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In April 2002, I returned to Santa Fe as a co-organizer of
the Biological
Framings of Problems in Computing Workshop, which we held
at the Santa Fe Institute. (See previous
visit.) This time, I stayed only for 4 1/2 days, most of which was occupied by the workshop. Fortunately, I found some time to party on the side.
When I left for the workshop, I had just finished three exhausting
weeks of packing up my stuff in Boston and saying goodbye to my
friends. When I arrived in Santa Fe, I had been traveling all
day long, including a transfer in Dallas/Ft. Worth and driving
up from Albuquerque in a rental car. After some searching around,
I found the guest house that I had rented through my local friend
Angela. It was very nice and a good deal too, compared with the
local hotel prices. (Ask me, if you are in that area.)
I called up Angela and we went for dinner at Maria's, a local
Mexican food hangout. Ignoring my exhaustion, or maybe because
of it, I made friends with two margaritas, Don Esteban and Moonglow,
respectively. Both were very enjoyable, probably the best in town.
However, add to my exhaustion a feeling of dizziness, perhaps
caused by altitude sickness, throw in the margaritas, and you
might get an impression of how I felt when I brought Angela home
that evening: I was wasted. Fortunately, I could sleep long the
next day.
I'll skip the actual workshop since this is a travel story.
Suffice it to say that the margaritas were still going strong.
On the final evening, Dick, Ron, Ward, Cathy, Angela and me
had dinner at Santa Cafe, said to be the best restaurant in town.
My lamb rack was too fatty for my taste, so I can't attest to
that reputation. But then, I'll hopefully return to Santa Fe a
few more times to find out more. Nevertheless, my friends were
as entertaining as ever, and for me this ended the fourth week
of continued dining out.
Later that evening, Angela and I went out to dance at a local
dance club, Club Alegria, which had opened its doors only three
weeks ago. They played an interesting "world music"
version of what would otherwise be standard (electronic) dance
club themes. This quite original music was accompanied by a stage
show consisting of three or four sparsely clothed female dancers,
a cross-dressing saxophonist, and a male belly dancer. The women
played with fire and danced to it, while the saxophonist and belly
dancer did the obvious. Quite interesting and big fun to watch!
At 4am the next morning I drove down to Albuquerque to catch
my 6:35am flight to Boston and on to Germany.
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