Omelette, southwestern style.

In summary, Albuquerque is a cool town, Durango is pretty but not quite pretty enough, and the first day back running after being at altitude for a few days I feel totally rock star.

Durango: We didn't know where to stay. The next time I go back for a wedding, I'll know better. Stay in town, not on the mountain. Even still, if you're not going for a wedding, there are better places to go. It's beautiful, but not as beautiful as other places you can get with the same amount of travel time.

So I started reading and have almost finished The Corrections, finally. I waited a while for this one. I admit it, the Oprah flap put me off. Not that he refused the spot but that he was nominated for the list in the first place. On the other hand, so was Tolstoy, so. I need to get over this, and other things. Ryan was reading it from Seattle to Denver and I hated the book I was reading and he gave me such a hard sell that much to his chagrin I bought the book at the Denver airport for the flight to Albuquerque. We had a little travel book club! It was nice for me and mildly annoying for everyone else. I'll tell you what though, this book is good. He gets it right in so many ways. I ought to finish it in the next couple of days and post more comments, but it has been really interesting to read this in proximity to all these weddings.

Dysfunction.

So while we were in Albuquerque, we spent some time wandering around the UNM campus. These days I have mixed feelings visiting college campuses. On the one hand, I love them. I spent most of my adult life on one. I especially love them in the summer. I love the pace, the architecture, the different hats people wear. I can walk around campus and stick labels on to people like it's nobody's business -- undergrad, grad, professor, staff. Maybe I'm wrong sometimes, but I bet it isn't often. (Maybe they look at me and say: shouldabeen professor, sold out. Maybe not.) It's familiar. It's comfortable. It represents the other life I might have had.

On the other hand, it's familiar. It's comfortable. It represents the other life I might have had.