A Fisher out of Water: June 2010

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Lazy Summer Days

In New Mexico, June is the hottest month. I think we had a day that went into the mid or high nineties, but generally, it is pretty nice. After the heat of June, July and August are cooled off every afternoon by monsoon rain showers. I love this place!

When we lived in Utah, June was hot, and then July and August were even hotter. People would ask me where I'm from, and when I'd tell them New Mexico, they'd say, "Boy, I bet you're glad to get out of that heat!"

Let them keep thinking that. I think New Mexico is one of the world's best kept secrets.

Kevin and I have been testing out the local restaurants. My favorite used to be Gardunos, but after some financial issues, the Santa Fe and Airport restaurants have closed. This means I need to find a new favorite.

We tried Gabriel's. While they do have fantastic guacamole, which is made for you right at your table, the rest of their food isn't amazing. Most of the licence plates on the cars in the parking lot were from Texas or Oklahoma, and the food reflects that. Instead of chiles rellenos with cheese, covered in green chile sauce, their rellenos have pablano chiles with chicken and cheese inside, and they're topped with an orange, tomatoey sauce. It is good, but not what I want in my authentic New Mexican food.

We went to Maria's in Santa Fe. We parked in front of a nearby business, and there was a sign warning us that the parking (during daytime hours) was not for Maria's customers, although exceptions would be made in exchange for a green chile chicken enchilada, a guacamole appetizer, or cash. Maria's was good. They did take a long time, but that was fine, as it gave us time to enjoy our friends' company.

Now, we've only been to four restaurants so far, and the next two tie for first place: Tomasita's and Rancho de Chimayo.

Tomasita's has amazing food, a great ambience, prompt service, light sopaipillas, and it is located right in the middle of downtown Santa Fe (if you go to that part of Santa Fe and call it downtown). Their chiles rellenos are made with excellent cheese, real Anaheim chiles, and a savory-sweet batter outside. I think this is one of the less expensive restaurants, too (by a whole one or two dollars each dish. oooh!). Tomasita's is Kevin's favorite.

But in my opinion, Rancho de Chimayo takes the cake. Despite its being 40 miles from anywhere, it is always busy. We went on a Tuesday night at 8:00, and there were probably 10 other full tables. When our food arrived, just one sniff sent my tastebuds into high alert and my mouth started to water. The food is amazing, the wait staff is friendly, and you can't beat the ambience! I always like to sit out on the patio in their beautiful garden, and in the quiet of the river valley, you can imagine why, hundreds of years ago, people chose to settle in Chimayo, New Mexico. In addition, they have a frozen prickly pear lemonade that is bright magenta and tastes amazing! It's worth the drive, folks.

It is never fun to be in limbo, between jobs, especially for an extended period of time. But I can't think of anywhere I'd rather do it!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Ghost Ranch

One of my favorite things about the 'desert' is the color. We have fantastically blue skies, green plants, yellow grasses, and rocks in all sorts of reds, pinks, oranges, whites, and purples. It's no wonder that Georgia O'Keefe found inspiration for her art in such a beautiful place. We went to visit Ghost Ranch a few days ago, which is where O'Keefe lived and painted for much of her life.

There used to be a living museum with rescued animals native to the area. However, it has been changed and now just has anthropological exhibits-- not as fun, but kind of cool all the same.

The Visitors Center is just a few miles from the actual Ghost Ranch, and so we hiked there. It's a fun, easy trail with a fun, wobbly bridge to cross. And you can't beat the views!

This hike is especially fun when you bring enough water, which we had enough foresight to bring. We started out in the morning, and it was warm but not hot.

We visited the Anthropology and Dinosaur Museums at Ghost Ranch, which I remember from elementary-school field trips and were fun to rediscover.

When we go back again, we plan to drive to Ghost Ranch and do the hikes that start there and go up into the mountains. It was a great little hike from the Visitors Center over to Ghost Ranch, but it was hot and annoying to have to do it again on our way back. Now we know for next time!

Just like Mom

This morning I took Penny up to play in her room. She contented herself with her toys so well that I got to do some studying. I had three textbooks spread in front of me, and I was taking notes and flipping through the pages of all of them.

I looked up to see Penny with all her board books spread on the floor in front of her, opening one and then another.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

More of Penny

My favorite person to write about (in third person, at least) is Penny.

She is growing up and learning a lot of cool stuff every day. This morning, I think I saw her dance. Or she may have just been quivering to the abundance of bass coming from Uncle Daniel's stereo system-- which he installed to one-up Kevin's system. We have a lot of sound in our house.

Penny is starting to snuggle. She only does it for a few seconds at a time, but more and more often she rests her head on my shoulder. I love it!

And no one has responded to any of our advertising of our cats. We locked them in the bathroom to keep them away from Penny, and they did all right in there. I liked the idea of their living in the bathroom indefinitely rather than at the Shelter, where the end could be very bleak. They were happy enough. Penny sure did great. After a couple days of their being in the bathroom, her puffy eyes went down, and she stopped her general itching. I guess it was worth it.

I kept putting up signs and thinking of more places to advertise, but it seemed that no one wanted a couple of grown cats.

After a few weeks of this, we noticed that Penny really didn't have any more reactions. Sometimes the cats would sneak out, and it didn't make her whole face pink. Hmmmm....

Then Kevin suggested that she might not be allergic anymore. As unlikely as that seemed, we tried it out-- cautiously at first and then more and more contact. Um, yeah. It turns out that Penny is no longer allergic to our cats.

This is really more than we could have hoped. I mean, about 30 seconds after we picked up our cats, Penny's eyes were red and itchy. Then for the next couple weeks or so, she was red, itchy, and grumpy. This promptly changed when we kept her away from the cats.

I don't know how to explain it. Maybe the cats were covered in dust and pollen, and that is what Penny was reacting to. Maybe she just built up an immunity very quickly. I'm not really sure. But I'm grateful that no one responded to our advertisements, that we didn't go through with sending them to the shelter, and that we have been blessed to be able to keep our cats AND our dancing, snuggling baby.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Chatting at the pool

Most people my age go to the pool so their kids can work off some steam while they chat with the other moms on the pool steps. However, I like to go after 4 PM when I don't have to worry about sunblock, and Penny needs my constant attention. But this means I don't get to socialize too much.

But Penny is quite a magnet for small kids, especially 9-year-old girls.

A couple of them came up to me and started cooing about how "Penny is sooooo cute!" I had to agree, naturally. Their names were Alice and Hannah.

"We're best friends," Hannah informed me.

Alice, the taller one, told me that my sunglasses were "very beautiful."

I thanked her for saying so.

"Oh, I'm not just saying it," she replied, very emphatically. She got a dreamy look on her face. "You look very beautiful in them."

"Um, thank you," I told her again.

She looked over at Hannah. "Some people think we're not the same age. But we're both nine."

Sure enough, Alice was about a head taller than her friend.

"Well, some people grow at different.... um... speeds." I fumbled for a word she's be sure to understand.

"Rates," Alice corrected me.

"Uh-huh."

Then Hannah dived underwater and swam around for a bit.

Alice looked down at her, then turned to me with that same sincere, trusting look. "I think she has dwarfism."

Um, okay.

This was truly the strangest conversation I've ever had.

Just think how strange I would be if I didn't get to the pool to socialize. ;)

Said sunglasses

Friday, June 18, 2010

Baby Penny: 11 months

Penny has started scrinching up her nose when she smiles. I particularly love this, because that's what I do. See, she is my child after all! She smiles a lot more these days. It shows off her four new teeth on top.

Her new teeth allow her to eat all sorts of goodies. Her favorite food right now is watermelon. She also eats a lot of pears, bread, blueberries, and egg yolks. She's moved past Cheerios and rice a little bit, since each piece is so tiny. She likes bigger pieces. When her mouth is full, her cheeks stick out, which makes her look like she did a few months ago. She uses her sippy cup like a pro. When she's done drinking, she smacks her lips or spits a raspberry, and then the sippy cup flies to the floor.

Penny, after just polishing off a huge chunk of watermelon:

Penny's favorite toys include the keyboard in the living room, the piano, a brass bell, and really, anything new or interesting. She's finally gotten to where she will play on her own with toys and be interested in them for more than 2 minutes at a time. Wahoo! Yesterday she was fascinated with an applesauce lid, making it pop and make cricket noises.

She really likes her walker. She sits in it and plays with the toys, and she also started pushing it along, beaming at her newfound mobility. No walking or standing yet, but she's started crawling a lot. When we moved here, she might crawl to something 4 feet away from her, but beyond that she just sat still. Now she'll take off, usually into the laundry room where the dog's food is. This morning she pushed open the sliding door's screen and stepped outside into the yard.

Penny loving her walker:

Her favorite place to get into is the cupboard under the TV, which houses the VCR and Daniel's playstation. We taped the doors shut with packing tape, and she deftly pulled it off and opened the doors again. Hmmm.... so much for babyproofing.

Penny talks a lot more. She doesn't say words yet, but her repertoire of sounds is expanding. She likes to read her books to herself, which means she opens a book, slaps the pages, and yells, "Dat!" This is also similar to how she sings hymns at church. Open book, slap pages, and yell, "Dat!" She isn't terribly reverent at church, and this week, she stood on the bench and growled at everyone behind us. I'm not sure anyone was actually listening to the speakers. :)

We put her hair in piggy tails the other day. It was extremely cute. We put her hair up in one little ponytail with a big flower stuck in it. Kevin said it looked ridiculous, like a bird of paradise sitting on top of her head. Oh well, birds of paradise are beautiful, if a bit ridiculous.

The cute piggy tails:

Yesterday was Kevin's first Father's Day. "Penny" and I got him a couple folding chairs so we can sit on something besides the dirt or a curb when we go to the outdoor concerts, movies in the park, 4th of July fireworks, and other events we have lined up for this summer. I also made him-- and my dad-- blueberry waffles for breakfast.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Switcheroo

Monsters v. Aliens

Last night we went to Urban Park to watch Monsters v. Aliens. It was shown on one of those big, blow-up screens, and when the wind blew, they had to use a giant stick to ease it back up. It was like vertical curling.

My favorite part of the movie was the community party beforehand. There were college interns playing sand volleyball, kids running around and jumping over babies (well, a certain baby), and parents out talking. I knew some of the guys running the event, so I got to go chat with them.

A little boy (around 9 or 10) came around with a tin-foil covered pan and a roll of paper towels, asking, "Do you want some mumble mumble mumble?" A bunch of people had said no, but I was curious. I asked him again what he had, and he was giving away key lime pie! His mom had made it. He opened up his pie tin and there was a pie, cut neatly into 6ths or so. "Sure," I said. He knelt down and started working on getting me a piece. I had my eye on one of the larger segments, and he proceeded to cut a tiny sliver, about 1" wide at the edge of the pan. I kind of giggled to myself and accepted it gratefully. He continued to make his rounds. At that rate, it took him like 30 minutes to give away the whole pie. What a sweet kid!

During the movie, there's a scene where the President starts playing music on his keyboard for the giant alien probe. When the music started, the two little girls in front of us stood up and started dancing really wild and crazy. Then when the music ended, they sat down.

We didn't say till the end, but we did enjoy the movie-- as much for the actual movie as for the community show surrounding it.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Trial by Fire

Last night I got a call from a friend needing a last-minute babysitter for her two kids, aged 3 and 5. Of course I said I’d do it. When you don’t have a job and only have one kid, what excuse can you honestly make? Besides, I thought it would be nice to try my hand at what many of you are already doing: raising more than one kid. Eeeeek!

Turns out, more than one kid is cake! If I just follow the rules I did today, I can’t imagine there being any trouble.

1. Leave the house. This has always been my babysitting staple. Kids are BORED with their own toys, and even if they’re the toys at Grandma’s house (as the case was today), they’re not new. We went to the park.

2. Make friends at the park. We had the park to ourselves for a good 15 minutes before the park toys started to go the way of the home toys. I mean, I’m kind of entertaining, but I don’t want to bounce on the ice cream truck or ride on the wheel-less motorcycles for too long. Obviously, this was at Cowboy and Indian Park.　And when one kid keeps getting off the swing and standing where he’ll get whacked by his sister swinging, that’s not a great option for long, either.

Enter more children. Amber, a lady from my ward I just met today, came on over to the park, 9 extra kids in tow. Four of them were hers, and then she had a couple from this lady, a couple from that, and a couple from another. In total, there were 3 two-year-olds, and the oldest few were 9. She was taking over for a few moms who were at Girl’s Camp this week, and I suddenly felt like three kids was an insanely puny amount. I dutifully kept my eyes on my charges, and with a ton of kids crawling all over it, the playground equipment is suddenly fun again! We stayed at the park for about an hour more. Amber shared their snacks with us and even held Penny for quite a while. I guess once you have 9 kids, 3 more is no big deal!

3. Kids like new babies. This rule I learned from my grandpa. When he was little, he and his friend played hookie in kindergarten. They didn’t know what to do while they weren’t at school, and so grandpa asked his friend, “You want to go see a new baby?” They thought that was a good idea, so off they went.

After the park today, we went to visit Jenny and her new baby. This was mostly for my benefit, as I’d been meaning to stop by, and the kiddos liked it too.

4. Always be up for an adventure. On our way home from Jenny’s, we passed Amber’s house. That’s not hard to do, since it’s across the street. She was in the front yard with a couple 2-year-olds, and I could hear the older kids playing in the back. Her two girls were sad when we left the park, and she invited us to come play and eat macaroni with them for lunch. I talked to the kiddos, and we agreed that would be fun. We played over there for a while, ate some lunch, helped them clean up, and then went on our merry way.

5. Leave while you’re still having fun. We went home and I put the kids down for their naps. Once they were in bed, I was done with my part; Grandpa and Uncle Michael would take care of them afterwards.

I really think I can handle having a bunch of kids. I mean, all I need is a park and a friend to invite us over to play with their cool new toys and awesome friends. How hard can it be?

Friday, June 11, 2010

What a weekend!

Today my dad had a big engineering test to take down in Santa Fe. Kevin and I helped him study last night by watching The Count of Monte Cristo in the same room. I guess it must have helped, because he called home this afternoon to tell us he'd passed! Yay Daddy!

To celebrate, we're heading over to the pool for a BBQ. And if he'd failed, we would have headed over to the pool to commiserate. We've always been suckers for free food at the pool-- even when it is just mediocre hotdogs, Wonderbread buns, watery kool-aid, and wet chips. Who needs vegetables? KETCHUP is made from tomatoes, which are legally imported as vegetables, despite their actual being fruits. And if we're lucky, maybe they will have pickle relish, which is also partially made of vinegar and sugar-- I mean, vegetables.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

If you can't say something nice, don't say nuthin' at all

I haven't blogged for a few days. Mostly, that's because venting about the frustrating things in your job isn't terribly appropriate-- or smart-- to do on the internet. But that's no longer the case. As of a few minutes ago, I officially don't work there any more.

Here's the sugar-coated version:
Having worked at another camp for 5 summers, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted out of this summer. I had minimal training at this new job, and so I just went blazing ahead with my best guess of how things aught to run. This made for a few disagreements with the director and associate directors. After Friday, I was ready to quit.

On Monday morning, I was still ready to quit, but after a few activities with my kids and co-counselors, I softened and decided to give it another go. I voiced some concerns and asked for direction from my director, and again, the training or help I received was minimal.

Since I'm the most transparent person I know, it was pretty easy to tell I was frustrated and not enjoying my job. I guess I voiced my frustration a few times to my coworkers. And then I ran into my old camp at the pool and spent some time talking with them.

Today I had a meeting with the director and her supervisor and got put on unpaid suspension (note to self: next time, quit before they try to fire you). I called back to let them know I didn't want to come back. The director's supervisor said that they'd decided to invite me back, but I'd already made my decision. What kind of work environment would I be returning to? It was already strained, and after today's meeting, I'm thinking it wouldn't be much better.

I have a few options I'm pursuing, and for now, I'm happy to spend the afternoon with my Penny.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Missing my old job

I had kind of a frustrating first day of work. Part of it was my expectations (wait a second, this isn't how things are done at Bear Camp!), and there were a few other kinks I'm still working on. Today was the second day, and it was a bit better. I'm hoping things will just keep improving. I'm making better plans, and that will help a lot.

Today I came home from work, and Penny is saying, "Na na na na na." That's new! She's also a lot better at crawling-- like, noticeably better. I'm thrilled, but at the same time, I'm kind of bummed that I only get to see her a couple hours a day. She and Kevin came to see me at lunch, and that helped a lot.

But I am going to miss being her full-time mom.