Things are different here (part 2)

When it snows here, they don't put salt on the roads (hence the rust-free cars) but they do sand with bright red sand, which looks really weird to me. It also looks weird on your car.

I suppose they get it from sand pits that are in the red sandstone areas.

Out in the desert we saw this firehouse, and the view down the road from the firehouse. As far as we can tell, the only structure likely to catch fire within a gazillion miles of this firehouse is the firehouse itself.


New Mexico is still pretty Old West. In an upscale neighborhood in the Northeast, the gun store is right next to the pediatrician's office.


I see this sign on I-40 on my way to work every day. I love the wind sock attached to it!

Driving on Central Avenue, particularly in the evening, is stressful. I come home from the music studio on Central. There are three lanes of traffic in each direction, cross streets with and without lights, city buses (double length) stopping and pulling out constantly, and crazy/intoxicated/homeless people careening out into traffic. This was taken on a Sunday afternoon with little traffic. Now picture it full, at dusk, with people anxious to get home from work.

I'm not even sure what to say about this photo, except that things are different here.


BUT... some things never change. New house, same crazy pets.

Company!

Stephen and I were hoping that we would get lots of visitors here in ABQ, which is why a guest room and minimum of two bathrooms were "must haves" on our house hunting list. When Katie came the weekend after we moved in to help unpack, we had just a bed, one make-shift nightstand, and a lamp for her comfort. Then Ray and Sandy came with the truck and trailer and hopefully found the accommodations comfortable (I was in NY for Christmas so I missed their visit). We were able to add a few decorations and amenities for Jackie and Ralph's visit this week. They flew in Wednesday evening and were here at the house with Stephen when I got home from the music studio. Very cool!

On Thursday, Stephen and I went to work and left our guests with a car, some brochures of ABQ attractions, and instructions for the alarm system. They ended up going to a couple of the museums in Old Town, and we all met at Cafe Da Lat for supper during my hour-long break from the music studio. I took Friday off from school and only had to teach at the studio in the afternoon. So after Stephen went to work, we went furniture shopping and then hiked a short distance in the open space behind the house to look at the spectacular views.

We picked out this table at U-neek, which is a huge emporium of antiques, vintage, and craft items on Route 66. Mom M. had made the quilt for us as a Christmas gift, and we were able to hang it over the new table once we shortened the dowel and drilled some holes for the cord.


On Saturday, Stephen drove us on a tour of the desert to the South of ABQ, looping around into the Sandia mountains to the East. We stopped at the Abo ruins which date back to the 1300's. There was a pueblo there, and a Spanish church. The weather was breezy and sunny with temps in the 50's.


On Sunday, we went to church then walked around Historic Route 66 in the Nob Hill district. We had lunch at Yanni's, then went to Masks y Mas, a folk-art gallery and store across the street. The art was fascinating, but not things I would like for my house. The main theme is the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.


Today was Presidents' Day, which is a school holiday but not a day off at Stephen's workplace. But he was able to take most of the day off, after calling in to a meeting with some executives in Italy and participating in another conference call with folks at his office. We drove up the Turquoise Trail toward Santa Fe, stopping in Madrid which was a coal mining town, then a ghost town, and is now an artist colony with many galleries and shops and a theater. We found this lovely little gallery and Mom M bought us two small original oil paintings by the gallery owner which we will frame and hang in one of our rooms.


We had lunch at a cafe inside another gallery. I liked this whimsical sculpture, so I made my three traveling companions pose with "Guitar Guy."


We had to be back in time for me to go to work at the music studio. When I got home, we ate leftovers from our various meals during the week, and then Mom M. and I played our third game of Scrabble for the week. Tomorrow Stephen will take his folks to the airport on his way to work. We sure will miss them!

A Man and His Truck (or "why Stephen loves NM")

Rust. It is the bane of the car guy's existence. And New York State is famous among car guys for its 24-hour dry road policy, which entails salting the roads before a storm even begins. The amount of salt used in NY means that no matter how often you wash your vehicle, it is going to rust before your eyes. That's why car guys put away their collector cars in October and don't get them out again until May. But you can't put away your beloved (and very expensive) truck for the winter!

One of the first things Stephen noticed about ABQ is that people are driving around in trucks from the 70's and 80's, and they aren't restored or modified -- they're just trucks. Work trucks! People also drive their collector cars year-round, which is like a NY car guy going to heaven.

Here is a picture of the Silver Beauty in her youth.

And here's what New York did to her:

The floor of the bed had rusted to the point that stuff was falling out of it and the back fenders were gone. A couple of weeks ago, Stephen found a guy on Craig's List who was selling a practically pristine silver bed that he had removed from his truck in order to replace it with a tool box bed. Stephen used the car trailer to pick up the new bed and bring it home. Last weekend he removed the old bed from the truck using a torch since the bolts were so rusted.

Last night when I got home, he was positioning the new bed.

And here's the Silver Beauty looking a little more beautiful. Stephen wants me to point out that he has done all of this in our driveway in January and February, sometimes without a jacket!

Tiny Pretty Things

It's so easy to get caught up in the grand vistas while out walking in the desert and miss what's up close. Today I decided to focus on the small beauties.

School

When the second semester started in January, I began filling a long-term sub position for a middle school band director who is taking a leave of absence to deal with an illness in the family. I have a jazz band, sixth grade band, seventh grade band, and eighth grade band, each of which has an hour of rehearsal every day. Intense!

APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) is like other schools in which I've taught and also very different because of its immense size. Here are some facts:

APS is the largest school district in New Mexico. APS provides educational services to students in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Corrales, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, Tijeras, San Antonito, and Edgewood. Additionally, it serves Laguna and Isleta pueblos, Chilili, Tohajiilee, and the Atrisco Land Grant. Albuquerque Public Schools is also the city’s second largest employer, providing jobs for nearly 11,500 people. We are considered an urban-suburban-rural school district. We also are a widely diverse district, with more than a third of our students coming from homes where the primary language is not English.

Schools: 139
Students: 89,500
Teachers: 6,500
Employees: 11,500

15,000 students in 50 schools are receiving bilingual educations

More than 1 in 10 students are receiving special education services, including 1 in 20 who are receiving gifted education services

Students Eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch 63.9%
Percentage of English Language Learners 18%
Percentage of Students with Disabilities 14.4%
*Total number of students doesn't include charter school students.

Student Ethnicity
Hispanic 66.1%
Caucasian/White 22.7%
American Indian 4.2%
African American 2.9%
Asian 2.3%
Other (Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, etc.) 1.8%

The APS Homeless Project served more than 5,000 homeless students in 2008-09.
The graduation rate is 63.2% (closer to 80% if you count students who take more than four years to graduate).

The school I'm teaching in now is in the East Mountains, and has fewer English Language Learners than the schools in the city, which is helpful to me because I am just starting to try to learn Spanish. The principal is excellent and the teachers seem dedicated and caring. The teachers have laptops and there is wi-fi so you can take attendance and do your grading, but the band room has no smartboard or even a white board, no place to plug in my ipod or even a good stereo system. I forgot how much I hate chalk! The faculty and staff have been very helpful and friendly. And kids are kids, no matter where you go.

One major difference between APS and the small districts I'm used to, is that APS is so huge that it handles everything internally, they don't seem to contract out anything. For instance, I took some instruments to the district instrument repair shop! No kidding. There are two full-time repair people working there. On my way to the instrument repair shop, I passed the glazier shop, the small engine repair shop, the locksmith shop, the electronics repair shop, and so many more that I can't remember! It was amazing.

APS is adopting the Common Core Standards, and New Mexico is instituting new teacher evaluations, like many other states. The schools have Instructional Coaches, who are teachers hired specifically to teach and support the other teachers. There is a three-tiered license system with different base pay for each. Teachers are not required to have a masters degree in New Mexico, but a masters plus experience (or National Board Certification) will qualify you for a higher level license.

I don't know what I'll do when the long-term sub job I have ends. My lack of fluency in Spanish limits where I can teach (I'm pretty sure I didn't get one gig I applied for because of that, since they asked as many questions about language as about music at the interview). I might continue subbing or do something different. But for now, I'm enjoying being a band director!