Holy crap I've been busy.

So I got back from Vegas and just kinda hung around the house with the kids playing video games. I talked to the kids about Christian and I and after a look that could only mean "Dad, you're a dumbass." I talked a little more specifically about our differences and how she wanted Children in the future and I didn't. Audrey asked me "Why?" and with a little confusion I said "Well, I have you guys. I don't want to share my love with anybody else." With out a drop of a hat Jeremiah said "Well, I wouldn't mind." to which Audrey replied "Yea! I want a little Sister...Or a nice Brother." Andrew didn't seem interested all that much and was just playing video games. Teenagers, what can you do huh? So now I have no idea where I'm at. My decision of no children was mainly based on the children I have now, but they may have a point. I love children and its not like Christian wanted kids tomorrow. So we will see what the future holds.

The kids went back to their moms and I went off to Albuquerque to help move my brother and his family back there. It was a long drive because I followed his truck and going mostly 65 mph but on the plus side, I got 60+ mpg from Flagstaff to Albuquerque. We didn't do really anything while we were there, just unpacking and getting stuff together. We did go as a large group, my brother Shays family, my sister Raeshas family and I, to Turtle Mountain Brewery for a dinner. I had their signature Mac & Cheese, sooooo good and I got a growler of T.M.B.C. I.P.A. (that's Turtle Mountain Brewing Company's India Pale Ale) The day before I had taken a break to go see my Brother In Law play hockey on the Ice Skating Rink I spent many hours on as a child. It was a lot of fun but I had to leave early to meet with a guy for a possible movie role. I met this guy at a Denny's, he seems passionate about films but I'm not quite sure I'm gonna go for it or not. Something just feels off about it, nothing major, just not sure I'm the guy for this project.

I left Albuquerque and stopped in Flagstaff to spend the night with a friend of mine. I got into town and we went to Beaver Street Brewery for lunch. I had a Meatloaf Sandwich that was amazing and I got a growler of their Nut Brown Ale which made the trip back to RC with me and is chilling in the fridge. After lunch we went back to the house to wait for her boyfriend to get off work and when he did he had to help a friend of theirs install some plumbing so we just kinda hung out and watched him work.

The next morning I headed off to Jerome, AZ. A four hour side trek, two hours there and two hours back to where I needed to be. The drive was incredibly breathtaking. When I got to Jerome I immediately had a feeling of deja vu. The town is literally on the side of a mountain and driving on its streets is a dizzying experience due to its switchbacks and hair pin turns. The longer I spent there the more I realized I had been there before, maybe twenty years ago or so. The feeling of meeting back with myself is a strange yet calming, satisfying experience. I went to Jerome for two reasons, the Puscifer store and Caduceus Cellars. I got myself a Puscifer belt buckle and some wine and wine paraphernalia. The stores, the town and the 30 or so minutes I spent in them, were very much worth my four hour add on.

Another one bites the dust.

Another year goes down in the history books. I have been thinking about this year a lot and I figure this was probably one of the more interesting years of my life. Not good, not bad, just interesting. It started off with my wife of seven, almost eight, years wanting a divorce. That started out ok but soon took a turn for the worse. I got over it but am still awaiting said divorce. I then got a girlfriend, a hot little number who up until then was just a friend from school. We never hung out or even talked much but I gave it a shot and am very happy I did.

I moved to Albuquerque for a few months with my Brother and his family and worked on two films. I moved back to R/C, went to school and became the V.P. of the Theatre Arts Club. My Grandfather passed away. I went to Washington for the funeral and saw family and friends I hadn't seen in years.

My other Brother went back to Iraq for his 2nd tour, this time armed with a camera. My computer died. I went to the Albuquerque Ballon Fiesta ( I actually went back and fourth to Alb. probably ten times) Thats all that pops up at the moment but I'm sure there are many more smaller stories and adventures. I wonder what 2009 has in store for me. Hope you all have a wonderful, safe and happy new year.

I awoke this morning to rain which quickly turned to snow which inadvertently will become slush due to the already wet ground. The weather looks like it should hold this way for quite sometime. I am going to be heading up to my old house today which is a few hundred or so feet higher in elevation than where I currently am. The snow should be sticking there I assume. I am also headed to a Christmas party for my sisters work. I am going to pick something up from Wal-Mart so i may participate in the gift exchange, that should be fun.

Yesterday I went to the natural history museum with my Sister, her Husband, two of my Nieces and one of my Nephews. We had a lot of fun, I took pictures but they are very similar to pictures I have taken there in the past just with different people so thats cool.

Bands.

I went out last night to a place called The Launchpad. Its a cool little place down on Central that has all sorts of bands play. I saw on there web site that a band called Of God And Science were playing. I have heard of them before through the Giranimals and so I decided to check them out. I had a blast. I love going to this little place and seeing local bands do their thing, sometimes you get good stuff and sometimes you get crap. Well yesterday was a good day. All the bands that played were awesome. If you are ever in Albuquerque check out the Launchpad.

Today I went to my Brother-in-laws graduation. He got an associates degree in buisness or something or other, I never remember crap like that, but I am very proud and happy for him.

Tomorrow I have no idea what I'm going to do. everyone will be going to church so I'll need something to do. Maybe I'll go to the old record stores I used to go to. Any suggestions?

Off in a flash.

So I am now in Albuquerque. I am using my Sisters computer because mine is still a ginourmas paper weight. I drove through all night like I usually do, got here, had some breakfast, watched a movie and then fell asleep. I awoke to the sounds of Full House and thought "Well, I need to get out of this room." I guess I could have changed the channel because no one was watching it but I didn't feel like it. No plans today but I'm sure I will have plenty to write about on this trip.

Before I left R/C I gave someone my old '56 Ford pickup. We picked it up off of my ex's Mom's property. It's a project I was supposed to have done for my 16th birthday and seeing as its been ten years and nothing has happened with it, I gave it to someone whom restores cars so I feel good about where it is going. There was another car out there I think that was left for me, a 1966 Ambassador I think, but I couldn't get another trailer lined up before I left for Alb. I hope it's still there when I get back. If it is I will be extreamly happy. This car requires much less work and is very special to me.

May I please catch my breath?

I have been all over the place lately. I went to Albuquerque last weekend for a Balloon festia trip which was great, came home did school then went up into the mountains. Camping was great even though it got as cold as 19 degrees. We mostly hung out near the fire all day and night but it was fun to get out there all the same. Christian and I spent most of the time telling eachother we loved one another while the other couple spent of their time fighting. It was comical at times and awkward at times. I even stopped by the ranch I used to work at and said hi to some old friends. As soon as I got back from camping I had to make an emergency trip to Albuquerque. The details of the trip are privet but I was there for less then 24 hours. I think I spent more time driving there and back then I spent in Albuquerque. I went over my lines and am progressing slowly with that. I will be ready come show time though. So I have been away from my computer for about a week and a half and boy did I miss it. I have so much to catch up on.

So tired.

As I am still very tired, I warn you, this might not make much sense. I went to Albuquerque and Soccoro this weekend to see my sister and help a friend move back to Ridgecrest. I had fun in Soccoro but the night ended early for me due to lack of sleep and too much booze, a bad combination. It didn't seem like so much booze but I think with the combination of being awake somewhere betweeen 36 to 40 hours, did its number. I spent one night there and spent the rest of the weekend with my sister. I acually didn't tell her I was coming down and suprised her at work...she cried. Tears of joy I hope. We ended up going to the Balloon Fiesta for the Balloon glow, but it was cancelled due to weather. We woke up the next morning to go see the balloons actually fly but again, cancelled due to weather. I decided to stay one more night and go in the morning for one more shot and...almost cancelled due to weather. They got a late start but I got to see them for the first time in years. I don't know what it is about Hot Air Balloons but I love them very much. My sister and I had a great time with her daughter at the Feista but unfoutunatly her Husband had to work. He is a cool guy and has many of the same interestes as I do. When we hung out with him it was great. We didnt do much other than watch a few episodes of Flight of the Concords, which is funny as hell, but it was a great time. I made it safe back to Hell...I mean Ridgecrest and am now busy as a bee. I also intend to get flicker on here to share pics soon as well. Don't hold your breath though.

Back in the U.S.S.R/C Part 2

I awoke this morning at seven to find a thick fog covering the town, I thought to myself "Self, This could put a damper on my plans." Christian and I went ahead and packed up our stuff anyway. I couldn't fit a few boxes of books in the car but my brother said he would pack them when he comes out this way, very cool. After the car was all packed I took a shower while Christian took a little nap. When I was all clean and shiny we said our good bye's to my brother (more like "see you soon's") and got into the car, the fog had lifted and we had a nice overcast drive out of town, we even spotted a couple of hot air balloons on our way out which made me really happy. We made a few stops along the way, one of which I picked up some petrified wood for my kids and on another fossillized sharks teeth and yet another some postcards. It's not much but its going into the monkey heads I have mentioned before and so they will have a lot of little things to go through and learn about. Through out the drive we went into and out of light to heavy rain and when we stopped in Flagstaff, the lightning was so close the thunder was defening, but we played in the sunflowers and took pictures anyway. The drive was great together although I did find myself drifting back to thoughts of not wanting to be on the 40 going west. I had had a great time where I was with my brother and my sister and there respective families. I even got a new friend. There were things I didn't do as well because I figured I had time, like hang out with old friends or even contact others. I guess that just shows me how much time I have, I waste, and will never get back... Anyway, so we roll into Barstow to pick up Christians car as I'm thinking of all that stuff but also I'm building up Ridgecrest and California telling myself it won't be that bad if I keep an open mind and keep it positive. She gets in the car and the battery is dead. California, strike one. I actually thought it was kinda funny and thought to myself "Self, it's good shes not here alone like she was supposed to be." So I was ready to leave the car and continue on to deal with it the next day when I remembered... I'm a AAA member. I pulled my card out of my wallet and for the first time since becoming a member 4 years ago, I called for assistance. It took the guy five minutes to get there and we were all set. There was some accumilated bird poop on the windshield so we stopped at a corner gas station for the squiggie and when we pulled up we didn't see it. I went inside to ask about it, figuring maybe they had a theft problem with it in the past so they kept them behind the counter. The conversation went like this, "Excuse me, do you have those squiggies to clean windshields?" I ask. "No." Is the quick response, I wait for more, like a sorry or something and get nothing so I say "Uh, ok well um, do you maybe have some windex or something I could borrow real quick?" "Yea, what's on the shelf." She says sacasticly, seeming proud of her "quick witted" reply. STRIKE TWO CALIFORNIA! I was so pissed I actually left with out saying a word and it put me in a pretty bad mood the rest of the way home. I know strike three is just around the corner. Needless to say I am in R/C safe and (mostly) sound. I hope this makes sense as it is very late at the time of writting.

Last day in Abq.

Today I took Christian to the swap meet at the Albuquerque fair grounds. We walked around for awhile looking at all the items people were selling. Some were pretty cool, like knives, swords...well ok thats pretty much the cool stuff. And some of it was kinda crappy like $5 for a Beatles album that was taped together and the record inside was no where near playable, and underware. It's interesting to see people selling underware, its more interesting to see people buying it. I did find a shirt I wanted though, just a simple yellow shirt with a Zia on it with the words "New Mexico" underneith it. Christian didn't seem interested in buying anything but had fun looking around. We begain to get hungry so we grabbed a quick bite, a corn dog for Christian and a breakfast burrito with green chili for me. We were full but I decided to get indian fry bread for Christian to try for the first time, she basicaly had an orgasim in her mouth when she bit into it, so I think she liked it. After finishing her orgasim on a plate we headed over to the horse track. It was opening day and Christian had never been to a horse race before so we made a little wager, and I mean little, $2. We went outside to watch the race and low and behold...we did not win, but it was fun to try. We stuck around and watched a few races, one of which a Jocky fell from their horse and hit the side rail. I didn't see it first hand as I was taking pictures as I always do but I did see the ambulance pull up and seeing the Jocky not moving. I was a bit away to see if there was actually movement or not but the E.M.T.'s loaded him up quick and rushed him off. Hope he's doing well. It started raining so we decided we would call it a day and head home. It was still preatty early afternoon so we watched a scary movie as per Christians request. The movie was Evil Dead and she freaked out at some of the more scary parts but I was there holding her close :) When the movie was over we decided to go to a used video store called Hastings and get Evil Dead 2 bring it home and watch it again holding on to keep her safe. When that was over we made it a true Evil Dead marathon and watched Army Of Darkness, not so scary but still holding close. We had a great time just relaxing and watching the movies. Now I am mostly packed and ready for our drive out to R/C tomorrow morning. h if I hadn't mentioned it before, we refunded Christians ticket and she and I will be driving back together with a quick stop to pick up her car in barstow.

Long day.

Holly crap did we do a lot today. We started the day off by saying good bye to Karissa and the kids. I then started up the internet and let Christian sleep in for a while. I got some emailing done I need to do and also messed around with my myspace apps, damn I am suck. When Christian finally woke up we watched an episode of Thundercats and had some breakfast, waffles for Christian, cold fajitas for me. By this time my brother had gone to work and Christian and I were alone, spareing you all the details, we decided to get ready for the day and took a shower. Lunch time was rolling around so we decided to go to Red Lobster for lunch. It was great food and we enjoyed a nice meal alone. After lunch we took a short drive around my old neighberhood and then up to the tram. The Albuquerque tram is the longest in the world and takes you to the top of the Sandia Mountain. The ride to the top cost $17.50 for me and $15.00 for Christian because they consider 20 as teenage. On the ride up some people started talking to Christian (I was off in my own little picture taking world) and asked where she was from. When she said Ridgecrest these people actually knew where she was talking about. They didn't have anything bad to say about the place but did mention a creepy little town outside of Ridgecrest but couldn't remember the name but it came back to them when I said "Trona?" Aperantly they were on travel to Death Valley and were very scared as they drove through it. Once at the top we said goodbye to the strangers, took pictures and went on a short walk but turned around to grab a quick drink at the resturant there at the top. Christian had her usual Hot Chocolate and I had an Irish Coffee and Green Chili Stew. It was all very nice and warming, the weather at the top of the mountain was slightly windy, a little rain and 65 degrees. After warming ourselves up in the resturant we went back out on the trails and walked one and a half miles to an old outpost that was some sort of shelter for rescue teams searching for lost hikers and skiers. The hike was beautiful and many of the rocks had fossil's of sea life from eons ago when most of what is now New Mexico, was under water. We hiked another mile and a half back to the tram for our ride back down. Once at the bottom we jumped a few streets over to an Ice Skating Rink that I had spent many of my childhood days in. Christian was about as excited as a fat kid eating a cupcake. It was great to see the smile on her face as she clumisly tried to skate on the slick ice. She got the hang of it pretty quick and was skating in circles and even on one foot. Our feet were hurting pretty bad as we had been hiking a few moments earlier and ice skates were new to us. We had enough of the pain about two hours into it and decided, hesitently, to call it a night. We turned in our skates and watched a little bit of the hockey game going on in the rink on the other side of the building. We finnaly decided it was bed time for the both of us. It was another amazing day with my amazing girl in an amazing city. Tomorrow is lounge day.

Another fun day.

Today was another early day. I got pretty good sleep but woke up a few times due to the extreme heat of having another body under the sheets next to me. Christian and I woke up, took our showers, got ready and headed out by 9. The first stop we made was to the train station to refund her ticket, I figured if I'm leaving the same day why not just have her ride with me. After that we went down the street to the Natural History Museum. We got tickets to see the Planetarium show as well. The museum is so interesting, the first thing you see as you enter is a huge Tyranosauras Rex "roaring" straight at you. Although natural history includes things like minerals and land movment my favorites have always been the Dinosaurs, and apperantly still are. I took a lot of pictures of these ancient dead beings trying to imagine what it would have been like had they not become ex-beings. How would have humanity gotten along with these preditors around? Would technology have developed the same way? Or would they still be exctinct because of our actions? At any rate its an amazing museum with so many things to do and see, there is even a valcano that you walk through with hot liquid magma running right under your feet! I remember vividly as a child nerviously walking only on the parts with no lava. I wasen't stupid, that glass could break if I steped on it, then where would I be? On fire in a volcano thats where. The show at the plaentarium was amazing. The universe is so unimaginably large, complex, violent and beautiful. I can not wait for the day we travel to the far reaches of it and unlock the secrets she has in store for us. We rounded off the day with a short walk to Old Town for lunch at the Church st. Cafe (thanks celia) The food was great, I had fajitas and Christian had a breakfast meal, I'm still trying to get her to try the native cusine. I have gotten her to try green chili twice, once at the zoo which she didn't like and at the cafe which she did like. After lunch we walked around Old Town for awhile but decided to leave because we were both very tired and need a poop break. We got home at 4:30 and laid down for an hour nap. When we woke up at 6:30 (yea, thats a long hour) we came down and hung out with Karissa and the kids waiting for Gillian, her kids, my sister Reash, her husband Mike and there little girl. They all came over, we talked, had coffee and just hung out enjoying eachothers company. It was another great day and I am pleased I can share it whith Christian. And how are we planning on ending this great day you ask. Yes, another round of Thundercats :)

Fun in the sun.

Christian got in Yesterday around noon and I picked her up at the train station. I showed up early as I always do and noticed a movie set base camp just across the street, there are so many things going on here I am sad to leave. Anyway, after picking her up we went down to Socorro to stay with a friend f mine for the night before taking him to the airport in the morning. We went to sleep pretty early because we had to leave by six in the morning. So we woke up nice and early and came back to Albuquerque this morning with a quick stop at the airport to drop off the friend we had been visiting the night before. We got to my brothers house, took our showers and ate some breakfast. Then we headded off to the zoo. We got there around ten this morning and met up with a friend of Karissas. We had a good time looking at all the animals and playing around with the kids, unfortunatly a couple of them took some tumbles. We ate lunch in the grassy field by a small pond with a swan and sme ducks which was lovely. After lunch we went to the jungle gym so the kids could play in the water and swing around like monkeys. My brother had to work so he and his family said there good byes as did Karissas friend. So me and Christian were finally alone for the first time :) We hung out at the zoo a little while longer and saw every single exibit that was open. We even saw the 250 pound tortise walk! We had walked all day long and on our way out I bought three monkey head lunch boxes for my children, they should get a kick out of that. We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home to get a new frisbee (I'm addicted now) and found a $.75 one that will never be able to cut me due to its flexable nature. We played around with that for about an hour and then had some dinner. And after dinner? Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats Hoooooooo! I finally got to watch some good old cartoons I have been waiting forever to see. We had a wonderful day together and are waking up early again tomorrow and going to the Natural History Museum. I can't wait!

:)

Christian will be here tomorrow around noon and I couldn't be happier. We will visit museums, the zoo, caves, and ride the worlds longest tram. I am so happy that she can spend time with me here before I go back to R/C. We will be able to see eachother whenever we want which will be good but there is so much more to do and see here.