Snow!

It snowed in Taos today. Man what a great day. My homeslice from work came over with a truckload of wood for me, then we went to lunch and I had eggs benedict (the diner offers free range eggs and you can get spinach or tomato slices instead of ham, I got spinach) and we drank Chai. Then it started snowing and got real cold and pretty. Now I'm all cozy in the lil Erf Ship with a pinon fire crackling in the stove, my ginger tea, a Battlestar Galactica DVD and fuzzy shoes. Cats all mellow and sleepy on the bed and the little sliver of moon shining down on the snowy mesa. It's quiet as can be out there.

Godspeed, tarantulas

This past weekend in Taos we had both the Wool Festival and the Mountain Film Festival. I tried to get to both. It was cool on Saturday so that put me in the mood to look at wool hats, sweaters, scarves, and to pet the sheep and llamas and alpacas. There are a lot of little sheep operations around these parts, and by these parts I also mean Southern Colorado and Eastern Arizona. Of course yall know the Navajo are big sheep ranchers and weavers and they're close by. So I went to the wool festival and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Everything cost an arm and a cunt, as my friend Julie would say. I didn't buy anything. I also went to the film festival and at one of the parties I sat and talked with a star. One of the stars of "Touch-g The V-id". The real guy not the actor that played him. The movie was made after the famous ascent of a big mountain in Peru which resulted in a pretty remarkable adventure, all life and deathy. I met the guy who didn't fall into the crevasse. He was quite entertaining. I enjoyed the unedited (drunken) version of how he felt about the movie, and the other guy, and the whole experience.
It was a pretty fun weekend, though the films made me tired. all that outdoor activity gets exhausting to watch after awhile.
I'm heading off to Raton, NM for another module of energy Healing School. I'm really looking forward to that.
And the lil earthship is SO FRIGGIN COOL! I've been learning more about how the black water systems work and meeting more neighbors and seeing more earthships and it has all renewed my enthusiasm for the whole thing. Plus, my lil earthship is so warm and toasty. I am so sold on being off the grid. I want to spread the word so this can start being done in other lands. Apparently the developer of my community has worked to get building policy changed to accommodate all the alternative building that goes on here in New Mexico. It's a process so other places will need to get to work, plus earthships have gone through a lot of evolution since the first ones. In different climates alternative building will need to be adjusted and improved upon. My neighbor J has a really really nice 2000 square foot earthship, with two cisterns so he's got lots of water, and he has it all- a washer and dryer and a bathtub. His attitude, which is now my attitude- is that you ought to have all the comforts you want. I mean, if you can afford it you might as well throw up extra panels and have more square footage on your roof and put in an extra cistern or even three. You're not wasting anything, just utilizing what the Erf gives you. When it comes to Solar energy- I heard someone say, "I got Saudi Arabia right outside in the sky" It's true. We do and it rocks and it's the way to go yall. I'm telling you. And it's so pragmatic, it just makes so much sense. In so many ways.
The Fall here has been nice. There are Aspens and the leaves turn yellow and fall down, so I'm getting that fall smell. It's gotten a little chilly but the sky is big and blue and the snow on yonder mountaintops makes it all even more picturesque. The tarantulas have almost all gone, they were really super cute. Shy animals, I was scared to pick one up because I had heard that they have spiky things on their back legs. I just wanted one to walk across my hand but they all ran away.

Colder days

Well I am working in the OR at the local hospital now. It's going pretty well, except for the part where I have to get up at 5 in the morning. The first week I was totally brain dead, this week is a little better. I work with really nice people, I like them. It's a small OR, 4 rooms, most days we're done pretty early. I've been working a lot (for me anyway) to try to catch up money wise. I'm not as happy as I am when I get enough sleep, but I'm pretty happy.
It snowed here the other day, not on the mesa but in the Mountains. Pretty. The Earthship is doing fine. Still quite comfy, and I love being off the grid still. And underground- it's cool being underground. They are calling for a "wet" winter here, which is good for me because it will be pretty and I'll have water. I'm keeping my eyes open for a cheap used 4 wheel drive vehicle. It's the way to roll out here in the winter.
Oh- you wanna know what has happened? It's this weird, disgusting kind of karma I have. Do y'all remember when that possum crawled under the house in Moncure and died, and then it happened again when Katie lived there? Well something has managed to crawl into the heater fan of the Corolla, get itself chopped up, and is now putrifying and when I run the heater a loud noise and nauseating odor blows out, along with the heat. I say it's karma because there have been other things too- once I was mad at a boyfriend I had and I came real close to smashing his head in with my clock radio but instead I just slammed it against the bedside table, well it got a crack in it and a bug crawled in it and died, and you could see the bug inside it, it was lodged in the high end of the radio dial. It got in but there was no getting it out. And another time when I was a kid I got a brand new nice pair of sneakers and a mouse crawled in them and died. (the mouse was trying to get away from the cat) It's unfortunate and very unpleasant but it only happens every so many years and I suppose for the most part I have been blessed many times over so- I can deal with it. I just hope whatever it is in the heater is small and does it's thing pretty quickly, and I pray it isn't a hanta virus mouse, blowing hanta virus at me. Now obviously I am not running the heater even though it's cold as a witches tit in the morning now, but I can still smell it.

I never thought these stories were real, until one day.....

Oh peeps peeps peeps. What I wouldn't give to have one of you with me today. I had something funny happen. I only wish I was a better storyteller, but here goes. Today was a little cloudy and on the cool side so I went down to the hot springs for a warm soak. I went to the Manby hot springs which are at the bottom of the Rio Grande gorge, a few pools beside the cold river, it's really nice. I'm lying there soaking and looking up at the rocks when a dude gets in the pool next to mine, naked. That isn't unusual because the hot springs are clothing optional. I had on my bathing suit. So we start talking, introducing ourselves and a couple of other ladies show up and he says they are his friends and they are tantra instructors. It's just dificult sometimes not to make a joke. What I wanted to do was imitate the classic porn music, but whenever I try to do that it comes out sounding like the theme from Sanford and Son. And I wasn't sure if they would get it. Then I thought maybe they would get it too well, if you know what I mean. It just seemed like the perfect set up. "These are my friends, they are tantra instructors" Then the girls got in the hot springs naked as the day they were born and started rubbing mud all over each other. One of them turned to me and said, "Excuse us, we're very touchy feely. Capitol T capitol F" (again, cue porn music)
Turns out they were in town to do a workshop on tantra which got my interest because for some reason I was sort of naively thinking about tantric energy, because I'm studying energy- I mean yeah I know it's about sex but I was imagining a workshop where I could show up with pen and paper, listen to a lecture about tantra and then maybe do some breathing exercises and concentrate on opening the heart chakra, or getting the sacral chakra spinning at the right speed. Later when I reflected back on the conversation I think maybe they were going to do dirty stuff. Some of the things they said about it, like "No one has to do anything they don't want to do" and "we get pretty intimate" at the time didn't sound unusual because I was still thinking about a group of people that may just be there to learn these concepts, and maybe some folks would feel uncomfortable talking about certain things but wouldn't have to if they didn't want to. They offered to give me a discount to come to the workshop. But I don't think I'm ready for something like that. I tried to read a book about tantra once and got embarrassed by the pictures of the "cobra kiss" which isn't even as dirty as it sounds. They were really lovely poeple and all. I enjoyed meeting them. And I'm down with the tantric stuff for sure. I mean I have Saturn in the 8th house so I really should be learning about it.
Once they found out I lived in an Earthship they wanted to hear all about that. They had driven by the community and said they had been wondering what kind of poeple lived in Earthships. As if going around the country hosting orgies is perfectly normal. Just Kiddding. I loved them. I love New Mexico.

On Break

This morning Mark, the owner of the THC (Taos House of Coffee), told me some of the jokes about dating in Taos. What they say about getting a woman is: your odds are good, but the goods are odd.
Here are some Taos statistics:
Males: 2,159 (45.9%), Females: 2,541 (54.1%)
The other joke was: be nice to your friend's girlfriend, she might be yours next week.
Small town, a bit incestuous. I'd heard this from a few different people. One former resident who was back visiting from a teaching job in Japan told me that there is a lot of "hostility" in the social scene here...hmm.
When I first moved to town I met a woman who told me, "Women come to Taos to find their power, men come here to smoke pot." When I told the folks at the coffeeshop that the guys irately pointed out that they smoked pot BEFORE they came to Taos.
Those statistics are actually deceiving though, they don't include the Pueblo. When you do it by county it's pretty even, men to women. Or rather it's 49% men, 51% women, which is even really. In fact, in my experience of living in different towns, the 49:51 male:female ratio will feel like there are way more men than women. Seattle was like that. Lots of lonely guys in that town. Here are Chapel Hill's statistics:
Males: 21,961 (45.1%), Females: 26,754 (54.9%)
Similar in percentages but Taos is a much smaller town, plus being Southwestern, the energy is completely different. We talk about "energy" a lot out here.
They do say you can't get a man in Taos though. That's what they say. The conversation started because a girl was telling us that she had been "down South" and met a boy who had sworn off Taos girls because they are crazy. She said she thinks the reason Taos girls have trouble with their mens is because a lot of men come to Taos to take a break from girls. Maybe that's true, but I think it's more like Mark said, people come to Taos in general to take a break from life. We're all on break here. Which explains a lot.

Not Cool

I am having trouble sleeping again. And just now I found a Jerusalem Cricket IN MY BED! I have been seeing these guys around the earthship. I didn't know what they were. In Spanish they are called Nina de la tierra- child of the Earth. That's a pretty sweeet way to look at them, but they freak my shit out because they are big and they bite, or so I have read.
Though I have to say I rescued a half dead one last week that had gotten into a plastic container and couldn't get out, and when I relocated him to the outdoors he looked at me with- I swear- gratitude. But still. Dey ugly. Now how I'm gonna sleep?

August

Well I know it has been a dog's age since I updated this blog. I am sorry. I had a house guest, then my mac broke and and had to be sent away, then I couldn't log on to the bloggy thingie. Well I'm here now. And I'm all yours.
August. Lets see, there's some new stuff to tell. I am finally "working". That is I am in orientation at the hospital, not really working in the OR quite yet. I am now enrolled in an Integrative Energy Therapy school. The name of the school is Snowlion Center School, and when you Google that (I know you will) you'll see a lot of stuff in some other language- Deutsch I think. There are schools in Europe and now there is one in America too, it's just a couple hours from here in a really beautiful part of New Mexico near a volcano. And yall, Energy Healing is real, OK? Next time you see me if you want I'll chelate your ass then you'll know. The class meets 5 times a year.

It's been an up and down month to tell you the truth. It's been kind of weird, kind of hard. Kind of good, too.

The good parts are I keep meeting people that are so great that I like a lot. This is a town full of really lovable folks. It's rained and rained, and it's starting to cool off now, the days are getting shorter. I'm excited to see what Fall and Winter are going to be like here.
That lady didn't hire me to spin wool. Goddammit. I really wanted to do that. I'm going to learn anyway. And when I do I'm going to put the touch on my friend Molly for her bonnet from the Old Salem days.

Slow and quiet for the most part

The other day I picked up a hitchiker who was so drunk he started crying when he got into my car expressing his gratitude. Then for 7 miles he yelled (slurred) "Thank God for byooful women" Until I dropped him off at the Cattle Grate-- which is the entrance to "Lesser World"- I live in Greater World which is considered the upscale neighborhood. I know I have at least one friend who might be reading this and freaking out about me picking up drunk hitchikers but I only pick up the Mesa People out on my road and I assure you they are not going to serial kill me or rape me they just wanna go where they're going.
We've been getting a lot of rain lately. In fact I have too much water these days. It's lush and green and sometimes extemely muddy. the mud out here is very sticky. I reckon that's why it's so good for building.
I finally started the process of getting hired at the hospital last Friday. They are supposedly doing the beackground/reference checks, etc. My friend works in the ICU there, he says it takes forever even once the ball is rolling to start work...but what I really want to do is get this job dying and spinning wool in this wool shop. They use all natural dyes. The lady really doesn't want to hire me, she keeps telling me I'm over qualified. I keep trying to assure her that I'm an idiot who would be greatly challanged by menial labor but I may not have convinced her. I would just love to be around the colors, and learn how to do something cool like spin yarn, like the maidens are always doing in fairy tales. Ideally I could do both, the wool stuff part time, the OR part time. She liked the fact that I am a Sagittarius with Virgo rising (I knew all this stuff would come in handy one day) and she said she wouldn't write me off. She is also hooking me up with a lady that can teach me some Eastern Medicine. So it goes in the Land of Enchantment. One thing leads to another, and you find yourself somewhere pretty different than you intended, but still a good place.