So now what? Anna’s leaving for Vegas on Friday morning (and should return sometime early next week with a payment in full to Columbia University - let it ride!).
I, on the other hand, will be heading back to Minnesota later in March for a little madness - the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
My uncle and Godparent Steve spent years as an insurance salesman. One day, he decided to become a truck driver and has now been on the road in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.
He’s not your average trucker - making it to church every Sunday and cooking meals in a portable wok.
His recently retired sister (my aunt Elaine) is running shotgun with him across the country. One of their runs just happened to bring them to New Jersey and a free day to come visit Anna and I in the Dirty Side (New York City).
They don’t know where they’re supposed to go next and apparently that’s how it normally works. They just tell you when you get there.
I e-mailed my aunt some CBSlang to practice on the trip.
That’s a big 10-4 - be on the lookout for Pregnant Rollerskates, County Mounties and Crotch-Rocket Cowboys. Get your ears on.
By the time I left work and shuffled through Times Square it was around 2:30 a.m. Nov. 5.
Just a few hours earlier, the TV networks declared Barack Obama the winner and hundreds of celebrators piled into the crossroads of the world, cheering the new president-elect.
Times Square is usually bobbing with people. Now, giant electronic billboards picturing Obama flooded mostly-empty streets. Window washers and trash collectors had replaced enthusiastic Obama supporters.
I stopped for a minute and snapped a few photos - little mementos of history. Everything looked the same as it had the day before, but the world somehow felt a little different.
Hard to believe it all started more than a week ago today. Anna and I hopped a bus to LaGuardia Airport in Queens and jumped on a plane and flew to the big D (and I don’t mean Dallas (actually, I do)).
But we didn’t stay long and were soon up in the air again, headed to our final destination, Albuquerque (yes, I can spell that from memory).
We neared the Duke City as the sun was setting, outlining mountain ranges in the distance. The orange warmth of the sun at the horizon evaporated into cool blues, purples and then black. I tend to get excited about things like this, probably repeating “This is awesome” to Anna about 15 times.
A few minutes later, we banked around the mountains and touched down in New Mexico.
Our friends and gracious hosts Dan and Chrystal (among my favorite people in the cosmos) met us at the airport.
I met Dan back in high school in Minnesota. We ran track together, drank a lot of pop at one of the local grocery stores and listed to a lot of oldies. Dan moved back to New Mexico, but we kept in touch over the years. We’ve only met up a couple of times since high school, but when we do, we seem to pick up right where we left off.
From the airport we headed to the Elephant Bar & Restaurant in ABQ Uptown for a late dinner.
You see, I didn’t have anything for lunch and our layover in Dallas was right next to a Wendy’s. It’s probably been a year since I’ve indulged in the legacy of Dave Thomas. I couldn’t help myself and enjoyed a 1/-pound Double-Stack with Cheese (pronounced “Chi”), fries and a Frosty (the most delicious frozen treat known to mankind). And then, wouldn’t you know it, we sat down right next to a Taco Bell. I finished my burger and still wasn’t quite full enough (this is Texas, after all). With a little sweet talking to my wife (something about back rubs), she agreed to wait in line and actually buy me a couple of tacos (score!). Ten minutes later, I felt fully satisfied, experiencing the perfect balance of discomfort and nausea.
Back to New Mexico (To the time machine!). We finished dinner and headed home to get some rest.
On Friday morning we woke up around 6 a.m. and made our way to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta to catch the mass ascension at sunrise. As we neared the grounds we saw the first of the balloons taking off into the quickly fading darkness.
Soon dozens of balloons rose to life as sunshine crested the Sandia Mountains.
Hi!! It’s my turn to up date on the going’s on around here. We have had a very busy past few weeks. I started my second year at school with classes two days a week and an internship the other three. So, it’s like I have an almost full time job and still have to go to class.
So I am working and going to school and don’t really get the perks of either one (not having to work = school perk, not having homework = work perk). Oh well, it is my last year and if the rest of the year flies by like this month did, I will be done before I know it. And Drew is getting busier also. School started at his work, he now has a lot more to do, too.
Anna and I reclined in our upper-deck seats, enjoying a brew and the breeze. Nearby, a khaki-shorted man sprawled his furry legs out over empty blue seats and French-kissed a yellow stew of nacho cheese and peppers. The smell of hot dogs and cigar smoke lingered in the air. But, there was no crack of the bat. There was no roar from the crowd. There was only silence. Church silence.
Then it started. Like a slumbering monster tormented with boredom, a section of the upper-deck started the ritualistic sit-stand that has come to be know as “The Wave.” It was spotty at first, but soon grew into an unstoppable force of knees, thighs, arms, elbows and hands thrust in pursuit of something big.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to shoot you, Mr. Haines. It might disturb mother. I’m a very clever follow. I’ll think of something better than that. Much better.”
Being Drew and Anna in NYC has its perks and its challenges. We get to live in and explore what many call the greatest city in the world, try out great food, see world class events and go for evening runs in Central Park. However there are challenges, one of the challenges is that we are over a thousand miles away from most of our friends and family. And this distance is never felt more during times of sadness. Unfortunately, both Drew’s and my family have experienced this in the past week and a half.
Okay, so with a part time job and no school work I probably have a lot more time right now to do things like write blogs and print wedding photos (no. I still haven’t gotten around to getting that done yet. but I will…) than I will have in the next year, or ever really, but for some reason that is the most un-motivating thought for writing a blog post.
Take that un-motivating thought and then add the fact that I haven’t blogged in a while and a lot of things have happened. So, I know that when I do get around to finally writing, I will have to write about a ton of stuff and that will take a really long time!! (And, hush all you logical people out there who see that I have a lot of time on my hands right now….) All of those factors added together creates the perfect storm for absolute laziness and no blogging.
So in an effort to stop this ridiculous cycle of lethargy, I am going to start blogging about recent events that have been occurring with Drew and Anna in NYC and, if I have time, I might get around to blogging about earlier this summer.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to shoot you, Mr. Haines. It might disturb mother. I’m a very clever follow. I’ll think of something better than that. Much better.”
