remembering the rockies

I was just reading something about Sigur Ros and had this lovely memory. Six years ago, I was flying from Milwaukee to Albuquerque before taking the Greyhound out to Taos. I'd stayed up all night in order to make my early-morning flight and couldn't sleep on the plane despite having been up for thirty-some hours by then. I had a layover in Denver, which meant flying over the Rockies, something I'd never done before. I was listening to Sigur Ros in my haze of sleep deprivation when the Rockies came into view. I just remember staring and starting at them as we flew between wisps and there was that perfectly alien soundtrack to the whole experience. 

I'd like to say I rocked Albuquerque that night, but really I just went to the best $32 hotel room I've stayed in and fell asleep for many, many hours.

This has me thinking about Taos now. I stayed at a hostel there called the Abominable Snowmansion. You can stay in teepees there if you want! I was staying in the girls' bunk room, which was empty but for me.  I just remembered that I helped the hostel owner's mom plant a garden, and I wondered if what I planted there ever grew. She did my Vedic astrology chart that night for me and I typed a letter that she dictated to John Kerry (this was when he was running for President). I'd come to Taos for a lot of reasons, but I actually found most of my satisfaction there at the hostel, having those deep but transient conversations with whoever was around, playing Chopin on their old piano. I went with some folks there to a warm springs (I think it was called Stagecoach Springs) that used to be a popular natural bathhouse back in the day. We worked our way through a case of Tecate with our feet in the water. It was a good day.