well, we got into seattle yesterday afternoon, after 2 1/2 days with my mom and stepdad (cey… “j”) in las cruces, new mexico. it was an amazingly fun time.

we flew into el paso on sunday night, and ate at a great little mexican restaurant that was full of people (including staff) who didn’t speak english. i drank too much of the rice water drink and got too full. and there were some roasted chilies on my plate. i ate a few small bites of one, decided it was way too mild, and ate the whole thing in the next bite. when it hit my stomach, i found my world of pain. and then my mouth started burning. i was sitting there, a full tummy, my eyes bulging out, and smoke pouring out of my ears. yikes. i was quiet, but everyone in the restaurant noticed. i wish i could have seen my face. 🙂

the next day, we drove to palomas, mexico, a small but not too scuzzy border town. we went to a pottery shop owned by a guy named leo. mom and cey knew him well, and he was chatty, so it took us a while to get out of there. next we went to the little church. pretty, but the camera was out of batteries, so no picture. then we went to the eye doctor, because cey needed a new prescription. there we saw that they have interesting contacts for REALLY CHEAP. we thought about it.

we had at least 2 hours to kill before the glasses would be ready, so we wandered down to the pharmacy. i thought i didn’t need anything, but while we were waiting for our turn, and i realized what we could get, i loaded up on antibiotics and all kinds of other useful prescription things that we could buy there in ridiculous quantities for really cheap.

mom and cey had been mysteriously talking about some shop they like called the pink store. so finally we got there. a really nice store. not exactly cheap, but not super expensive either. as you wander around the shop, the employees come by with free margaritas, and take the things off your hands and up to the register, where they make a little pile for you. or a big pile, in our case. we loaded up on day of the dead figurines and some glasses and generally had a great time.

we paid, and then remembered to go back and get cey’s finished glasses. matt and i each bought a pair of contact lenses. his are funny, mine are just different.

and then back to the pink store, to have a delicious dinner and MORE free margaritas. and we did some tequila tasting as well. i spilled mine all over the tabletop. dork.

cey was our “bob” (designated driver for you americans), but the rest of us were pretty drunk when we first walked across the border check then drove through the later checkpoint. the guards with dogs laughed at us.

and on to the next day.

the next day (tuesday), we drove out of town (las cruces again), and took a hike in the mountains. i actually achieved a sunburn!!! i deliberately chose NOT to wear my sunscreen, because after all, if you’re only going to get one day of sun, might as well make the best of it.

the really cool thing here is that CEY CAN WALK!!! for the last several years, cey’s back has gotten so bad that he was driving around in those little scooter things that fat people are always riding around supermarkets in. he was so souped up on pain meds that he barely had a clue what was going on around him. he certainly wasn’t walking. anyway, a couple of months ago, cey finally had the big surgery. they opened him up and replaced some of his vertebrae. they also replaced a bunch of the spacer stuff between the vertebrae. end result: he’s 2 inches taller and he can walk. he has to wear a couple of devices that help stimulate bone growth, and he has a bunch of exercises he has to do, but he can walk around all day and enjoy his life again. he and mom are both SO MUCH HAPPIER than i remember ever seeing them. or at least for so long it’s a hazy memory.

we had a delicious meal at a big restaurant (la posta) in old downtown las cruces that night, and woke up at 5am yesterday morning to head to seattle.

that’s me eating a prickly pear while we were hiking!