Titanic Post

You’ve had a school day canceled because there was half an inch of snow on the ground.

You know what an arroyo is.

Your high school’s name was a Spanish word. (La Cueva, Eldorado, Sandia, Manzano, Piedra Vista…)

There is a kachina somewhere in your home or yard.

You believe that bags of sand with a candle in them are perfectly acceptable Christmas decorations.

You have license plates on your walls, but not on your car.

Most restaurants you go to begin with El or Los.

You remember when Santa Fe was not like San Francisco.

You hated Texans until the Californians moved in.

You price-shop for tortillas.

You have an extra freezer just for green chile.

You believe using a turn signal is a sign of weakness.

You don’t make eye contact with other drivers because you can’t tell how well armed they are just by looking.

You think six tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful front lawn.

You have read a book while driving from Albuquerque to Roswell.

You can’t control your car on wet pavement.

You wish you had invested in the orange barrel business.

You just got your fifth DWI and got elected to the state legislature in the same week.

Your swamp cooler got knocked off your roof by a dust devil.

All your out-of-state friends and relatives visit in October

You know Vegas is a town in the northeastern part of the state.

Your other vehicle is also a pick-up truck..

Two of your cousins are in Santa Fe, one in the legislature and the other in the state pen.

Your car is missing a fender or bumper (or a turn signal and aligned headlights).

You know the response to the question “red or green?”

You’re relieved when the pavement ends because the dirt road has fewer pot- holes.

You can correctly pronounce Tesuque, Cerrillos, and Pojoaque.

You have been told by at least one out-of-state vendor they are going to charge you extra for international shipping.

You can order your Big Mac or Hamburger with green chili.

You see nothing odd when, in the conversations of the people in line around you at the grocery store, every other word of each sentence alternates between Spanish and English.

You associate bridges with mud, not water.

You know you will run into at least three cousins whenever you shop at Wal-Mart, Sam’s or Home Depot.

Tumbleweeds and various cacti in your yard are not weeds. They are your lawn.

If you travel anywhere, no matter if just to run to the gas station, you must bring along a bottle of water and some moisturizer.

Trailers are not referred to as trailers. They are houses. Double-wide trailers are real houses.

A package of white flour tortillas is the exact same thing as a loaf of bread. You don’t need to write it on your shopping list; it’s a given.

At any gathering,regardless of size, green chile stew, tortillas, and huge mounds of shredded cheese are mandatory.

A tarantula on your porch is ordinary.

A scorpion in your tub is ordinary.

A poisonous centipede on your ceiling? Ordinary.

A black widow crawling across your bed is terribly, terribly common.

A rattlesnake is an occasional hiking hazard..  No need to freak out.