Monday night phone call

Dear Carrie,

Since I can’t talk to you on the phone I’m going to write my side of the conversation here. You should be proud of me- I went hiking this weekend, twice! Remember the Atalaya trail you did when you were here in August? I did it twice this weekend (by “I did it” I mean I hiked portions of it, not like Carrie “The Machine” Phillips who went all the way up one hot summer day), and it was great to be outside and enjoy the good weather. On Saturday we took the pups and parked partway up to enjoy the upper trail a bit before the sunset. On Sunday I met a friend from work at the bottom at 8:15, that’s right: 8:15 AM in the morning on a Sunday, and we hiked all the way up. Or, at least, we thought we did. We came to a beautiful clearing on what seemed to be the top of the mountain and hung out for a while, feeling proud of our accomplishment of making it to the top while the whole town was at church. And then we saw a skinny man who had passed us before and was now coming back down, and we realized that we were really just at the top of a lower ridge and were quite far from the menacingly high mountain behind us. Your response would be “Phi Beta Kappa doesn’t get you much, does it?” and I have to admit, it would be appropriate.

On Saturday I walked over to this Western/Cowboy themed consignment store and looked at really expensive used cowboy boots. I don’t want any, I just like to be amazed by their insane prices. The back room of the store is like a classy thrift shop, and I found a gold sequined skirt for $9 that I bought to cut off and make into an evening clutch. Then I remembered that I don’t ever go anywhere nice enough in the evening to need an evening bag, so I decided to try on the skirt. Guess what? It fits! It still has a Neiman Marcus tag on it for $290.00 and only has one or two loose strings, so it is a steal! I was so happy I bought it, and then I remembered that I don’t ever go anywhere nice enough in the evening to need an evening bag, so what the hell am I going to do with gold sequined skirt? I also bought a white, beaded and sequined dress, which will make the perfect flapper costume. I can see you rolling your eyes at me since I don’t actually go to many costume parties, but we were girl scouts so we must be prepared! The women working at the store all asked me where I was going, as if I had a stint planned as a Vegas showgirl, but I guess that is to be expected when you walk out with $20 worth of beaded and sequined fabric that no one else wants.

Remember how the Albuquerque International Sunport has the ugliest people of any airport? It seems they all donated their favorite jackets to the businessmen of Santa Fe. Yesterday I saw two distinguished gentlemen, suited up and on the way to a meeting, wearing the most hideous horse-blankets-with-western-theme-turned-woven-sport-coats I have ever seen.

My brother sent me a document from my old computer this morning titled “Carrie quotes.” I asked him to look for it before your service because I thought I’d share some of your gems with everyone, but now I realize it would have been entirely inappropriate with your family in the front row and all. Exhibit A:

“My boy will be like, ‘art’? and I’ll be like, ‘Uh, we got some chocolate syrup, you can draw on me if you want.” May 15, 2003

You crack me up.

SEL