Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Up and down and all around

Last Friday Kaylee and I drove down to Albuquerque, NM to meet my parents. Mom had a meeting on Saturday for the Wool Festival Board so Dad and I drove around Abq and spent some time down on the old plaza. We met 7 of the Navajo Code Talkers who were there for a book signing. One of the men was the (very) proud grandfather of the actor Adam Beach (from Windtalkers).

Saturday night we drove up to Mora, NM to visit our friends at Victory Ranch Alpacas. They're doing well and so are the critters. I spent some time with the parental units and with the people who run the ranch and work on it.

I even made a new friend.

The people there are really easy to talk to and they always make me feel welcome right away. We played board games, enjoyed half-hazard gun cap gun fire, and went to the hot springs. It almost felt like I was back in MN with my long-time friends. I'm planning a return engagement this summer - where we will take in a drive-in movie (haven't been to one of those in YEARS).

Monday morning I helped out a little around the ranch: weening babies from their mamas, helping to hold down an adult female so they could trim her hooves, letting the alpacas out to pasture, bringing the horses in... I love doing that stuff! If I hadn't just spent 1/3 of my life in school to be a teacher I would be sorely tempted to drop everything and beg for a full-time job at the ranch.

Kaylee and I said goodbye to my parents and our friends and drove back to CO on Monday afternoon. I went to work Tuesday but started feeling ishy - then worse. Called in sick today - went to the doctor - sinus infection is back in action even though I was still on the antibiotic. She prescribed a new, stronger drug and I'm trying it out. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm. It's really frustrating because I hate missing work, I'm tired of feeling miserable and I reallllllly thought I was finally getting better.