Las Cruces TripPosted by cczernia on January 3rd, 2005
I returned to Las Cruces for the holidays this year for over week making it a crazy two weeks. It felt crazy right before I left. A decision to redesign the front page of the trio display website made thing extremely busy at work. Not to mention a decision to bring in a consulting company to help improve the sites rankings put me on a defensive foot for my job as they wanted to completly take over the site. Luckily, my boss saw through their crap and that they were all talk and little substance.
Stephanie and I exchanged gifts then got some dinner and watched a movie. She gave me a ride to the airport the next day which was Christmas Eve. Both the trip up and back were great and both times the middle chair was empty and I got the window seat.
Christmas Eve I got to hang out with my family. We had our traditional dinner of fried fish, coleslaw, and french fries. The entire trip was filled with tons of food. We also went out a looked at the Luminarias in Old Mesilla. Christmas we exchanged gifts and then hung out watching “I Robot” and “Napolean Dynamite.” My brother and I then went and saw “Life the Aquatic.”
The next day I got to go my favorite bookstore called “My Bookstore.” I exchanged a bunch of books with me and traded them in for some gaming books and Neil Stephenson’s “Diamond Age.” I exchanged some stuff and got a bunch of movies including “Alias S1″ which I later addicted my dad to.
That evening I went and made tamales with my parents at my old theater professor’s house. I didn’t stay long as conversation seemed to revolve around babies and clothes. I also had to meet an old friend, Shane who I hadn’t seen since I moved to San Diego. We caught up a bit and then went to the Hilton bar where some lesbians flirted with me and another old friend, Todd, showed up and we all caught up. My brother and his friend Pablo, the coolest dude in Las Cruces, showed up. We all left but I convinced Todd and Shane to let me run a World of Darkness one shot for them on Tuesday.
On Monday I went shopping with mom in Old Mesilla to buy Stephanie some New Mexico/Southwest stuff that people seem to like.
On Tuesday Todd and I hung out. We went to a little restaurant called Burger Time which we use to hang out at during High School. We then went up to Onate High School in a reminisent binge. After that we visited two other old friends Shannon and Jake. Unfortunatly, Todd seemed more interested in “The Simpson’s” DVD then talking and catching up.
We later met up with Shane at VI (Village Inn, similar to a Marie Calenders or Coco that we spent tons of time smoking cigarettes and either roleplaying, playing magic or just bullshiting). I started the WoD game and we ran into some old friends of Maya (who I guess were my friends to). Todd felt uncomfortable at VI so we went to Shane’s mom’s house to finish the game which went over well.
On Wednesday I played some hacky sack with Todd and some of his old friends and then met up with Tracy for dinner and then bar hopping in which we run into Pablo again and Tracy admitted that she won a date with him, which I guess was quite the honor as he was the coolest guy in Las Cruces.
On Thursday my parents and I drove up to Cloud Croft, a little town up in the mountains. We then drove to the observatories Sun Spot and Apache Point. At Apache Point my dad pulled his Dean Card and got us the grand tour which was awsome as I got to see the telescopes up close.
Friday I played tennis with my dad and that night met up with another friend, Lee. Unfortunalty, Lee had to work at 12 so he dropped me off at Tracy’s where I met up with her. She planned to due New Years at “Graham Central Station” a club that mixes 4 different clubs together. I went with Tracy and her three girlfriends who got slopping drunk. I got pretty drunk myself but held off on the tequila shots.
After the episode at the Cowboy Bar I was determined to learn how to two-step. Tracy agreed to show and while doing so she showed me exactly how I remember doing it. This meant there was at least two different way of doing the two-step and I felt vindicated from making an ass of myself.
Saturday was pretty much recovery from the day before. We also went and saw “Meet the Fockers.”
Sunday I flew home and last night had another freakin migrain. Overall, a great trip and it was great to catch up with so many people. However, I think the trip was a little long and it I was to do it again I would only go for a week and space it out better.
Last week Stephanie, Erik, Michelle, Jonathan and his dad, and I went Whale Watching. A bunch of us had the rain checks from last year. However, this trip wasn’t as good even though we did see a whale, well, at we got to see it spray up about 2 ft. Very anticlimatic and Stephanie got sick.
Yesturday I went ahead and put a deposit down on a Scion xA (manual, silver). I’ve been going through the process of buying a new car for over a month now and looked at a number of vehicles. I decided on this one because I wanted something compact with decent mileage but still looks and feels good. Also, Scion had fixed prices so I didn’t have to worry about haggling. Actually, I was pretty much sold when the sales guy told me he can install and ipod hook up and I can change the songs using the steering wheel. I also get 9 free months of Satellite radio. I pick up the car in two weeks.
