Goodbye Saint Louis, Hello Albuquerque!

This morning, we got up early and I said goodbye to all the wonderful things about Saint Louis. Or at least all of the wonderful things that I happened to pass as I drove to the airport.

Anheuser Busch and the Clydesdales



Bud Light Billboards, Bridges, and the Mighty Mississippi



And who can forget the Arch?



The flight to Albuquerque was smooth and relatively quick. I saw lots of fancy geographical things such as these. Of course, out-the-window-of-airplane pictures are never as good as witnessing these things with your own eyes.





Slowly but surely... the flatlands gave way to foothills and the foothills gave way to big hills and the next thing I know we're swooping over the Sandia Mountains and landing in Albuquerque.



The Albuquerque Airport Sunport was nice and offered plenty of opportunities to buy DreamCatchers and Burritos and other Southwesty sorts of things. We passed on the Handmade Indian Drums and headed on over to the Car Rental Center. The lady told me I was down for a PT Cruiser but she could upgrade me to a Mercury Milan. I was like...uh... I'll take the PT Cruiser. And then I go out to get the car and she sent me to the Milan. So I go back in and tell her I wanted the PT Cruiser... and then she claimed that there weren't any. Despite the fact that I saw no fewer than six sitting in their parking lot. I was tempted to argue with the nice lady but...

I didn't want to get off to a bad start in Albuquerque, so we hopped in the Milan with it's black leather seats and contrast stitching and off we went. (Side note: Black leather seats in a super sunny place is never a good idea.)

We cruised down to Central Avenue to find my new apartment and the Tamarind Institute. Then we stopped for a Breakfast Burrito at Bumble Bee's. Carrie has been talking non-stop about burritos for the past month or so, and I'm glad that we got that first one out of the way.





After eating, we called up my landlord and headed over to the new place. It was about what I expected, but I was a little overwhelmed by being there. The Guest House I'm living in is a converted garage. They did a pretty good job with it. It's got "cathedral" ceilings and a nice little kitchen area with a breakfast bar. The place was furnished, and while I'm glad to have a nice dresser and a bed and everything, I could've done without some of the extra decorations.

Here is a picture of the little bed alcove, with corrugated metal walls, bad art, and a skylight (=annoying).



This is looking from the living area into the kitchen through the breakfast bar/dinner table.



And this is looking from the bed alcove into the living area.



There is also a bathroom with a shower and toilet and a good size closet and that's about it.

I felt a little sick from the flight (and the altitude) and I mostly just laid around moaning and groaning while Carrie made a giant list of things that I needed for the new place. (I knew there was a reason I brought her along.) The list was so massive that it required us to make three shopping stops: Wal-Mart, TJMaxx, and Target. The shopping spree was costly, but I was able to get all of the essentials. Basically, all the things I didn't bother to ship because I figured I could just buy them when I got here. My biggest splurges were on new bedding, a Britta water pitcher, and a few sharp kitchen knives.

After hauling all our purchases inside and putting them away, we gathered up our things and went to dinner at a good Thai restaurant on the NW side. Now we're at a hotel for the night. We washed my new sheets and are cleaned up and enjoying being at the hotel. It's sad when you'd rather be a hotel than at your new home... but I guess I'll have to get used to it at some point.

Tomorrow we grocery shop.

P.S. Sabrina, if you're reading this... this is for you:

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Loose Ends

This week was a time for saying goodbye. Fortunately, I don't have a lot of friends here... so that part was easy. I don't really see my family all that often, but they came crawling out of the woodwork to see me before I left for Albuquerque.

Me and Mom and Dad went to dinner Tuesday night.



Thursday night, Carrie and I went to the Muny to see Les Miserables with my older brother Anthony and his family.




Today, I met up with my younger brother Alex and his family for lunch.





I was glad to see everyone before I went... It's only too bad that schedules/circumstances didn't permit us all to get together at one time.

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Things I Will Miss

I wish I could take Keetah with me, but I think she'd be happier just laying around here in Saint Louis. Also, Carrie needs company while I'm gone.

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My Life in Boxes

When I decided that I would be moving to Albuquerque, I was delighted at the prospect of relocating without having to relocate all of my junk. It's kind of like a fresh start, albeit a temporary one... and I don't plan to bring a whole lot with me.

My new apartment is just a block away from Tamarind and it is furnished. This means I don't need a car and I don't need to haul down a bed or dressers or whatever. My landlord told me just to bring my computer and clothes, but I'm thinking I may need a little more than that.

Since I didn't plan to bring my car, I needed a way to get my few things down to Albuquerque. Out of curiosity, I checked into UHaul rates. But the $800 rental cost and the fact that I didn't have that much stuff quickly nixed that idea. Since I work at a UPS Store and get a great deal on shipping, it seemed like the best bet would be to simply ship my things down so that they would arrive at the same time as me. Of course, this would prove easier said than done.

I'd originally planned to ship my bike down to ABQ, but a little bit of frustration, a lack of bike mechanical-know-how-itness, and an inability to get my pedals off convinced me otherwise. We have a bike box that we use at the UPS Store and I got my bike almost apart enough to get it in there. But then the pedals happened and I gave up. Sure, I could take it to a bike shop and have them do the job for me, but after the cost of that, shipping it, and the likelihood that I'd have trouble putting it back together, it just wasn't worth it. Instead, I'm going to look for a cheap temporary bike when I get there. Problem solved.

My next obstacle was my hockey gear. Yes, there is hockey in Albuquerque and I'm taking my gear with me so that I can take full advantage of their awesome co-ed recreational leagues. It's kind of like that game where you are going to be stuck on a desert island and you can only bring one thing with you. I just can't imagine being anywhere without my hockey stuff on hand. Of course, packing my gear presented it's own challenges. Originally I'd just wanted to stuff my gear into a box and then check my sticks with the airline. But the sticks are too long to go without incurring an extra handling fee. So plan B was to pack all of the hockey gear and sticks into one giant box. I completed this task at work yesterday and ended up with a box that is bigger than I am.



In addition to the giant box of hockey gear (and other miscellaneous items), I have one box that is full of clothes, another box that has outerwear, DVDs, and books, a box containing my iMac computer, and a final box that has most of my art supplies, a few framed photos, and the one print that I will be bringing with me to Albuquerque. This is my younger brother, in sintra-cut printed on handmade paper. Among other things, it's a little reminder to myself that things could always be worse.



Since I'm going to be working in Lithography this year, I thought maybe I should take down my Ben Edwards Ramble print from Tandem Press.



I spent countless hours sponging for this 54-color marvel and was lucky enough to get one from the yearly student lottery at Tandem. But it's probably better off under my couch. Carrie likes to joke that she's going to hang it up while I'm away... with pushpins.

Everything else is just going in a big old suitcase, which hopefully will not be lost by Southwest Airlines between here and Albuquerque. We leave early Saturday morning, are renting a car for the week, and once we get settled in, we're going to hang out and see what Albuquerque has to offer.

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