiously hope and cross our fingers that the balloons will safely rise off the ground and fly away. And it's the whole community, worker and observer, that fills up with happiness and warm excitement when that floating balloon ascends into the sky.

It reminds us that we're together and are able to love and enjoy something together as an enormous crowd of varying individuals. And if that's emo, so what?

It was weird to not be drunk or high on caffeine and have this much fun. To simply observe and enjoy an event is probably good for my blood pressure anyway. I highly recommend it.

This whole stretch of time was really engaging. Most of the balloons were still on their side, so the whole grass field looked like a garden with humongous rainbow-colored pumpkins. Except the jack-o-lantern balloon. That one looked like a humongous regular-colored pumpkin. We watched the torch fires heat up a balloon, then walked to the next one and so on and so forth.

Triple awwwww!

Once most of the balloons were up, you could really see how large the crowd was. And the cops/security did a good job of staying the fuck out of view. It would've ruined the whole fantastical experience.

Oh, and that was the other thing ...

We argued whether it'd be a good idea to be on mushrooms there.

This one is scarier in picture form.

I don't particularly like the popsi can balloon, but this photo does a really good job of demonstrating the scale of the balloons. Look at how effing gargantuan the bottom of the can is to that little girl in pink! COOL!

WDYTTAPA?! (what do you think they are pointing at)

Basically, at this point we all are just waiting for the sun to go down and biding our time by taking pictures, scaring children with weird faces or playing MARRY, FUCK, KILL.

Ok, so Marry, Fuck, Kill: the Darth Vader helmet balloon, the Tweety bird balloon, and the Noah's Ark balloon?

I was like really into taking pics of the sun blinding my camera lens.

This is taking forever. Let's skim through the rest of the day pics (WITH LIMITED COMMENTARY! I'll try to not type too much!!!!!!) and get to the cool night photos.

Bunny ears!

Almost sunset!!

We're here! THE GLOWDEO!!!!! zomg, i die!

I wuv the expression on this lady in the lower left corner! (above pic)

I'm getting soooo ......

EXCITED!!! The moment we've been waiting hours for has finally arrived! GLOW IN THE DARK BALLOONS!! KILL ME I'M TOO EXCITED AAAahahahah

WOOOOO! We went insane waiting for Glowdeo to start and then went double insane walking under the clouds of glowing balloons! GO INSANE WITH MEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

SCARY! BUT COOL!

That squirrel looks evil! But is friendly!

OR IS SHE?! AAAAHHH! Just kidding! She is friendly for the most part! NOT EVERYONE CAN BE FRIENDLY AT ALL TIMES, WE ARE ALL HUMAN! EXCEPT HER! SHE IS BALLOON!

Everyone. Literally everyone. Had their cameras or camera phones out. I saw kids in STROLLERS taking pictures with their own cameras! WOW IS THAT WEIRD OR WHAT? IS IT ALREADY THE FUTURE?!

BEAUTIFUL! Don't you agree?!

WOW! I AM PRINTING THIS AND FRAMING IT TODAY!!! CARPE DIEM!

Take a breath because ...

THESE PICTURES ARE BLOWING MY MIND!

A FROTHY BEER MUG!

THIS PIC IS GIVING MARC A HUGE BONER!

GO COW! GO COW! GO COW!

It's like living in a dream!!!

BACON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!

There she is again! IS SHE FOLLOWING ME! HALPPPP!

GROWL! (p.s. what sounds do pandas make!?)

And then the whole field burst into flames and everyone died except marc and me.

JK! Duh! But, I think we really did go insane in the brain. Oh wellsies!