I Love New Mexico

  This is a repost of something I write back in the summer of 2010.  The January wind outside is giving me an itch to get my hands dirty and start gardening. . .I’m counting the days until the last frost. Back in the day when I was finishing my degree at UNM, trying to fit a full load of classes into my life as a single mom with a third grader and a high school junior, as well as a full-time job, I had a history teacher, Virginia Scharff, who was ruthless about assigning papers.  I recently found my  [ Read More ]

Some of my earliest memories from the 60′s involve the sound of someone dribbling a basketball down the court while the crowd cheers.  I love the smell of a gymnasium – hardwood varnish, basketball leather, a bit of sweat, popcorn, cinnamon suckers.  In my mind I can still see all those tiny gyms of my childhood – Grady with their wooden bleachers behind a barrier (like in “Hoosiers”), San Jon’s brick walls, Amistad’s cavernous court that turned into a dance floor every New Year’s and Christmas, Logan’s little gym with three rows of built-in wooden seats under tall casement windows and  [ Read More ]

I watched the movie “The Help” last night with my sister and her daughter and my parents – the DVD was a Christmas gift to me from Johanna.  It was the fourth viewing for me (having read the book by Kathryn Stockett last year) and the first for everyone else.  It was, as it has been everytime I’ve seen it, sad and moving and powerful, and a reminder of how people of color were unfairly treated in the deep South.  I drove home last night thinking about the South, remembering all those months I lived in North Carolina where many accepted forms of racial  [ Read More ]

January.  Cold Weather.  Cold and Flu Season.  All great reasons to repost this one about the Pink Adobe with the recipe for Gypsy Stew.  With all the chicken, garlic and onions in this recipe (not to mention the four cups of green chile), this on is sure to cure all your wintertime blues! Originally from 12/22/09 MY FAVORITE THINGS:  Christmas almost here.  Snow in the forecast for tomorrow.  Both my kids home for the holidays.  And now, just because I know it’s their favorite meal and will last us well into the New Year, there’s gypsy stew on the stove.  [ Read More ]

I suffered a significant loss in my personal life this past week, right after Christmas, and on days when I thought my heart might burst, I talked to friends and wrote pointless essays and did a lot of praying and meditating.  Finally, after four days of aimless wandering through what felt like an emotional minefield, I got a call from my friend Haleigh in Taos.  “Come see me,” she said.  “You can stay at my place and I’ll feed you and keep your wine glass full and listen to you talk.” Spending a couple of days with an old friend  [ Read More ]

I spent the past weekend in Santa Fe, Christmas shopping with Johanna, Robin and Sabrina while TJ and Taylor snow skied.  It was, as a weekend in Santa Fe always is, fun.  (I started to write “magical” or “amazing,” and then stopped myself – doesn’t everyone use those words to describe Santa Fe?   And don’t their right-on-the-edge-of-New-Age-metaphysical descriptions of my state’s capitol always irritate me?) Let me tell you something about a weekend in Santa Fe, though.  It’s always fun.  Santa Fe feels like New Mexico (despite some frequent pretension by a shopkeeper or two), its always beautiful, the food  [ Read More ]

This is a repost from last year, but I wanted to be sure you all knew that if you want to have dinner at Season’s Restaurant in Old Town this year, they’re doing the Christmas Eve Prix Fixe dinner again – amazing menu at their website and dinner is only $35 per person.  This is a memorable way to spend Christmas Eve, and depending on your seating time, you can wander Old Town before or after. . . December 22, 2010:  Tis the season of giving and generosity and good wishes, and knowing that, I truly hate to make all of you envious.   [ Read More ]

I have to admit, I’ve always been a bit of a snoot about real Christmas trees vs. fake.  Throughout my adult life, I’ve always insisted that we either buy a tree to plant (really expensive and usually quite small at my budget) or a cut, live Christmas tree.  I’ve sniffed in disdain at my friends who spend $200 or $300 on an artificial tree – they don’t get the fresh smell, they don’t get the joy of the search through the lot, their children don’t get to meet the guy at the Delancey Street trailer who described how this tree-selling project helps  [ Read More ]

This post is just a variation on my continual theme – finding beauty right where you are.  These photos were all taken with two blocks of my house, except for the ones right down at the lake, which were taken a mile from my house.  It was a freezing cold morning yesterday, only 2 degrees when I left the house.  But the entire neighborhood sparkled, as you can clearly see.    Even the garden gate sparkled. It was so cold that the fog was freezing, making it look like it was snowing.  Is that possible?  The lake, which is right  [ Read More ]

It’s a snow day in northeastern New Mexico.  If you’re looking for something delicious, simple and easy to make for dinner, I found it.  And then I made it last night.  I guess it was my unintentional meatless Monday meal. I ventured out of the house yesterday after hours of watching it snow, and I eventually ended up my mother’s very warm inviting kitchen, drinking coffee.  There was a new dish on her stove, a pie pan of something looking suspiciously green chile-ish.  “What’s that, and can I have it for lunch?” I asked.  “Eat it all,” she said, “your  [ Read More ]