So I suppose I've waited long enough to share about the great Albuquerque adventure. My friends got here on Saturday, completely exhausted, but hanging in there. I took them to Frontier for lunch so that they could have some green chile. I love frontier for many reasons, but the atmosphere is absolutely great. We hung around for awhile then headed to counterculture which they were definitely fond of. We went out with the group to Bennigan's and pretty much came home and crashed.

Sunday, I had to be at church early to make sure all was set for the baptism of our newest Saranam member, and that went swimmingly. That's when the surreal experience hit me that people had actually visited me from Illinois. I had somewhat of an existential crisis while sitting in the pews saying to myself, wow, I can't believe that there are 3 people next to me from home. I almost pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. That afternoon we went to El Pinto for lunch, which was great once we found it. Then we headed out to the Petroglyphs because it was kinda gross outside and we weren't so keen on going up on the mountain when the mountain was covered in clouds. It started to rain and snow which wasn't so much fun, but Drew found a tumbleweed that he needed to take home. We stopped at Tracy and Scott's on the way home because we were out that way. I guess the rest of the day we just played video games and played a hilarious game of Apples to Apples.

Monday I took my friends out to where I work and then we decided to go down to Old Town. We wandered around and found the crazy hat store, got candy from the candy lady, and found the coolest tables ever. Well I should say that Drew and I found the coolest tables ever because Nick and Jodie wouldn't come in the store because they were afraid they would break something. Drew bought a little candle in a pot so that he could uproot a tiny plant from the soil here and take it home. He is one strange but lovable boy. We came back that night and I got a call from my friend Leah who came over and we played a rousing game of phase 10.

Tuesday, I had to go in to work for a meeting, but it isn't like my friends would be terribly productive in the morning anyway. When I got back, we headed to lunch at Dion's with Leah. I had never had Dion's either, so I was in for a treat as well. How can you ever go wrong with pepperoni and green chile pizza? Drew and I got randomly left at Dion's for a bit, but the rest of them eventually came back. Leah had to go to work, so we headed to the mountains. I couldn't exactly remember the road we needed to go up on, so we got a bit lost, but we eventually found where we needed to be and headed up the back side of the mountain. There was definitely fun had by all on top of the mountain including a couple of snowballs thrown around.

Wednesday was departure day, so we hung out, I brought them over to the church again, and we ate at Flying Star. After one more game of Mario Party, they headed out. Of course they had to drive through a nasty storm and it took them 5 extra hours to get back to Champaign. Should have just stayed in Albuquerque...

Overall I had a great time showing my friends around and having some fun. It was interesting to not have my quiet apartment all to myself, and I definitely was a bit confused after they left because it went from loud and fun to quiet and somewhat lonely. I'm ready to get back into the swing of things in my life here though because my friends visiting made me really realize how much I love it here and how my life here is really just plain great right now. I was worried that they would make me want to return home, but that isn't the case, it definitely made me appreciate Albuquerque and appreciate how much I love my job.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 at 10:59 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.