Spring Break!

Friday:
Up bright and early, snuggled and kissed Max goodbye, got the cats settled and was at the airport parking garage by 6:30. Hitched a ride on the shuttle from the airport, waddled through security with the rest of the herd and was on my plane by 7:55 and taxing to the tarmac for flight. My flight was less than 45 minutes total, smooth sailing all the way. Exited the plane and made my toward the Albuquerque Sunport terminal to find a beautifully blond and bubbly Miss Paula waiting for me.

We did a little shopping at World Market (my favorite) and Sams for the weekend. Tea's, beer, food. Supplies! And then headed back to Paula's to settle in for the weekend and grill up some yumalicious food!

I was greeted by 5 furbabies. All with their own unique personalities and varying degree's of kitteh krazy. Steiney is the old lady of the group, sweet as pie and ultra affectionate. I'd say the crone of the group, watching out, keeping an eye on things. Tia is the princess, quite beautiful with a big ole puffy tail that compliments her personality well. Spot (LOL, he's so FUNNY!) is essentially a male version of Gaia with white spots all over him. A bit of a tom cat, big and very vocal and really isn't going to take any crap from anyone. Harry is their most recent addition, a feral kitten that was found stuck to their screen door last summer. And Neil, awwww Neil....hims so sweet. He is basically a big cat stuck in a house cat sized body. He's HUGE, big ole paws like a lion. In fact, he moves and looks a lot like a lion in general. I enjoyed all of them throughout the weekend.

Of course, this was also my first real 'getting to know Jeff' experience. I found him to be pleasant, caring of Paula's needs and he and I got on well with one another. As it turns out, Miss Paula ended up becoming quite ill and took a nap Friday afternoon. During that, Jeff and I spent a few hours talking and in that time I learned that he and I have some interesting things in common. Primarily technology and crazy mothers :)

After Paula's nap, it was decided that she would need to get to the doctor as she was wheezing and gasping and freaking Jeff and I out. Paula has both asthma AND intense seasonal allergies. In late February, she came down with a nasty flu/cold thing while on travel in DC for work and hasn't ever really recovered. So, off to urgent care. We were in and out in less than an hour, with antibiotics and cough syrup with hydrocodone. Yessh, that stuff works good!

After urgent care, Paula stuck it out and we grilled and ate yum yum food and watched some Lost and everyone was tired after that.

Saturday:
Let me first say that Friday evening, around 3 AM I was visited by some kind of energy in the house. It freaked me out a little bit at first and I cannot describe it without sounding like a crazy person, but I know it was there and it knew I was there. Later, I realized it was just curious about me. Let me also say that this isn't the first time I've experienced this while on visit to New Mexico. In fact, I spent 2 weeks there several years ago and had similar experiences at an area we camped in and a small bed and breakfast we slept in only one night because THAT was a little freakish and Max with me. I believe this land is sacred and it has been defiled through the years in various ways. I always feel a sense of both sadness and proud strength during my visits to NM. More on this later but, I am affected highly by these energies of the area and while my intuition of these matters is typically strong, in this case on Friday night, I think any one would've noticed the presence. I spoke with P about the next day and she wasn't surprised at all, that there's all kinds of things going on in her home. Which I should say, is charming and epic on some level. It is filled with all kind of interesting things and I enjoyed perusing the house each day I was there, noticing things I hadn't the day before. It is a fairly older building, in the heart of down town and definitely unique in it's structure. I suspect alot of people have been in and out of that building from the time it was built, there is alot of speculation on what it was before it was residential. It does appear to be an cafe of some kind or a bread and breakfast perhaps.

Anyway(s - ha P!) Saturday morning, I woke up after having slept pretty well and we had brie for breakfast with fruit (oh yeah baby!) and I played playstation for a bit with P while she rested in the AM. Poor thing, she was still feeling really bad on Saturday but she bucked up and really made us all proud. We went to old town and spent a few hours perusing and oooohing and ahhhhing. I have to say, tourist as it may be, it is a fun way to spend an afternoon. For those of you who don't know, it's a mall of sorts I guess. My favorite part are the local artists (most native American) selling their wares on the blankets. P and I scored big time with the sweetest butterfly silver pieces you've ever seen and with the appropriate stones for both of us. I spend a lot of time admiring it, today I keep thinking about how cute it looks on my chubby little fingers:)

Jeff came to meet us and we sat and had ice cream and listened to the local music, gorgeous day. I kept looking to the sky and thinking it felt good to be somewhere different than my standard romp, how much perspective one gains from travel.

After old town, we headed home for a nap. Paula and I were both kind of tired after shopping LOL. After naps, everyone got moving for P's bday dinner. We went to pizza at Mario's, YUMMMMM! Way yum. There, we were met by several members of Paula's crew, including Alley, who I feel a lot of genuine warmth from. I enjoyed her a great deal. After dinner, we headed home and Jeff and I spent the remainder of the evening drinking wine and playing Playstation. I am newly addicted to this Star Wars game, I will have to have it for certain. I remember abruptly being VERY tired and falling asleep on the couch. Then I woke up and it was morning.

Sunday:
We had a light breakfast and I had a light hangover from the wine and bourbon shot I did. I've never had bourbon of this nature and as a general rule I don't drink whiskey, but my arm was relentlessly twisted (ha!!!! yeah.....as it always is to try new things LOL) and as it turns out, I enjoyed it. Paula and Jeff don't drink cheap booze, that helps. I felt better after breakfast and we began to prepare for Alley's son Riley to come for an Easter egg hunt. Actually, I played Star Wars and drank tea and Paula did most of the work. The mother in her came whizzing out in about 2 seconds flat, I could tell she wasn't having ANY fun with getting the whole thing set up:) It was probably the happiest I saw her all weekend and I can see why. Riley, is undeniably one of the cutest kids I've seen in while. 5 year old little bundle of compassion and intelligence. What a doll and his momma gives to that kid her all, we might just make it after all if there are more Riley's in the world. I enjoyed the Easter egg hunt a lot, he warmed right up to me and we spent the remainder of the day munching, playing with Easter things and visiting.

Then I was at the airport, on the plane and home! I came home to well cared for cats in my absence and was in bed and passed out by 9 last night. One tired girl!

Now that the detail of the trip is accounted for, some random reflections:

• This is my first time really spending any in person, one on one time with Paula. Contrary to the picture painted to me of her by others in the past, she is quite an endearing, compassionate and kind person. I already knew this obviously as we've become close this past year in particular, but spending time with her in person gave me the ability to firm up my own insights and affections for her. It is true that she is an awful lot of woman in a little teeny tiny body, with a little teeny tiny voice and big huge brown eyes that are pretty intense. It is true that she is direct, honest and I see careful with what she shares with others. It is true that like all of us, she is growing and changing and evolving regularly. You can't fault a person for any of these things. Besides, you'll find all of the women I am close with to be strong, highly intelligent and capable. We all get labeled bitches for that once in a while at least ;)
  
• I enjoyed getting to know Jeff more, he's alright. Loves Paula, can't go wrong there. He was extremely kind and complimentary to me the entire time I was there. He earned some brownie points too with a few things that I know men are supposed to do, but not something I see a lot. Like being considerate of their woman's needs and helping her out. Oh and Manly Things. Jeff has at least 10 high ranking Manly Traits to be appreciated LOL.
  
• Immediately, when I got off the plane I noticed the amount of diversity in Albuquerque. You don't see Native American's in Colorado and you don't see Hispanic/Native American babies. It made me very sad, that this beautiful culture has been holed up in a few scattered states where white people come to gamble and be waited on by the people who originally inhabited this land. I can't really put my head around it all, but I know that I can sense the cavernous divide between white people and brown people, it's hard not to notice and it's hard not to feel shame for what history has dictated.
  
• Albuquerque is sprawled out and probably populated in it's entirety by approximately 500,000 people. The Denver Metro area (which not only includes Denver, but west to the foothills, the south to the tech center approximately, the east ending at the Aurora city limit b/c Aurora is it's county now and to the north to roughly Thornton) is 2.5 million. 2.5 MILLION people is astronomical in proportion to where I spent the weekend, this was also hard not to notice. Rush hour in Albuquerque felt like standard I70 traffic to me and the lack of people milling around, except in the old town mall area, was also noticeable. It made me realize that I really do live in a pretty big city, it's a metropolis now. It wasn't when I was growing up and maybe that's why it's taken me this long to realize it because I still see Golden as Golden, not a suburb of Denver. But the truth is, that the population has exploded here so much in the past 15 years that the clear delineation of suburbs no longer exists. Everything is just build on top of each other. This realization was a surreal one for me.
  
• And finally, Paula commented on something that almost brought me to sobbing tears. It's not something I need to repeat because it is between her and I, but it's something I've thought long and hard about. The reality of my transformation this past year was made quite clear to me, that I have changed. It made me a little sad to see that others had noticed, that I'd become someone different than I was. I realize that this is an inevitable aspect of life and I embrace that, but this is the kind of difference you notice when someone has been beaten down and sand kicked in their face. I realize that my psyche has suffered, my body has been terrorized and I've come out of it on the other side stronger and most definitely wiser, but I realize that it still doesn't show on the outside. Externally, I am not who I feel like internally. Not in how I look, speak, carry myself or otherwise engage with others. Why this is, I'm not sure....but the cautious side of me tends to win. I am slowly becoming a girl I recognize, slowly. But it's taking time and I have changed, there's no denying that. And a disservice has been done unto me, how I am dealing with that, I am not entirely sure. One day at a time, I guess?
  
  

The trip was enjoyable and peaceful. Paula and Jeff were both generous and extremely hospitable, I felt very comfortable with them and being in their home and we are already coming up with "reasons" LOL for me to come again! Particularly, the hot air balloon festival! COOL!