pandora's aquarium

I had a conversation about New Mexico, Albuquerque in particular, with a friend yesterday. He told me he had driven through Albuquerque several years ago and it seemed depressing. I wholeheartedly agreed. I've been thinking about that declaration since and have realized a couple of things.

New Mexico may not have been the home I would have chosen if I had a choice, but it is home now. I am relatively happy here.

I stood out on the front porch tonight. It was about an hour after the sun had actually set. The horizon was still yellow. The blue above that was my favorite color blue. I have never seen the sky that color blue anywhere but here. Above my head the sky was dark blue. No matter the time of night, if you aren't in a metropolitan area, you can almost always see the blue. The star show is spectacular and the moon rising over the Sandias is something to behold (not tonight, because it was up all day, but generally).

I don't live in Albuquerque anymore, but I live close enough that going *down the hill* isn't much of a burden. I always want compare it to Richmond, VA. I just discovered that Abq has over twice the population, which I found surprising. Richmond always seemed bigger. Maybe it's because Richmond is taller. We have museums of many flavors, a zoo, an aquarium, parks, hiking trails, the bosque, the river. We have restaurants with awesome food. We have a pretty eclectic art scene, whether audio or visual, or anywhere in between. We have interesting wildlife - Roadrunners for the win!

It takes almost no time to go from being in a heavily populated area, to being in The Middle of Nowhere. A place where it feels like the sky never ends. Sometimes, while traveling through The Middle of Nowhere, you stumble upon a town or a sight that you never knew existed. Road trips in this state are fun.

We have Carlsbad Caverns, which is very field trippy, but still a ton of fun. There is Roswell, which is just out of this world (hahaha, bad pun, and it's not really). Santa Fe, where art galleries and some of the residents are overly pretentious, is still a nice place to visit. I must take the Little Human on the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad in the near future - a steam powered locomotive, for those unaware. Tinkertown Museum is one of the strangest and most delightful places I have ever been. Then there is just the landscape while on the way. Odd rock formations that make peculiar landmarks.

New Mexico has relatively decent weather. I wish there was more of a spring and more of a fall, but winter is mild and summer is usually not humid. Nights are cool, so no matter what the daytime temp was, night time is at least bearable. The rain storms are impressive and sometimes scary. Snowfalls are few and far between, usually, and seem so out of place when they happen. We have enough of a fall to warrant foliage colors and enough of a spring to enjoy the world coming back to life.

I realized tonight that the wanderlust will probably fly me away from here in the future, but I think I need to start appreciating the layover more. It won't ever be my *heart home*, I don't think, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it more while I'm here...

Jonathan had an appt today with a real estate agent about the old house. His commission is slightly insane and he told us he would run the comps and get back to us in 6-8 days. We then decided to call abqrealtor who told us that as long as we got her a key, she would go to the house tomorrow and do all of the measurements and get us comps ASAP!!! I'm so dumb. I should have had him call her first.

The other guy was pretty much telling us that our only option was real estate contract. I am not interested in this for a couple of reasons:

1)The house stays in my name, so if for some reason they default, I am still then responsible for the loan. Since paying two mortgages is not something I am in any hurry to continue, this doesn't sound like fun. Not to mention, if they default and leave the house a wreck, I am also responsible for repairs before we do it all over again.

2)Other than the down payment, I would not be able to expect any type of lump sum of money. Since most of the down payment would pay for the Realtor's fees, that means no extra money. I don't know that there will be any extra money anyway, but it is something I have to think about. The monthly payments would be paying that mortgage. I have a pretty high interest rate on that house (long story), so even if we sold it for more than what I owe, we would probably still only be getting what my monthly payments are (until they moved out or sold).

All in all, it seems like a bad idea. I would just rather have it gone. I would like some profit, but realistically, I don't know what I might get. We'll see. As long as Jonathan doesn't end up paying two mortgages indefinitely, I will be happy.

I guess that the family has decided the name of the New House. It shall henceforth be known as...


The Duck's Asylum


They out voted me, although I hadn't actually voted, since I liked all of them, and couldn't decide. Guess they decided for me!

Internet is up. It was actually up on the 1st, but the computer was buried and we had to have anew phone jack put in. But it is up now, and running.

The house is great, but I am having stress because we have so much crap! It is everywhere! It will all get dealt with. Most everything is here now except the stuff that was in the attic of the old house, and a few odds and ends. We need a shed, but realistically, even if we bought it tomorrow, it prolly wouldn't be up til next month. *sigh*

We do have beautiful views, and today we had a huge double rainbow that landed in the lot behind the house. It was spectacular.

Our next door neighbor is a lovely woman. Probably around my moms age, maybe a little older. She is nice to talk to and I like her a lot. I do think we may have a little busy body syndrome, but hopefully we won't be doing anything to incur her wrath.

My friend Sean will probably never help me do anything ever again. Jonathan rented a 14' truck instead of a 20' and so it took two loads and massive amounts of effort. Sean is a Godsend though.

I don't know what to call this house. The old one was The Duck's Nest, and since no one ever went there, I am tempted to just carry the name over to the new one. We were toying with The Duck's Asylum, since it is an asylum of sorts (in all meanings of that word), but it doesn't have the same ring to it. The Asylum would work, but doesn't bring my ducky love into the mix (*ahem*). What does everyone else think? I would make a poll, but haven't done so before now, and don't feel like figuring it out right this moment. Maybe tomorrow...