Hiya Swappizens! I'm back from my little adventure in Santa Fe and already miss it.

The Tao of Steve: a brief summary

(The following text is edited from Wikopedia and a link including the entire screen play)

The film takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dex is an unlikely thirty-something Lothario - an underachieving, overweight, well educated former philosophy student turned Kierkegaard-quoting part-time kindergarten teacher. He has developed an effective method for serial-seducing women known as “The Tao of Steve”. He christened the Tao after the detached cool exhibited by three Steves of the world: Steve McQueen, Steve Austin from The Six Million Dollar Man, and Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-0.

The Tao itself is the philosophy that Dex employs to succeed sexually with women. It consists of three rules:

1. Eliminate your desires.
2. Do something excellent in her presence, thereby proving your sexual worthiness.
3. Retreat, for as Heidegger said, "We pursue that which retreats from us".

Or, to recap:
1. Be desireless
2. Be excellent
3. Be gone

Dex meets up with Syd, an old college conquest whom he can't remember. She, however, never forgot him.

In this scene, Dex and Syd are back-packing with another couple high in the mountains surrounding Santa Fe. That night, Rick and Maggie share a tent, but Syd and Dex each put up their own small tents.

DEX: Good night, Rick.

RICK: Good night, Dex.

DEX: Good night, Maggie.

MAGGIE: Good night, John Boy.

DEX: Good night, Syd.

SYD: Oh, my God. Do you ever stop talking?

DEX (suddenly screaming): Jesus! Die!!! There was a spider! There was a big-- I swear there was a big, hairy spider in my tent!

SYD: What are you looking at? No!! No way!

(In the next scene, Dex and Syd are now sharing Syd’s small tent:)

SYD: If any part of you touches any part of me, I have a knife.

DEX: Listen. Apparently, we've been in this position before, so we might as well--

SYD: You cannot talk about that thing that you have no memory of. - Okay?

DEX: - Okay, okay. Message received. Zero distortion. So, this is camping.

SYD: Please, I'm trying to pretend like you're not here.

DEX: Why are you so mad?

SYD: You lied about the spider. You lied about the puppy thing, and you're having an affair.

DEX: I did not lie about the spider.

SYD: Did too!

DEX: I did not!

SYD: Shut up! Oh, you couldn't think of a better lie?

DEX: Why in the world would I lie about a spider?

SYD: You lied about the spider so you could get in my tent, so--

DEX: So what?

SYD: So you could...make a move on me.

DEX: You are such a self-aggrandizing, solipsistic ego queen.

SYD: You don't even know you're-- Did you say solipsistic?

DEX: I most certainly did. I love that word!

SYD: I do too! (long pause….) Don't even think about it.

DEX {smiling}: Solipsistic.

 
Restaurant recap!

You'll probably think after reading this that I did absolutely NO cooking but there were a lot of nights where we stayed home and played in the kitchen - those are the best!

Anyway, here's where we ate, these are all Laura & Jay's favorite spots:

- Kakawa Chocolate shop - can I just say this is the most amazing truffles and chocolates I've ever had in my life? The owner is a self proclaimed chocolate historian and only uses dark chocolate. he prefers to use agave for sweetener and uses unique fillings. His dark agave caramel filled chocolates are so good. You must must must get a blue corn atole hot chocolate and drink it there in one of their darling blue cups. their chocolava (chocolate baklavah) is out of this world. many of their cakes are gluten free, everything's organic. chocolate is health food there. gotta love that! The Aztec Warrier hot chocolate will kick your butt. amazing stuff, their warriors used to drink it before battles and sports.

- Counter Culture - a casual cafe, their favorite breakfast spot. I had their smothered breakfast burrito with bacon and green chile on the side. Their frittata is amazing and so are their huevos rancheros. Second largest cinnamon buns on the planet. Cool art from locals that changes regularly. We hung out there for hours.

- Clafoutis - an authentic French bakery in Santa Fe! Greeted in French by the owner's wife, he's in the back baking his heart out. amazing crepes, and apple clafoutis. the pastries, cookies and croissants were beautiful. Laura loves the quiche. she had to have her own clafoutis and wouldn't let me photograph it - LOL

- Bumblebee - excellent fresh tacos, carnitas and shrimp were my favorite. agua frescas hit the spot, their roast chicken is really good (I'll never admit that a restaurant makes better chicken than me but theirs is, well, very good). great guac too!

- The Shed - best house margarita in town, so smooth I had three before I knew it - whoopsie! Mahi mahi blue corn tacos, to die for. their green chile here is super hot, best to order on the side and dip fork judiciously. fantastic enchiladas and chicken, I had bites of Laura and Jay's. we were too full for dessert. my entree was $12. really cool decor, it's a happening bar scene too.

- Maria's New Mexican Kitchen. wow. I want to move in there. the waitstaff are a bit snooty to anglos but our waitress was great. The best sticky sweet mildly chile pork ribs. ever. fantastic steak. Their refried beans made me want to stay home and cook until I got it right. Tequila flight tastings for $12 - fantastic deal! their margaritas with primo tequila can get really expensive. Los Lunas Reposado and Anejo are really fantastic straight up. I will never drink silver tequila again.

- Whole Hog Cafe - true southern BBQ in Santa Fe! If I lived there I would go every week. their house made sausages were so good we got 2 lbs to go, it was snowing and they wanted to close early so they just dumped all the sausages they cooked that day into my bag, when we got home I realized it was more like 4 lbs of sausage. we ate it all!!! I really like their traditional 4 rib plate with bbq beans and potato salad. Laura always gets their pulled pork sandwich. now I wish I was a cow with more stomachs so I could have ribs and sausage and pulled pork at one sitting. The owner, Bo, is a cool guy and twice he posed for photos with us wearing his pig hat. They have the cutest tee shirts ever - Peace, Love and BBQ!

Tesuque Village Market - out of town a little. I want to live in this cafe - 2 pinon fireplaces plus a pizza oven. amazing baked goods. everything there is good. shrimp soft tacos, shrimp enchiladas in green sauce, nachos, oh my. I hung out there for 3 hours one day. Best blues on the radio, turned out to be XM radio, made me rethink the concept of satellite radio - to its favor).

Santa Fe Bar and Grill. I went there last October, nice place and more mall like than I prefer decor wise - I like the hole-in-the-wall local places the best. I had their steak and chicken torilla soup. forget what Laura had but we ate every last bite.

- Chocolate Maven, a bakery cafe in an industrial area, hard to find but worth the look. Carne avodavo burrito special, not too spicy like adovado usually is, I wish I had ordered it! I ate bites of both my companions plates and dangled for more shamelessly. I had a grilled chicken breast sandwich with chipotle aoili, caramelized onion roll, roasted rosemary potatoes with more aoili for dipping. So good! Their desserts should be a controlled substance. Prettiest cupcakes ever! I had a coconut cream pie that made me see a higher life form. Laura's chocolate cream pie was so good she didn't even speak, just stared at it and slowly it disappeared. we took some bread home, it didn't make it to the garage. why didn't we get cupcakes?? the fruit pies were so pretty, I guy was ordering 2 for him and his wife, for the weekend!!! one each??

There is a terrific tamale place by the Albertson's down past Whole Hog BBQ - I forget the street but it's a huge main drag. We didn't go there as I was making a beef pirogue that night, but Laura says they are terrific, mostly locals go there for takeout and they are spicy!

- Chocolatesmith - another fantastic chocolate shop, their toffee made my toes curl under. Orange bark is so good, we argued over the last piece. their fudge. what can I say. I still prefer Kakawa but this place has more traditional candies and they are much more reasonable in price.

I would totally move there just for the food, but the people are just so nice everywhere! people make time to be nice and kind. They all love Obama - Obamanos! Everyone is an artist or has an artist's soul. Being healthy and holistic or alternative is not considered odd. the Sangre de Cristos are gorgeous. so are the Sandia's and the 'sugarlumps' - twin foothills. Pine nuts, green chiles and green chile beef jerky. need I say more? All I need is a cute guy and a job and I'm so there!

 
Oh, the Shed. Yum. Thanks, Heather, just started a "Trip to SF" savings fund (piggy bank). smileys/wink.gif

 
Years ago my pal Laura gave me a "grow your own chocolate Easter bunny"

It's the size of a big Lima bean then you put it on water and it grows 600% to FrankenBunny!!!! It was in a vase of water - creepy! Took a week to shrink back. It was so hilarious! She couldn't believe I still had it - so fun to just get all silly...

 
I'm probably too old for him actually - at 43 but they say you're as old as you feel

Which for me it currently 27! Thank gawd for Oil of Olay! LOL

 
NO you are not too old, You are at an awesome age, and he would benefit from your great experiences

by the way... I'll be 45 in September, and I never want to be too old, and you'll always be a kid to me. Embrace your age, its what makes us wonderful.

 
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