First impressions

Albuquerque, and New Mexico at large, has considerably surprised me as a great place to live. Sure, when I'm browsing the produce section at the local co-op grocery and all I see are CA-grown grapes and peaches, or when I'm biking home from work under smothering heat and a fierce headwind and daydreaming of the waves at Pacifica, sure, then I miss California.

But here in ABQ, we have afternoon thunderstorms!

We have green and red chiles, and honey and sopaipillas. We have jaw-droppingly stunning sunsets against a horizon of stark mesas and ancient volcanoes. We have warm, dry evenings. We have coyotes and roadrunners (beep beep!), and prairie dogs and hummingbirds. We have a college town with legitimately affordable restaurants and stores (*gasp*, no!). We have national forests and permit-less backcountry camping. We have high desert and low desert and woodland and alpine meadow. We have a pretty good AAA baseball team, the Albuquerque Isotopes (yes, that is a Simpsons reference). We have sweet metamorphic-something crag for trad, sport, and bouldering just 20 minutes outside of town. And, we do have a burgeoning crop of fixies. Look out, San Francisco and Portland!


If I'm going to shift the (oh geez, the cats are playing with a still alive cockroach now) blame for not writing this blog from myself to something or someone else, I'd have to say it's because I have been taking the time to discover and enjoy this place (now they're eating it!). I spend roughly 11 hours a day commuting to and from and being at work, and then spend the next four hours climbing plastic at the local gym, biking around town, playing soccer, and/or scoping out hip restaurants, bars, and music venues with friends. That leaves about 2 hours to cook dinner and lunch for the next day at work before collapsing in a sweaty, tired heap on my bed. Weekends so far have been camping trips around NM (this coming weekend is to Colorado, actually; my first time there!), BBQs at friends' places, and Isotopes games, where I give in to my secret craving for Dippin'Dots. "Friends" so far are limited to the three other grad interns in the lab and their roommates and neighbors, and they make for a great crew. We've made a checklist of things to do before we leave (two of the other interns are bouncing in 2 weeks because they got out of school in May and started the internship a while ago), so I expect to spend the remainder of the weekends on similar outdoors adventures. We've also passed a sweet roller rink several times on our way out of town, so that's definitely on The List.

I think the 'Topes are at bat in this one:

Some of the crew, waitin' to catch a home run:

Inter-inning entertainment, NM-style: green chile vs. red chile vs. taco:

White Sands National Monument:

















Interns (minus BMonster) at White Sands:

Locking off on a sweet hand jam at the local crag: