Day 43 - A Day with the Dogs in Bernalillo

Day 43 = June 21

I found in the morning that Lucy had slept outside my door all night. That was nice. I've not really had very many dog friends take to me so well. :)

I slept in and when I came down everyone was gone. I had some breakfast and then observed that the 3 chihuahuas they were dog-sitting for a few days were not behind the 2 gates I'd expected them to be behind (a couple are not well enough house-trained to be free in the house). Lucy alone was standing her large self behind the opened gate as if to show how well-behaved she was. Sidney nowhere to be seen. All 3 were in the living room on the leather sofa.

I was not sure how they would take to being moved by a stranger and texted Lucas to see if they should be moved back behind the gates. He answered yes, and I undertook to befriend each and move them. It worked all right.

I then found they had Avatar and blu ray...and since they had the single largest television screen I'd ever seen, I settled myself in for some blogging and movie-watching. I thought it was a good time for a break day.

At the end of the movie I discovered the 3 forbidden ones had made their escapes yet again! Only this time they were less easy to herd as they knew what was coming. #3 held out the most and growled and bristled at me, but after all he was a very little fellow so I grabbed him round with a blanket and put him out behind the gate.

Then I went exploring...I thought I might eat somewhere, but the movie had taken longer than I'd thought and it turns out everything around there (almost everything) closes about 8:30 pm. Small towns. So I finally found a McDonald's (not so very 'local' but food all the same) and then purchased a sports watch with a stopwatch at Walgreens before heading home.

Funny how dark it was at just ten. The sky was full of stars. Not as bright perhaps as Bermuda, but there were so many more visible than in Minneapolis. I came home and went to sleep. A quiet, relaxing day...debriefing a bit from my long travels...

Day 42 Part 4 - Relatives of Shalom Sanchez...

On the Rail Runner, I took one picture of the scenery...sat for a while, and then, when I took my next picture, this fellow across the aisle, perhaps in his 40s, who looked to be a college professor-type, said, "You are not allowed to take pictures here, you know."

"Oh no, and why not?" I shot back.

"The Native Americans on the reservation have requested it, " he said, "I could make $20 for reporting you."

"Well, you seem rather well off so I'll trust you'll have no need of it."

A small crowd of persons in the seats around us were watching the exchange. I wasn't quite sure if he was serious or bluffing and no one said anything either way. So, as a compromise, I kept my camera out as if I might take another picture, but did not, for another 10 min. or so, then put it away and read some. I asked Andy Sanchez about it a few days later; he thought it seemed likely the man was pulling my leg. I wonder if he says the same to all the tourists on his daily commute. Troublemaker.

Now, on to Shalom. Shalom Sanchez is a dear dear friend of mine. We knew each other for a few years in LA, have kept in touch across the whole of a continent after I moved to NY, and have traveled together to Israel and Bermuda. (pic borrowed from FB!)

She comes from a family w/9 children. Her parents and many of her siblings still live in the Albuquerque area - here's a pic of the family (also borrowed from FB!) -

Very large... Anyhow, as it turned out, due to various circumstances w/home renovation & jobs etc., it only worked out for me to spend time with my cousins through Monday. Shalom had already offered her family earlier as options for me to visit, but I'd figured I wouldn't need to do that. However, when plans digressed, it worked out! I stayed first through Wednesday with her brother Lucas, his wife Angela, & their son Eli (the first three on the top left of the family pic), and the last night with her parents. This first eve there's not much in the way of photos of them, but I did take a few of the dogs, Lucy (a labradoodle) and Sidney (a chihuahua).

Lucy was my immediate friend, wished to stand on her hind legs and dance with me. Aren't her sad eyes darling? She was such a happy dog. Terrible breath, but excellent disposition. :)

Day 42 Part 3 - The Malnar Family

These first few pics were taken by the new young photographer Mary Rose Malnar.... she's the darling redhead here. I met Sara's spouse for the first time on this trip as well! In the morning, Sara showed me the house and the reconstruction they are doing. Then we went swimming at 'the club' and spent some time there in the pool and hot tub, and a bit in the sun. Thereafter we went to Double Take - the store which their Aunt Suzanne on the other side of their family owns, and where Marie also works - and I shopped while Sara went to get an allergy shot. It's much much larger than it was when I visited about half my life ago. I got several lovely second-hand pieces of clothing, and received the 'family discount'. :) Afterward, Sara dropped me off at the RailRunner light rail train to my next destination: Bernalillo.

[pics removed by request]

Day 42 Part 2 - Last Morning in Santa Fe

Day 42 = June 20

There's an excellent story about these paintings. It reminds me of my 30th birthday when I was throwing a party in Brooklyn, and when decorating had regretted not having a frame for a particular pic I wanted to put up in the bathroom - that morning, I found a perfect frame sitting out near the curb with trash, while I was on my morning run. It was just right. In this story, told by my cousin Marie, she says she is not much of an admirer of church buildings, but one day she had gone in to a Catholic church which struck her as very beautiful, where even the 'stations of the cross' (the various stages of the crucifixion & redemption story) seemed to make sense for the first time, so much so that she had particularly prayed that God would help her not to forget it. That day, she received these two paintings on canvas in the mail, from a friend. She did not have frames for them. And then, soon after - or was it that day as well? - she found these frames laying on the roof of her house, perhaps left by the previous owners. Anyway, it was a pretty cool story.

These last pics are just random ones from their house. They have a wood stove for heating and have a TON of wood for it. It was a very nice little place. :)

Day 42 Part 1 - Shameless Plug for Cousin's Company

My cousin Marie is starting her own children's clothing company - Magpie by Marie Gurule. Here are some of the designs I photographed from the piles she had at her house:

Excuses & Photographs

I'm home now and have 4 more days of traveling left to blog about. What's the hold-up? Well, since I've been back:

• day 1 - my sister Nicole eloped, & my church did its first worship night (since I've been here)...
• day 2 - Tommy had 1st public speaking engagement, cousin Annie got married, & Tommy had a 'Party House' show
• day 3 - Sunday - rested some! got groceries & such. church. tried to unpack s'more...
• day 4 - Grandpa Merry's 90th bday!

& then today I stuck around here doing handwash laundry, running, mailing mail, cleaning house and putting up pix for all the above recent events. I think those links'll keep ya busy for a while.

Tommy & I have an orientation for a new sales job we can do together on Friday...I hope to get up the last 4 days worth before then! Have a great night all!

Day 41 - Beach Day in Santa Fe w/Marie & Chavo

Day 41 = June 19

It was a very pleasant long beach day with my cousin Marie and their dog Chavo at Lake Cochita (sp?). We arrived there around 9 am (early because we imagined it would be crowded due to Father's Day and the forest fires elsewhere), and stayed until the afternoon when the winds were picking up almost to 50-60 mph. We had the beach to ourselves, really, with just a few fishermen down the way, and a somewhat overvigilant beach ranger, who took photos of the fishermen, and on his second visit gave us his card and urged us to report any 'netting or snagging' we observed. We still have no idea what snagging is. :)

The drive over --

The beach --

After the beach I napped a bit and Marie did laundry. We then went out to play Super Scrabble in the back yard until the wind obliged us to take our game indoors.

It was an exciting game tho' - we were pretty equally matched... Marie was striding out ahead for a good while, when I finally made a 90-point move ('quit' and 'et' - not very impressive by themselves, but with quadruple word scores and the like, quite enough), it caught me up and put me ahead. We never finished our game because then Sara came in the door with her daughter - my 2nd cousin, Mary Rose, who I hadn't yet met! A tiny redhead. It was very nice to meet her. You'll see pix on 'Day 42'. :) We all talked for a long while and then they left to go home.

Last things that evening consisted of Marie and I teaching each other skills we'd discussed earlier. I taught her how to use Garageband to record songs, and she taught me how to do screen-printing using an embroidery hoop. (Day 42 will have pix of her work.) I'm not quite the artist she is, but it was interesting to learn all the same, and I may go ahead and do it one of these days! I'm so glad she spent the time to teach me. :) It was really fascinating...

Day 40 - Goodbye LA, Hello Santa Fe!

Day 40 = June 18

Amy Wu Casler. She's a darlin'.

We had breakfast at House of Pies. It was a very deep conversation. Meaty. Gut-level honest. I like that girl. We don't talk enough.

We talked a nice guy in the parking lot into taking our pic later. Thanks nice guy.

After that, Simona - my fellow sun-worshiping Minnesota native hostess - and Amos and I went for some serious sun at Griffith Park for an hour or two before we left for the airport. This meant I was still in my swimsuit at the airport and the metal in the swimsuit caused me to get a patdown, but it was worth it definitely.

Happy sunshine --

(Amos' face is all serious because he's in trouble here... cute li'l troublemaker...)

Flying over mountains wasn't too terrible. :)

When I arrived in Albuquerque, my cousins Sara & Marie both came up from Santa Fe together to pick me up and drove me out to Kelly's for some sustenance and girls-on-outdoor-patios time. They're older than they were, and married, and more grown up, but for most intents and purposes, they're pretty darn similar to what they looked like when they were younger, and their personalities too. It was nice to see them again! Sara & I were super-close as kids, and Marie and my sister Nicole were also. We wrote super-letters to one another after they moved to TX. We had invented the AASPO (American Association of Spy Prevention Officers) in order to combat Russian and Austrian spies (Russians were in black sedans...which we interpreted as any big dark car) and Austrians were in VW bugs. (Actually, maybe the Austrians were a later addition of my own.) This was the 80s of course. And Sara and I knew it was a game but we'd read our little sisters' letters and they'd write, all big-eyed, "I saw a black sedan today!"

Anyway, I hadn't seen them since I visited in my late teens, except briefly once when I, my mom & sis Nicole were in Albuquerque for a funeral on the other side of my family. While I was visiting, their mom had a stroke, and she died after I flew back to MN. Come to think of it, death seems to play a role in all our reunions now... This time it was Grandpa Bang's death we were discussing - his crazy driving, and stories like...well, I should tell you this because I should really write it all down while it's still fresh in my mind. Prepare yourself. He had a crazy life.

So, Grandpa was in the Merchant Marines and they were in Italy (maybe Sicily) and their ship was docked. They'd been told not to get off the ship and especially not to go to one particular district because it was dangerous. Well, just try telling Grandpa that. Of course he ends up sneaking off the ship and going there out of curiosity (I think with a friend?). He gets in a fight or something, gets shot at, and somehow gets a gun from someone in the fight. Running away from them, he runs into an apt...while still having a gun in his hand. The bad guys come looking for him but Grandpa talks the family into hiding him (maybe not too hard when you have a gun??). After they're gone, he comes out and says, "hey, I'm really sorry about the inconvenience here, but I'm going to have to stay here for awhile until they're not watching this place" and they're cool about it and let him stay for dinner! ! Grandpa, you're so Harrison-Ford-ish! Anyway, I can't remember whether he stayed overnight, remet w/his friend and snuck back onto the ship in the morning or later that night, but wow. His life was pretty intense. You may think I do some off-the-wall things, but considering my genetics, I'm pretty tame.

Well, we gossip about all the important things: my sister's upcoming marriage, their dad moving to MN (yay! he's a performance poet too, so we'll totally have some poetry fun), etc etc. Finally, Sara needs to go home to her hubby & little girl so we say goodbyes. Later I meet Eric, Marie's hubby. He had been preparing to leave on a camping trip w/some guy friends but the Santa Fe Forest is on fire and that area is all closed down. So they are doing a mountain biking trip instead. Marie and Eric are hardcore bikers/snow-boarders, all that. In any case, he's cool, and their dog Chavo (which means boy or something), also cool. I only saw Eric for a little bit that night and forgot to take pix, so Marie will have to email me some so I can post 'em here. Day 41 will have lots of Marie & Chavo pix, promise.

** Here is the promised pic, provided by Marie (such a cute couple!):

Day 39 - LA: Last Full Day Before Santa Fe!

Day 39 = June 17

When I lived in LA, I used to run past a nursing home almost every time I went running. I always felt a nagging feeling that I ought to visit someday and never did. I hadn't really visited a nursing home since my teens. Unfortunately, again, running past them this week, I still felt that feeling, and since it seems I cannot shake it despite the years which pass between, I decided whether I succeeded or failed, I would visit, even if I am traveling.

I told Stacey this and she said she'd like to come with. We came in and immediately connected with the volunteer coordinator. She fast-tracked us in and gave us a list of persons to visit, and off we went! It was complex - almost every room seemed to be full of nurses or the persons were sleeping or too tired or in pain to visit. But at last, over several hours, we did visit 3 different women and had good connections with them all. A small price to pay to get a haunting off yor conscience. It's strange - when I was in LA - I was diagnosed (by 3-4 doctors & x-ray specialists) with a blood clot and confined to my house for several days at least, with my leg up. Simona even came to take me out one day in a wheelchair. There was the fear that if I was not careful, the clot could break free and kill me by going to my heart.

It was a misdiagnosis (humblingly, it turned out to be a varicose vein next to a benign cyst - what every 26 year old wants to hear), although bitterly painful either way. You tell yourself after things like that, "I know how it feels now. I will visit persons who are shut-in." - and then, more often than not, you don't.

Anyway, it was good to pay forward some of that. Not sure it made a huge difference, but to Crystal, Faye and Nancy, I think it did make a dent in their days. And for them and all the others we met or heard about, I know God heard our prayers. What is probably more important in the long run in some ways (& very probably how God wishes to answer said prayers) - is that WE hear our prayers and in them God's heart for the persons we pray for. Then our hearts and our actions toward them will be transformed. Hmm, definitely preaching to myself at this moment.

In the afternoon, I met my friend Julie Christman for happy hour after her work day downtown. We haven't sat and talked for ages. It was so nice! She's a teacher and a runner and one of the great crowd of us Kairos-starters who moved out there together. Her hubby Greg now pastors a new church in the LA area as well.

(photo stolen from FB - Julie w/hubby Greg, at the annual Christmas Toy Giveaway that Hope & Kairos do for hundreds of needy kids in the LA area)

After we caught up, I tried to whisk back to Hollywood to catch Pastor Ed. Alas, he had some folks he'd committed to, so we couldn't chat very long. On Tuesday June 14 - this is funny - he'd called to see if Tommy was still in town and to see if we wanted to get some box seat tickets for Motley Crue and Poison he'd gotten access to through a friend... sadly Tommy was gone, and I didn't get the message until too late. The man has connections! Turns out if he'd been free this night, there was an off chance he would have had seats for U2. THAT would have been awesome (even tho' I was really just there to catch up/chat about life/pick up whatever wisdom he might have for me :) ). We chatted a bit (Simona & Amos were over there too) and then I went "home" for the evening. It was my last full day in LA before takeoff...

Day 38 - LA: Cute as a Button Amos & Dinner w/Shannon

Day 38 = June 16

Little Amos being quite adorable with his frog backpack in the morning...

Simona, he and I spent some time laid out in the park in the afternoon. Then she dropped me off at Ross', where I do love to shop, and I found a lovely grandma-ish tank w/a doily-like neckline for $9 or so.

From there, Shannon picked me up (my former co-worker/now old friend mentioned/pictured on Day 35) and we went for dinner. She's quite well-traveled herself on a larger scale! You should check out her travel blog...she went to something like 13 countries in 10 months? or something like that; frankly so many I lost track! Anyway, we have a very fun friendship - which is funny because we didn't really click right off the bat...but over the years I think we find more and more how similar we are, despite the things we differ on. She's my main correspondent via mail (other than Tommy) now, and we visit on both coasts when we have the chance. (photo stolen from Facebook)

We had a lovely diner dinner at Fred 62 - this was mine:

So glad to see her again. Sad to say goodbye again, but for we two adventurers I do look forward to the stories we'll have when next our paths cross. :)

I came home to this adorable sight.