I have a friend from high school whose parents used to take him out to Ruidoso during the summer. I never really thought much of it then. But when I found out that I would be spending time in Roswell, I thought that I might head over to Ruidoso to see what the fuss was about. 

It’s definitely a tourist mountain town. I guess you could say it’s at the foot of some mountain range. I don’t actually know, really. I do know that the elevation somewhere around 6,000 feet. That’s 6,000 feet higher than I usually live. I believe Waco is not much above sea level and I know that Houston is at sea level. Being from Texas, I would refer to some of these formations as mountains that they call hills.

I’m having the best Earl Grey tea that I have ever had. By pure happenstance, I saw the sign along a main drag here that said “Atticus Books and Tea House.” I may not have stopped if it had just said the place was a tea house. I’m not really a tea connoisseur.  However, books + tea = enough for me to stop. And I am glad that I did. I’m going to sit here and read for quite sometime–until I get hungry for dinner–and then I will grab food at some other place that I just happen to discover as well. 

The first week of work was really good. There was an interesting variety of assignments. I cannot stress enough how much I like all the people that I’m doing work for. I’ve gotten to spend some one-on-one time with a few of the attorneys–and each time it’s been an enlightening experience. I sincerely hope that I’m as much as a well-adjusted person and attorney as these guys are. I know their lives are stressful, but they appear to really have things under control and on balance–as much as an attorney possibly could.

I’m definitely an outsider in the Roswell community at large, but that’s okay. My idiosyncrasies and presuppositions as a Texan lead me to such things. Little things like ordering coffee in the morning at Starbucks (they always appear to be one person short) or giving a phone number at Jiffy Lube (my area code is not 575) are small amplifications of the fact. 

All in all, this adventure has been good and fulfilling. Several weeks to go. In the mean time, I will savor this long weekend and breathe the mountain air deeply while sipping my Earl Grey tea and devouring this monstrosity of a novel.