For three days in late September, Cohousing ABQ members joined us from as far as Seattle and as close as El Paso and Las Vegas for a dizzying array of activities. This was the first time that many of us had met in person, and not just on Zoom!
It all started with a meet-up on the land and a special groundbreaking ceremony to express our gratitude to Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union, who is providing our construction loan. This was also our chance to see a clear view of our land, now that the site has been cleared and leveled in preparation for construction.
Next stop after the groundbreaking was a visit to Griegos Farms, an Albuquerque community in the North Valley being developed (and currently under construction) by our developer Jay Rembe. It features individual cottages grouped around gardens and pathways to encourage social interaction. We visited to specifically see the “finishes” being used, such as cabinetry, tiles, and flooring to decide if we wanted the same or something different offered by our building contractor. Of course, knowing cohousers, there were plenty of opinions and suggestions made and the final options are still being finalized.
While we don’t have a Common House yet, our community definitely likes getting together for good food, so we decided to have lunch just a few blocks from Griegos Farms on the patio of the Flying Star Café. And for dinner, a group gathered at M’tucci’s Bar Roma in Nob Hill, after our Governance Circle finished a rare in-person meeting there. We were especially thrilled to see Lauren and Lucas and their two boys, who had flown in too late for the morning activities.
After pickleball for a few early-morning risers, families got together for a picnic and fun at Valley Del Bosque Park, a five-minute walk from our land. There was dancing, good food to share, and, of course, where there are kids and trees, you find kids climbing trees. Geez, was I ever that brave?
The weekend’s pièce de résistance had to have been the Murder Mystery created by Lizzy, hosted at Laura’s home, and featuring characters played by an adventurous group of members—young and old. The plot: A murder occurs during the grand opening of the world’s first luxury pickleball resort.
There were mafia real estate deals, illegal rackets, a Romanian clairvoyant who predicted pickleball taking over the world, a pair of deadly child ninjas, a lego-maniac-genius, some uber-wealthy cattle barons, and then Gina Granville (resort owner) was gruesomely murdered in the bathroom! The group convicted Nick—the owner of a rival resort—but they were wrong! It had been the clairvoyant, played by Jessie.
It takes a village to pull off a great murder mystery. We can’t wait until our community is all together, on our land, in our homes, with no airplanes or special occasions needed for bringing us all together.
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