Condoleeza

I was listening to our Secretary of State yesterday talking about the Israel-Lebanese conflict and how she doesn't want a cease fire unless it's (my favorite word lately) "sustainable". She then described the Middle East crisis as "spasms of violence fathered by...followed by periods of..." I didn't hear the rest of the sentence because I started thinking about the Freudian slip. I thought it was a pretty interesting one. Then I started thinking about Kim Jong-Il. Poor Kim Jong. He just cannot get our attention can he? He finally managed to shoot a taepadong (that's the name of his missle, for real) at us and he gets upstaged once again by the Middle East. He'll get it together one of these days I'm sure. I think it's all pretty scary.

Here's my personal update. Things are going well, it's beautiful and amazing here still, we're getting some rain. I found a girl I like who does waxing. I was surprised at that because from what I've seen the ladies of Taos prefer the au natural look. Which is fine. Oh and I might actually be employed soon! I called the hospital and left another message. I can't remember exactly what it said but it was sort of a "last chance to hire me" kind of thing. The next day I had TWO messages. One from the director of surgical services and one from the CEO of the hospital. (it's a really small hospital) and now they claim they can give me the shift I want. I'm going to interview on Friday. It's good. I guess. I got some other ideas percolatin in my little haid about what I want to do down the road but the inescapable fact is: it's all easier with a good cash flow.
Oh and another thing that happens on Friday- Mercury goes direct! Hallelujah! It has been a hard retrograde cycle for lots of folks, but expect things to go a little easier starting Friday and getting better day by day.

My neighbors are Amazons

Tonight I was invited to my neighbor's house for a get together. My landlords were in town and they have been very nice in trying to get their former friends to be my new friends. That, in my opinion, is how it should be. That's how it is in the Jane Austen novels and in my old etiquette books anyway. So I went over to the earthship up the road and there were a few folks from the community there, most of them I had met before. Nice people, all around my age. They were drinking tea, not beer or wine or martinis, which I thought a little strange but not a big deal. We sat around and talked and it was nice. They told me how they had been rock climbing earlier, a subject on which I cannot converse well ( me: oh so yall rock climbed with the clippy things and everything? One of them : oh no, just top rope. Me: Oh, Okay, sure....top rope.) Somehow the conversation came around to the subject of trapeze and the hosts mentioned they had a trapeze in their house, and two of the girls had studied trapeze. We went inside and people started doing trapeze moves. The hostess taught me how to do bird nest. It wasn't too hard. Then, one by one the girls started doing pull ups. The trapeze is low so they were doing pull ups with their legs sticking straight out in front of them. Then they did pull ups with their legs sticking straight out in front of them OVERHANDED. I was stunned. I'll tell y'all the truth, which I now find embarrassing, but I have never done a pull up in my life. These people are fit. Walking home through the beautiful starlit mesa I started to feel fat and pasty. I guess for people who have spent the last ten years or so pounding Earth into tires doing a few pull ups with your legs sticking straight out in front of you, after a day top roping is just the perfect way to wind down. Whereas I have spent the last 10, well really more like 20 years smoking cigarettes and drinking and going to bars and...well..doing other stuff too. I have often thought about being athletic, being a sagittarius and all, and because both my parents were athletes in their day. I think I could be, or could have been. But thinking about it I guess doesn't quite make it so. It was a nice evening even with the discrepancies in our lives. I don't know about rock climbing nor do I have cute little muscles like they do, they don't know who Daniel Johnston is (I had gone to see The Devil and Daniel Johnston because it was too murderously hot today to do anything else, or so I thought anyway). But we made it work.
I got another massage the other day, this time from a different guy. The last one had ethical problems I think. Anyway this time the guy- who does this thing called body mind clearing- which is pretty cool- well the guy asked me if I lifted weights. He was massaging my chest which was a little different from previous massages I'd had... anyway I threw that in because it makes me feel a little better that someone who does bodywork thought I might lift weights. I think he meant it to, I mean I don't think he was being a perv or trying to come on to me. Though I have to admit it was dificult leaving his house he just kept talking and talking and then showing me more of his massage techniques. But I'm pretty sure that's because he used to run a massage school and I had mentioned I was considering going to massage therapy school.
I'm considering lots of things right now. And I'm getting used to answering ,"Not a thing" when people ask "What do you do?".

Full Southern Moon (in Capricorn)

Today my bio-rhythm is low. My neighbors and I stayed up late last night drinking wine and today I couldn't shift into gear. Just idled all day. No problem as I am unemployed. I felt bad for them with their jobs and three younguns though. Saw the Prairie Home companion movie. Robert Altman. It was OK. We have been blessed with lots and lots of water so I took a long shower this morning and didn't even turn off the water while soaping up. The catch 22 is that when it rains the Sun doesn't shine so the solar water heater doesn't get the water quite as hot as I like it. I like it hot. Real hot. The Moon tonight is the Southernmost July Moon until the year 2023. I made an attempt to solidify in my mind where I'm at in my life right now and wondered if in the year 2023 I'll remember and reflect. I'm "getting off" coffee, so that's contributing to my idling body and mind. I have attempted this many times and always end up feeling very good when I'm caffeine free, but Lord do I love coffee. I went to the Pow-Wow Saturday. It was dreamlike with the misty drizzly day and the drums and conch blowing and singing, the mountains looming up behind the large dance circle. The little kids were cute beyond description. The outfits were beautiful. One little girl had Hello Kitty beadwork on her outfit and boots along with traditional Indian symbols. I love stuff like that. They could do the dances too, and some of them were just toddlers. It was very cool. I thought about the Trail of Tears and wondered how Americans could ever feel superior to Hitler when what we've done is just as fucked up.
Hey well- have a good one!

Company

I've had company this past week. My friend Laura came up from New Orleans. She went back yesterday. We had us a big time. We went to Chimayo and prayed in the Santurio do Chimayo which is an old adobe church built on sacred dirt. People make pilgrimages to the church because it's so special and you can go into this little room and get some of the dirt which heals people. It's considered the Lourdes of the Southwest and there are crutches all lined up that people have left there from being healed. You know I got me a bag of that dirt. Speaking of that it was a weird thing, when we pulled into the church I looked down and sitting there in my car were two plastic baggies. I said, "oh Laura did you put these in here so we could get some dirt?" and she said no she hadn't. I honestly don't know how those two little baggies got in my car. I guess God put them there. Anyway Chimayo is very special and pretty with a couple little shops and galleries. Do yall know what milagros are? The word means miracle but you can buy little silver icons in the shape of body parts or praying people or objects (we found one that was a sewing machine) and people leave them in the church for healing and blessings. There are arms and legs usually but one store had breasts and testicles and torsos and even couples- all inclusive- all types of couples to be blessed. I liked that. They also had a bumper sticker that said "In Guad we trust" because the Virgin of Guadalupe is a big deal out here. The other really fun thing we did was a horse ride in the Pueblo. The Taos Indians have a Pueblo here and sometimes you can visit but other times they don't let white people in. We went to a horse ranch and the guy that ran it sent us out with two of his Grandkids into the mountains and we were trotting along and the horses suddenly looked up into the bushes. I looked where my horse was looking and saw a flash of something black running off. Sunbow, our guide, went to investigate and saw two bear cubs scurrying off. I was very excited but everyone else held the opinion that the smart thing would be to go on back rather than have the Mama Bear show up and freak out the horses. Today I'm going back to the Pueblo because they are hosting a Pow-Wow. Native American tribes from all over come for these Pow-Wows and dance and win money and prizes and trade stories and crafts.
I still don't have a job. It's pretty unusual for me. I'm used to being able to wave my nursing license around and folks clamor for the chance to have me work for them. I've gotten pretty spoiled after last year. But something has obviously gone wrong with my application here in Taos. When I went in to talk to the people I had every nurse manager in the hospital crowded into a room being nice to me, then a week later I dropped off my application and never heard back. Folks that have dealt with the hospital said you have to go there in person or call and really follow up- that's how UNC Human Resources is too so I wasn't surprised. So I called last week and talked to the HR director who acted like it was bad and wrong that nobody had called me and transferred me to another nurse manager who said she would request my application then call me back for an interview and I never heard back. So..What? Did they lose my application? A real possibility considering the way things seem to go in this town. Or did I put the wrong contact information, or did I make some glaring error on my application? Sometimes, or rather often actually in my life a door doesn't open for me that I'm expecting, then later it seems that a different opportunity pops up that is better, so I'm wondering if this is one of those things. I'm definitely ready for a different direction with my work, but OR nursing is good money, and surgery is pretty fun, I still like it. Though here in Taos they do not do neurosurgery which is my specialty. Now I'm thinking more and more about learning to do something very different, like work on a ranch or a farm or learn how to refine biodiesel or get more involved with alternative building, growing, and sustainable shit. Possibly it's time for a big change and the Fates know I won't be easily pried away from the income I'm used to. We'll just have to see where I end up- maybe living in a Styrofoam box out in Two Peaks, or running a little biodiesel filling station in Arroyo Seco. I'll keep you posted.