New Mexico is the only state I’ve found that you can go out into the middle of no where and be completely alone, with no traces of people. No trash, power lines, fences, tread marks or footprints. It’s good and bad. I like the tranquility of it, but hate that smart or attractive people are so few and far between. I like that there are ice caves, caverns, desert, forest, volcanoes, mountains, prairies, pretty and creepy places all over the state. I like creepy things. They are exciting. Not creepy people ( hate those), but weird bugs, storms and scary movies. New Mexico, in addition to being adorned with beauty, is dotted with creepy spots. WE all have little spots where we live that we like to visit. If you show me your spots, I’ll show you mine. ( that sounded like it could be easily taken out of context, but it came out funny, so I think I’ll leave it. ) There is an old water tower I climb up to sometimes and watch the forest or stars or clouds. And some haunted houses. I don’t spend much time in those though. Another cool thing about New Mexico is the lack of an accent. I’m not one for accents for whatever reason. Texas is right next door though and it’s a whole other story. Texans like to make simple one syllable word more complicated than they are. Like “pen” or “ten”. Those words turn into something like “pee-en” and “tee-en” I don’t know if it has the right effect in writing, but you sound it out it works. Very strange.

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Airports are great places to meet interesting people. People from all walks of life and nationalities congregate in airports to achieve a common goal. That goal is to get somewhere. Watching how people react to delayed flights or full overhead compartments can tell you a lot about a person and whether or not they are well traveled. A worldly individual will understand and expect it when things go wrong. They will simply sigh and pull out a novel or crossword puzzle and wait. Someone who is anxious and new to the world of flight delays won’t have anything to placate himself with and will think that complaining to the right people will get the plane to move sooner. That silly person doesn’t yet understand that trying to get a plane off the ground before it has the space or mechanical attention it needs just isn’t going to happen. The airline would much rather poo poo an irate person than risk a plane going down. Airports and planes provide a great opportunity to scout out the people who look nice and have an interesting conversation with them. With everyone just sitting around as bored as can be, almost everyone is up for a little friendly conversation. Either that or they are sleeping or yelling. No one wants to talk to an angry passenger or someone who is asleep anyways. Next time you are trapped in an airport, talk to the person next to you. Chances are they have interesting things to say and it never hurts to network with people from all over.

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I was walking around in downtown Mumbai and I heard these drums and fireworks, so I had to see what was going on and I came up on this parade going through town. I didn’t know it at the time but there is a 10 day Ganesha festival going on and today was the grand party thing. Anyway, I was watching this parade/party/people just going nuts throwing colored powder and dancing, and I started to take pictures. I wanted to get as close as possible to get some pictures and all of the sudden all of these children came up to me asking me to take their picture. It was really cool, all of these people covered in magenta powder just dancing literally in the middle of the street. I was just taking pictures then a bunch of the crazy magenta colored dancing people started pointing at me and motioning me to come over. I looked around and realized that I was the only white person around and made the “who me?” gesture and they all cheered and motioned more. I walked into the street and I was immediately mobbed by guys, girls, children, adults, all asking me my name and where I was from. They all wanted to shake my hand, like I was famous or something. I was shaking hands, talking to fifty different people at once while all these kids begged me to take their picture. Then this guy came up to me and asked if I dance, so I was like, “sure” and so he grabbed my hand and brought me into the middle of the street, threw a bunch of magenta powder on me and we all started dancing to the drums that were being played. It was crazy, there were these open trucks carrying a bunch of people just throwing colored powder, beating drums, laughing, and dancing. I kept getting pulled in fifty different directions by all of these people wanting to show me stuff. I got pulled into a huge room with a huge statue of Ganesha there and they wanted me to take a picture, so I did. Then they ran me over to this truck with a little Ganesha statue that had a plate of cake on it, and they handed me a handfull of cake to eat (it was good, that Ganesha sure can make a cake). I really am not describing it that well, it was just amazing. Everyone was so nice and just wanted me to take their picture or shake their hand. I have never hugged, hand shaked, and introduced myself so much.

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Sometimes it is difficult to see how trying to help a group of people could actually do them more harm then good. For example, when I was working with a Mayan population in the Guatemalan highlands, I noticed lot of run-down porta-potties dotting the country side near their villages. Now, I was hanging out with a group of people who still dye and weave their own clothes from the wool of their own sheep, grow and roast their own coffee beans, and light fires with flints to cook over, so you can imagine my confusion when I came across these modern toilets. Since there was a language barrier, I had to ask the translator to ask them if I could use the rest room. He asked, and a Mayan woman nodded and pointed to one of the big, blue, plastic potties on a hill. I’m pretty skeptical of porta-potties to begin with, especially in a third world country and the translator must have picked up on my hesitation because he quickly told me that it’s best to just pop a squat behind a bush somewhere. Out of politeness to the Mayans, I walked over to the porta-potty and pretended to go about my business with full intentions of peeing in a bush on the way back down. While I was standing there being polite, I noticed a shovel and against the wall and foot prints on the toilet seat. Later I asked some of the folks I was working with about this and they told me that some Christian missionaries put the porta-potties there to try to bring the Mayans up to plumbing par with more developed countries, but failed to show them how to use or maintain them. Since it’s culturally correct to squat instead of sit to do business for these guys, they planted their feet on the seat instead of their cheeks which explained to footprints. The explanation for the shovel was an unfortunate one. Since the missionaries did not explain the health hazards of standing excrement or provide the tools to pump the potty, the farmers began to use the contents as fertilizer for the crops which has widely contributed to the spread of diseases including hepatitis. Incidences such as this occur all the time but can easily be prevented by studying cultures and identifying their needs before implementing the wrong kinds of “help”.

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The rest of the world travels a lot more than most Americans do. North America is a huge land mass on which many people have willingly segregated themselves from the rest of the world. I’m not sure why Americans choose to be less connected with the rest of the world than Europeans, for example, do. The only thing I can think of is that here in the United States, public transportation is not as readily available and lodging can be very expensive. As American’s all we know of travel is that it is very time consuming and expensive so we tend to shy away from it. In other parts of the world people travel around from country to country all the time. This isn’t just because there are more counties in closer proximity to each other on other continents. Europeans hop over to East Asia or South Africa much more frequently than we even visit Mexico. South Americans are in on this travel thing too. The rest of the world utilizes public transportation and hostels more. It’s easy to get most places on a train or bus. There are even tour buses that drive all over the coast of Africa. You just buy a pass and hop on or off whenever you want to. Hostels are usually pretty cheap and inviting ways to meet other travelers as well. The most expensive this about over seas travel is just the plane ticket and even that can be more affordable depending on the season and airline. It is not uncommon for people from India or Asia who have just gotten a diploma or degree to go travel the world for a few months before returning and getting down to business. I personally would much rather get to travel than be given other graduation gifts.

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Outside of Dumas, there is a small town called Cactus. When ever you go to Cactus, it feels like you are no longer in America. Everything there is written in Spanish, and the houses are completely different. They have an elementary school there, but all the kids who continue with their education have to go to Dumas to go to school because they don’t have any thing else. Cactus has some of the best Mexican food that I have ever had. Most of the places are hard to find, because they are in houses or connected to gas stations or something like that, but once you find a good one you are sure to find some excellent home cooked food. My mom and I head that way when ever we want to eat lunch and have a little more time on our hands. My favorite one is right off the high way, connected to a gas station. Neither of us even know what it’s called, but we know where it is and that’s all that matters. There’s another on in town called El Rancho that someone from Dumas owns that we go to a lot, but they also own a restaurant in Dumas that is close to the same. It seems like every time we go, one of them has closed down and something different is in it’s place, but it never matters because it’s always good food that we couldn’t cook at home. So, if you happen to be heading north out of Texas, you just might run through there. Just give a little look around and maybe you’ll find your favorite new restaurant.

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Driving is fun and easy. If everyone did what they were supposed to do, driving would be safe and free of frustration as well. There is a certain etiquette that we all learn with driving experience. Some of the rules of driving etiquette are spoken, and some are not. An example of spoken driving etiquette is to stay in the right lane if you aren’t passing or driving faster than the flow of traffic. It makes sense. You just stay out of the way of people who are in a hurry. An example of an unspoken, slightly more obscure rule of driving etiquette is to turn in a timely manner. With the exception of red signs or lights, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to almost come to a complete stop before you make a right hand turn! Just because you might move slow when you walk, doesn’t mean you have to drive your car the same way. I’m not saying anyone needs to speed, or drive unsafely, just reasonably. It’s just as dangerous to drive too slow or stop on a bust street before you turn into a parking lot. I’m a pretty laid back person, but bad drivers are one thing that I just can’t deal with. I don’t like my safety or time to be jeopardized because someone hasn’t learned the basics of good driving. Since I recently moved back to Lubbock a rush of unwanted emotion has filled me every time I venture out into the city. When I moved, I easily forgot how frustrating Lubbock drivers can be….Then I came back. A YEILD SIGN DOES NOT MEAN STOP! Stopping at every yield sign is a phenomenon I have only seen in Lubbock. People stop for yield signs even when they have their own lane to drive into! Unnecessary! This is an example of a spoken rule of etiquette . You do what the signs tell you to do. Hell, forget etiquette, that’s a LAW.

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Usually I don’t mind having delays and layovers when I travel. If a flight is late or a plane is broken and I end up missing my connecting flight, it’s no big deal. The airlines will eventually get you where you need to be one way or another and they are usually pretty good at smoothing over the bumps with free miles or flights. If they offer incentives like cash or first-class seating for taking a later flight, I will usually give up my seat for whoever is in desperate need of it. I like being in airports. Usually being in an airport means that I’m about to be somewhere I want to go, or I’m coming home from wherever I’m ready to leave. Traveling is fun for me. I like figuring out the logistics and meeting interesting people from all over. There was a delay this weekend though that really pissed me off though. Sean was flying in from California last Friday to hang out with me until Monday morning, but when he got to Dallas, they ended up canceling his flight into Lubbock. And putting him on a plane on Saturday instead. The first plane was broken so they had to find another plane that ended up having mechanical issues as well. All in all, I’m glad that they opted out of tossing Sean on a plane that wasn’t mechanically sound, but still, it was irritating and really cut into the time I had to spend with him. I can see why some people get so upset when they travel, but when you step back and think about it, Most of us would rather be late than riding along on a plane that’s not fit for flying. Right? Even if it knocked off a chunk of Sean time, I’m glad the stupid airline did what they did and bumped him (and everyone else) back a day.

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I’ve never been to New York before, and I have never really intended on going there. Big cities like that aren’t my thing, I don’t like cold weather, and I don’t like mean people. And, from what I hear about New York, that sounds like a pretty good summary. The only time I enjoy being cold is when I’m on a board going down a mountain in the snow. So, one of my favorite shows to watch when I get the opportunity to catch it is Cash Cab. It’s a show where a guy drives around in a cab and picks up unknowning people who needs rides, and when hey get in lights on the roof turn on and he tells you that you get to be on the game how. I love trivia shows, and I really want to be on it someday. But, the fact that I don’t want to go to New York causes a bit of a problem for my chances of ever getting on the show. I would just love to get into a cab and have those lights turn on, I wish that they would have a different version of the show in California or Las Vegas. I frequent those places, and my chances would still be slim but at least existent. Maybe one of these days I’ll decide that all the hype about New York is worth something to me, and that I need to head up that way and check out what’s going on. But, for now, I think I’ll just stick to the warm vacations spots with the nice people.

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Traveling for Thanksgiving is not something everyone will be doing this year. The gas prices are soaring again and the plane tickets are overly priced. I tried to get the money together just to travel to Oklahoma and back and with the gas to get down there and the gas to drive around up there and then get back the dollar signs were soon getting larger than they had been.  I tried to make a budget to get to Oklahoma and back and use it to the best of my ability but the budget was beginning to bust. I don’t understand why I was the one nominated since the family in Oklahoma has no issues with money. So I tried to re do the budget and still get up there but the harder I try to stretch our money just for gas to get up there it still isn’t working. We would still have to get a motel to stay somewhere and have food for the entire weekend. I tried explaining this to my husband and of course he wants me to find a way because it is his family. I don’t understand why he isn’t getting the fact that a dollar can only stretch so far. However my budget revision will continue the rest of the night until tomorrow morning and we will decide Thanksgiving Eve whether we will be going or not

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