Travelogue: Albuquerque, NM - Day 1

Last Saturday afternoon, I left the warm sunny skies of Seattle for the (much) warmer and humid skies of Albuquerque, NM, to visit my wonderful and incredibly awesome best friend of 15 years, Jessica, for the week. After dealing with some minor irritations checking in at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter, I grabbed a quick lunch at the incredibly busy Wendy's restaurant while waiting for the rare non-stop flight I was boarding to leave.

Coming into this trip, I found myself extremely worn out from the stress of work and frustration of my social (or the lack thereof) life. As can be seen in the picture below this paragraph, you can see the exhausted, glazed-over look in my eyes (well, actually, my eyes are closed.) I've eagerly awaited this trip for the last two months, particularly when I found out that the Legendary Pink Dots announced their first-ever Albuquerque show. That made this trip even more special because after all these years, Jessica and I would finally be attending our first-ever LPD concert together (after 15 years of missed opportunities for Jessica, as I've seen them three times, and the fact that she was responsible for introducing me to LPD in the first place.)



For the most part, Southwest Flight #2576 was smooth, until we got about 150 miles from Albuquerque. That's when the turbulence hit. That last half hour of the flight proved to be excruciating for me, considering I am not quite the frequent flyer, unlike my mother (as a mistreated, disrespected Northwest flight attendant), who deals with turbulence on a regular basis. For a few fleeting minutes, I thought of possible doomsday scenarios, thinking that this might be my last flight. Those scenarios, of course, proved to be silly (obviously, otherwise I'd not be typing this as we speak LOL.) At last, I arrived at about 5:40, ABQ time.

As usual, I was enthusiastically greeted by Jessica and her boyfriend Randy. Thinking about it now, I realized that this is the shortest time apart we've had in the last ten years, being that Jessica just visited me this past October in Seattle. I've made it a point to try and see her more frequently than I have in the past. As a matter of fact, we may meet up in San Francisco in September to see Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint exhibit at SFMoMA, as a belated 33rd birthday treat to my dear friend. Jessica always knows how to bring a smile to my face whenever I am down. She has the knack for keeping me grounded. Now, I just need to find a boyfriend to do that. Anyway, moving on...

Our first order of business when I arrived was to get groceries for the week. But, before we did that, Jessica and Randy expressed that they wanted to go to Keva Juice to get juice smoothies and then walk to McDonalds for some french fries. Hmmm....an interesting combination. At that thought, I instantly became reminded of the many times Jess and I went to the Uptown McDonalds in Uptown Minneapolis (or as our mutual friend, Audra, affectionately called McD's...Skank Nation) for McDonalds french fries and Hot Mustard McNuggets sauce. So, imagine the scenario, a vegetarian and her faggoty friend eating french fries fried in animal fat. Yummy! What memories!

From there, we went to Trader Joe's for some grocery shopping. Little did I know as we walked through the automatic doors that we would be embarking on what easily became the longest grocery shopping trip of my life. Shopping for organic foods can be so complicated and time-consuming at the same time. But, I'm doing this with Jessica, so that is what made it fun. Even though Jessica's grocery list was short, we still managed to peruse every single aisle of Trader Joe's. I repeatedly reminded myself the whole entire time that I am in Albuquerque and people are more relaxed and don't constantly operate with a stopwatch. I'm not at work so there's no need for me to be constantly rushing through my day. Albuquerque is a place to be laid back in, so I better learn to become accustomed to the relaxed approach to life.

During our extended excursion at Trader Joe's, I discovered that practically ALL of their employees were hotties. Seriously, the hotness factor of Trader Joe's employees overwhelmed me with excitement. Early on in our grocery shopping trip, I apparently became popular amngst the two young Hispanic men that stared at me hard as I walked by the checkout aisle where they stood. Relishing in the unanticipated attention, I calmly hoped that this was a sign of things to come for this trip. Anyway, back to the hotness factor, a cutie with tattooed arms walked by when we were in the frozen food aisle, enticing eager customers with free samples of their cheesecake. Stopping to where I was standing, he invited us to buy one of their cheesecakes since they were on sale.

Finally, about 90 minutes later, we arrived at the checkout aisle. Then, in what seemed like a flash, the grocery shopping trip was completed. From there, we then went to Target for a few things. My intent was to buy some new white t-shirts and some new socks. Well, I got the t-shirts (I decided on v-necks) and the socks, but also, along the way, picked up a cool Guinness baseball cap with a patch that says "Guinness Keeps Its Head," a copy of the remastered Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison, Gatorade, and a pack of citrusmint-flavored Orbit gum (BTW, the new Orbit gum commercial with Snopp Dogg is hilarious, but I digress...) Then, at long last, the evening of shopping was completed and we returned to Jess' house for a late dinner.



I arrived at Jess' house and was greeted by the barking of Dito, Jess' dog (a mix of Blue Heeler and Australian Cattle Dog,) whom I met for the first time. After a late dinner of vegetarian cheese pizza and salad, we settled into the living room to watch an episode of the Simpsons and then watched a rerun of Saturday Night Live. That ended my first evening in Albuquerque.