Well, I'm Now In Las Cruces

And it is now time for grad school. I’m busy trying to get everything set up (I haven’t had any hot water because the gas is shut off), I decided I want a local phone number so that other people don’t have to make long-distance calls to my cell phone, and I’m going crazy without DSL. Plus I’ve had to get my classes registered, set up payment for tuition, worry about finances, decide whether or not to take the student loans (not sure yet, I hate taking on more debt and the TA stipend should take care of everything if I’m careful and frugal), and still need to finish unpacking. Plus I don’t have a plastic spatula, need to buy some 2x4s to try to fix a desk, have another rent payment due on the first of the month, don’t know how long the feds will take to confirm my lost savings bonds and give me the money (money I was counting on to get me over the first couple months hump), and don’t know when I’ll get paid for the first time. Oh, and I need to restart the diet (I hope my budget will allow for a low-carb diet of meat and veggies–healthier than rice and pasta all the time in any case.)

Other than that, I guess I’m having fun. Nice little house all to myself not ten minutes walk from the chemistry building. A parental safety net if it absolutely comes to that (I’d feel awful about it, though; honestly, I’d rather take out the loans first.) Anyone (Dag, I’m looking at you) want to come over and say hi sometime, perferably after I have the books on the bookshelves and the clothes put away and the modeling kit picked up off the floor?

Welcome to Lost Causes.

Did you bring the rain? If so, thanks!

mbh (who lives about ten minutes from the chemistry building, but hasn’t set foot on the campus in several years, except for quick trips to the ATM in Corbett Center.)

Visited White Sands yet? How about the Alamogordo Space Museum?

Congrats on your new digs.

So you’ll be back to playing poker on Thursdays??

Have you gone to Carlsburg Caverns?

FWIW, I was permanently brainwashed by an episode of Wings I saw once and only once, probably over 10 years ago. The plot goes something like this. This old, decrepit guy wins a contest entitling him to fly to wherever he asks to go. He wants to see his brother once more before he dies, and the brother lives in Las Cruces, NM. For the remainder of the show, all the guy does is shriek, “Take me to Las Cruces!”

Now, whenever I hear or read the the name of the town, the old man’s voice echoes in my head: “Take me to Las Cruces! Take me to Las Cruces!!!

Can you get fresh fire-roasted green chiles from Hatch there this time of year?

I gotta get out there again.

Alamogordo? Carlsbad? Where’s the board’s priorities? The real question: have you been to the lover’s lane rest stop above the city at night? The most classical rock-looks-out-over-the-city view I’ve ever seen even if the rocks are supposedly poisonous-snake infected and there is a fence to prevent you from getting onto the ledge.

Ah, Las Cruces. Good memories.

I started my professional on-air radio career in 1979 at 1450 KOBE in Las Cruces. Wonder if they’re still in that goofy building on the outskirts of town with the AM antenna in the back yard?

Enjoy the city. I sure did.

If’n you happen to pass by the Arts & Sciences administrated offices, give a wave to the Associate Deans. One of them is my boyfriend’s dad!

Alamogordo? Carlsbad? A rest stop above the city at night?

Where’s the board’s priorities?
I’ll tell you where, the High Desert Brewery. asterion, pick an evening and I’ll buy the first beer.

We ordered our chiles last week. Twenty-five pounds of fresh Big Jim green chiles delivered to our door that we roasted, peeled, and froze on Sunday.

My house still smells like heaven.