Good morning! It is such a lovely morning in Santa Fe. If you aren't here, I wish you were.
To those of you who don't know, I just celebrated my 24th birthday on Sunday! I've been whining to my parents about how old I am compared to my peers, and that I'm not really sure what one is supposed to be doing when they're 24. Some of my closest friends whom I grew up with are mothers by now, some are wives, some are graduate students, and some are undergraduate students. Very few, in fact, I can't think of a single one, are searching for a career like I am, so I feel particularly directionless (my dad would probably concur- even though I try really hard to pretend like I'm not) in terms of what to do next with my life.
There's my "What am I doing with my life?" rant for this blog. I'm sure I'll subject you to another one, or ten, down the road. Bear with me.
There's my "What am I doing with my life?" rant for this blog. I'm sure I'll subject you to another one, or ten, down the road. Bear with me.
Anyway, on Saturday I spent the day following a lobbyist around for lunch at the local lobbyist hangout. He spent the day introducing me to other lobbyists and legislators, which I hope will be hugely beneficial during my job hunt.
Saturday evening, I threw a birthday party at my house in Santa Fe. There were about 18 people who came and we spent the evening playing karaoke, Just Dance on the XBOX, and, of course, talking about politics because that's what we do best.
Sunday morning, a few of us went to the Santa Fe National Forest to the hot springs. This was the highlight of my weekend by far. The Santa Fe National Forest and the Jemez hot springs is located here, just southwest of Los Alamos and northwest of Albuquerque. This State Highway 4 through the National Forest is a designated National Scenic Highway, and it surely didn't disappoint. My friends and I kept saying, "Can you believe something so beautiful as this is in New Mexico?" We were awestricken. We went north from Santa Fe to Los Alamos, and got to drive through the Los Alamos National Labs security on the highway. If you have no idea what the Los Alamos National Labs are, brush up on your history of the Manhattan Project here. It's worth a look, plus, you all know how I feel about knowing important parts of history.
It took us a while to find the hot springs, but we finally figured out that the natural hot springs are not commercialized, nor are they marked by signs, and are known only to the locals/natives. We finally stopped and asked someone and his directions were, "Yeah, hike up this mountain for about a mile. You'll come upon some hot springs at some point." I love New Mexicans. Sure enough, we hiked straight up rocks and ice for a mile, almost died from an asthma attack, and finally came to some very peaceful, steamy hot springs sitting at the top of the mountain overlooking the most gorgeous views of the National Forest. New Mexico is surely not short of any natural beauty.
The Valles Caldera Wildlife Preserve
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