dirtyindiewear

i’m moving to melbourne next year! (if all goes planned, which it should)

i’m incredibly excited… i just hope i can find people with similar interests (knitting, indie music, theme parties where i get to dress up funny…).

the red iguana is by far the best mexican restaurant i’ve ever had the opportunity to dine at. about ten years ago my mother and i went there for lunch after it was recommended by a family friend. when we first saw it (and it’s location) we were skeptical. the instant you walk through the doors any cynicism melts away. the walls are painted in vivid orange, greens and blues. frida khalo prints are hung here, there and everywhere, and over time more and more autographs from satisfied celebrities adorn its walls as well.

it’s not unusual to find a line streaming out the door at dinner time, so i recommend you come early, but even if you have to wait, it’s worth it.

try one of their legendary molé dishes. you will not be disappointed.

i forced my family to go here when we visited las vegas for christmas a few years ago. they hemmed and hawed but in the end all were very pleased that we went.

seriously the second best mexican restaurant i’ve ever been to in my entire life (second only to Red Iguana in salt lake city, utah). and that’s really saying something.

i mean… how can you not love a restaurant who’s welcome sign reads “eating out has never tasted this good”?

i wouldn’t necessarily recommend albuquerque as a vacation destination. and i, myself, wouldn’t want to LIVE in albuquerque… but if you live in the general area, and want to go to a good bar/music venue, albuquerque has a pretty good scene.

places to check out: burt’s tiki lounge (highly recommended), atomic (not as awesome as burt’s, but it doesn’t suck), and the launchpad.

i’ll be celebrating my 1 year anniversary of living in santa fe on feb 13th. and i have this one thing to say:

i was born and raised in a suburb outside of slc, utah. hated it. stifling. never felt at home, even though it was my home town.

i lived 7 years in connecticut. i hated it. stifling in an entirely new way (people seriously have to judge you for two months before they even deem you worthy to talk to. people always commented on how much i smile. people seriously don’t smile there. they’re always grumpy.) never felt at home.

lived in santa fe for just over 11 months now, and i feel at home. everyone here is so welcoming and creative and open. it has all the amenities of a city without the overcrowding and guardedness. love it!

i went there for christmas with my family a couple of years ago. it was amusing in that it was so out of the ordinary, and going to they “bally’s jubilee” on christmas day was quite the laugh…

however, it just wasn’t christmas. not that we were terribly surprised by this.

it’s not my favorite place in the world. in fact, i find it kind of obnoxious. but i think that everyone should go to vegas once in their lives.

so, the airport itself isn’t that bad, as far as airports go. it’s very modern and clean.

my only warning is this: if, for whatever reason, your connecting flight boards/departs within 30 minutes of your landing… run like hell. the place is huge and you need to catch a little light-rail thing to get to each of the separate terminals. i was lucky and actually made my connecting flight after a delayed take-off from the first flight, other people weren’t so lucky and were left behind.

i was flying from connecticut to new mexico with a stop in dallas. what was meant to be 2 hours ended up being 5 days.

granted, my view of dallas was soured from the get go because i didn’t want to be there in the first place, but still…

the people were reasonably nice on the whole. although i’ve never been asked by so many people if i was “a believer.”

there’s not much to do in town, and i couldn’t really afford to travel through it anyway. i don’t give a shit about football, so going to bars was pretty out of the question as everyone in the entire state of texas was glued to the tv watching various matches.

and if you try to take a greyhound bus out of dallas, be sure to have mace on hand. bus station is as sketchy as hell.

sorry this isn’t more informative, but there you go.