Amazingly I have to say that we had a great day..... the boys were happy about what they got, loved everything, didnt gripe about what they "really" wanted (and didnt get).... overall it was a great day. Though it seemed a bit lonely. Even though we live so close to my family now, its odd to celebrate any holidays without seeing Kindels mom. I miss her, as well as our New Mexico friends and family..... maybe we will get to go visit in febuary/march. I am amazed at how the last 4 months have just flown right past us.... it doesnt seem like we have been here that long already......
I am gonna try to clean up my art/sewing area tomorrow... I started a bunch of projects and lost momentum and need to bust them out and get them finished.... For christmas I got a YUDU silkscreener... I have to say its gonna be a love/hate relationship.... I think its easier to use than i expected but I am definitely not too consistent yet.... maybe it will grow on me with time. I made a bunch of stuff though (expect pictures soon!), but need to finish them all. Now I'm thinking i need a cricut machine and a gypsy....lol. see they make them all work together so it becomes a "need" instead of a want....lol. A gypsy really would be great.... and jasper and dusty could make designs too.... but then i would need a cricut to use the designs...lol. maybe i can find one of each on amazon.
I am hoping that the next year will be inspiring to kindel and I both. The boys are both in public school now (which I am still not sure we love, but the kids seem to enjoy it mostly). Dusty constantly ask me why he cant stay home and have me teach him, and I just remind him its only 2 and 1\2 hours. some days i ask myself the same thing.... and then i think about how much i get done at home when the kids arent here....lol.
In new mexico, I was constantly wanting to go home and now that i am here i recall all the reasons I left, and what all I didnt miss. My friends have either A) changed so much I have nothing in common with them, OR B) not changed at all and I can't stand them, Or C) have grown up a bit and are still in the same book as I am. I guess change is good...
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
second chances
I sit here and laugh as I write this one out for you....
Last year around thanksgiving I met these "hippie kids" Jordan & Rick and their dog Vagrant while we were in town, and since it was cold and nasty out we decided to invite them home for the day for showers and a meal... they ended up staying for about a week! They cooked me awesome food, pitched in where they could, built a dog house and helped move the entire front porch when the pipes froze and suddenly had to get fixed. It was a crazy week to say the least. Anyhow, after being helpful and having a good break they headed south to Texas to help out with hurricane house repairs.
In the last few months, there have been quite a few new faces in our town. Knowing that the national rainbow gathering is just outside of Taos this year, I'm certain that is the reason behind all the new faces... unless its just for the sunshine. At any rate, this has all led me to think about Jordan, Rick, and Vagrant (the dog who tried to eat my neighbors chihuahua). As many of my friends know from experience, there are some people that you just don't ever meet again and your paths don't re-cross. I seem to have decent luck however, and often run into people that I knew years ago, and lost touch with.
So being my usual snide obnoxious sarcastic self.... I am driving down the road talking with Kindel in the very dirty jeep as usual... and I say "there's some dirty ass white trash hippies for ya"... and as we pass I hear them yell out Kindel's name. It didn't really surprise me, yet when I realised who it actually was I indeed was surprised. I always thought that Jordan the happy dread-locked kid would return to New Mexico because he loved it... Rick on the other hand seemed more like a destination type of guy... like he just wanted to get to where he was heading.
We pull over to wait and see who is gonna walk up to the jeep.. low and behold it is Rick (the helpful one). His story is interesting, yet so casual and seems like could happen to anyone. He got divorced, lost his company that he started, felt like his world fell apart, his wife kept his kids (he had a record and couldn't get full custody), he hit the road to go out west to start over. He shares with us how Jordan called home to find out that one of his ex's has a little girl she claims is his... just like that his life changes over night.... a haircut and a bus ticket and him and Vagrant have a family and a home. A second chance.
Rick ditches the kids he was walking with and ask us how we are, we go out to coffee... he is honest, yet clear that things arent perfect. He isn't afraid to trust us, and knows that we wont judge him for anything. We visit
and see that to him we are still the same, through all of our ups and downs he sees it for what it is. Plain and clear that we all know where we stand, there is no room to take advantage of anyone. No question about the rules, and a great lack of expectations on any ones part. Its comfy, like an old friend.
I wonder about Rick. I wonder if he has tried to call his ex wife, his kids. I wonder if he is looking for a second chance too. I wonder if he will find work in Taos and settle here like he wants, or if he will just keep traveling on the road until its too late to change? Then again I wonder if there truly is a second chance for everyone...
Is a second chance granted regardless, or is it something you have to make for yourself? I suddenly think of my own life, and the crazy track I was heading down... and wonder where I would be had I never looked for a different direction to go. I wonder if I would just be some girl wandering until I re-found my old friends? I wonder why ..... why did I get a second chance? luck? destiny? prayer? faith? I don't know what it was, but I'm glad that I jumped at the chance... I spent too many years wasted in anger and hatred. Sure it all made me who I am... but those years could have been better used. There are no regrets here, simply thankfulness and hope.... Hope that my lost friends get that chance too, before they pass that point of no return.
Last year around thanksgiving I met these "hippie kids" Jordan & Rick and their dog Vagrant while we were in town, and since it was cold and nasty out we decided to invite them home for the day for showers and a meal... they ended up staying for about a week! They cooked me awesome food, pitched in where they could, built a dog house and helped move the entire front porch when the pipes froze and suddenly had to get fixed. It was a crazy week to say the least. Anyhow, after being helpful and having a good break they headed south to Texas to help out with hurricane house repairs.
In the last few months, there have been quite a few new faces in our town. Knowing that the national rainbow gathering is just outside of Taos this year, I'm certain that is the reason behind all the new faces... unless its just for the sunshine. At any rate, this has all led me to think about Jordan, Rick, and Vagrant (the dog who tried to eat my neighbors chihuahua). As many of my friends know from experience, there are some people that you just don't ever meet again and your paths don't re-cross. I seem to have decent luck however, and often run into people that I knew years ago, and lost touch with.
So being my usual snide obnoxious sarcastic self.... I am driving down the road talking with Kindel in the very dirty jeep as usual... and I say "there's some dirty ass white trash hippies for ya"... and as we pass I hear them yell out Kindel's name. It didn't really surprise me, yet when I realised who it actually was I indeed was surprised. I always thought that Jordan the happy dread-locked kid would return to New Mexico because he loved it... Rick on the other hand seemed more like a destination type of guy... like he just wanted to get to where he was heading.
We pull over to wait and see who is gonna walk up to the jeep.. low and behold it is Rick (the helpful one). His story is interesting, yet so casual and seems like could happen to anyone. He got divorced, lost his company that he started, felt like his world fell apart, his wife kept his kids (he had a record and couldn't get full custody), he hit the road to go out west to start over. He shares with us how Jordan called home to find out that one of his ex's has a little girl she claims is his... just like that his life changes over night.... a haircut and a bus ticket and him and Vagrant have a family and a home. A second chance.
Rick ditches the kids he was walking with and ask us how we are, we go out to coffee... he is honest, yet clear that things arent perfect. He isn't afraid to trust us, and knows that we wont judge him for anything. We visit
and see that to him we are still the same, through all of our ups and downs he sees it for what it is. Plain and clear that we all know where we stand, there is no room to take advantage of anyone. No question about the rules, and a great lack of expectations on any ones part. Its comfy, like an old friend.
I wonder about Rick. I wonder if he has tried to call his ex wife, his kids. I wonder if he is looking for a second chance too. I wonder if he will find work in Taos and settle here like he wants, or if he will just keep traveling on the road until its too late to change? Then again I wonder if there truly is a second chance for everyone...
Is a second chance granted regardless, or is it something you have to make for yourself? I suddenly think of my own life, and the crazy track I was heading down... and wonder where I would be had I never looked for a different direction to go. I wonder if I would just be some girl wandering until I re-found my old friends? I wonder why ..... why did I get a second chance? luck? destiny? prayer? faith? I don't know what it was, but I'm glad that I jumped at the chance... I spent too many years wasted in anger and hatred. Sure it all made me who I am... but those years could have been better used. There are no regrets here, simply thankfulness and hope.... Hope that my lost friends get that chance too, before they pass that point of no return.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
vroom, vroom! My new undrivable car :(
I finally managed to get insured and have the work that needed done on my vw bug finished.... it was a long wait but soooo worth it... I'm in love again! I forgot how much i love to shift gears and have the windows down, and just go drive...
The weekend started out great, Kindel's mom insured the car (it was suprisingly cheap compared to the jeeps full coverage), and my dad left me great easy directions to throw the rebuilt carburetor on it and how to adjust the idle. All I had left to do was go and get my new tires...
I was so excited, finally I get to drive my bug :)
As we all know, nothing ever seems to come so easily... We left my parents house on Sunday, to go the 3-4 hour drive to our new place with the bug and the jeep. I got into the city and decided to take all the side streets and not the freeway because I'm not sure how fast the bug can go these days and the freeway has been all under construction and crap. I made it to old route 66... almost. Then as luck would have it, there is this totally crappy noise and I'm just like whoa! what the hell is that???
Being the daughter of a mechanic I thought, ok... i will pull over at the next gas station... as the noise got louder, I began to wonder when the station would appear, and finally decided I must pull over without a gas station. Knowing full-well that Jasper and Dusty would be restless if we had to wait to fix it tow it or whatever, I was hoping it was a simple fix. It wasn't though... I checked out the obvious things, like the new tires and then kindel (who was following me) said well that tire looked kinda wobbly... and of coarse it was. (see i have a smart man) I take off my hubcap (that i badly ruined in the process as i didn't have a screwdriver to remove it), and much to my surprise into my hand falls two lug-bolts. Lovely. Just freaking beautiful. I'm like oh..... I have been here before.... back in 94 in the damn yugo. So I look at my rim and see that the holes for the bolts are totally ruined, the lug-bolts are ruined and i probably screwed up the brake drum as well. So much for the great drive home.
We call aaa, thinking oh we can wait 20 minutes for a tow truck and be on our way. Again our luck is lousy, so we wait 4 hours with the two boys for the tow truck... I should have just had kind take the boys and go home (duh?). Apparently because we actually told the AAA peeps what happened to the car they had to find us a rollback and a driver willing to leave the county on a Sunday. Finally our rollback and redneck arrive. He seems nice enough, I'm like hey my kids are starving, mind if we stop somewhere before we go far. hes like sure. of coarse there is actually no where to stop so we stop at a gas station and buy crappy chips and sodas (my kids don't get to eat that crap ever). We drive and drive and then we see our favorite bbq place and at this point kind is griping about hungry the kids have to use the bathroom and are hungry too so i tell AAA guy hey I can buy ya lunch or we can just catch up and you can use the GPS to find our house. He decided no lunch, and then proceeds to get lost (thank god we didn't have to pay for miles). We go and find him and since he went down the wrong dirt road we have to back up about 2 miles before we can turn around. Finally home.
I did call the tire shop this morning and they are all about "making it right"... but what does that include? I would have thought it to include our tow bill, the rim, the lug bolts, the brake drum, maybe a car rental till its fixed,and something for my hassle and crappy day :( since it was all because some young tech couldn't bother to tighten my lug bolts! At this point i think they will cover the brake drum, labor to install it, new rim, new bolts, new hubcap (even though that was my bad) and that is it. I am a bit irritated that they wont pay the tow bill (because AAA covered it) and now i wont have a tow to use when i need my AAA. I think i will send them a copy of the damn bill anyhow.
I'm super thankful that I stopped the car before the wheel entirely fell off (as it did when we unloaded the bug from the tow truck), and that we are okay. It would have made our crappy day worse if anything happened to my boy and I. It's still a bummer that now i cant drive until its fixed (which i don't have money for and i have to pay for it all in advance, and then be reimbursed for it). At least I know that my bug is still cute and the idle is set right :) and that eventually I can drive it and know that there won't be another mishap like this. I suppose this is why my dad always told me to work on my own car if i could manage to do it right...
On the plus side, my neighbor guy mechanic friend is gonna fix the linkage so it shifts better this next weekend :) then i can drive and downshift (the only other quirk with my new car).
The weekend started out great, Kindel's mom insured the car (it was suprisingly cheap compared to the jeeps full coverage), and my dad left me great easy directions to throw the rebuilt carburetor on it and how to adjust the idle. All I had left to do was go and get my new tires...
I was so excited, finally I get to drive my bug :)
As we all know, nothing ever seems to come so easily... We left my parents house on Sunday, to go the 3-4 hour drive to our new place with the bug and the jeep. I got into the city and decided to take all the side streets and not the freeway because I'm not sure how fast the bug can go these days and the freeway has been all under construction and crap. I made it to old route 66... almost. Then as luck would have it, there is this totally crappy noise and I'm just like whoa! what the hell is that???
Being the daughter of a mechanic I thought, ok... i will pull over at the next gas station... as the noise got louder, I began to wonder when the station would appear, and finally decided I must pull over without a gas station. Knowing full-well that Jasper and Dusty would be restless if we had to wait to fix it tow it or whatever, I was hoping it was a simple fix. It wasn't though... I checked out the obvious things, like the new tires and then kindel (who was following me) said well that tire looked kinda wobbly... and of coarse it was. (see i have a smart man) I take off my hubcap (that i badly ruined in the process as i didn't have a screwdriver to remove it), and much to my surprise into my hand falls two lug-bolts. Lovely. Just freaking beautiful. I'm like oh..... I have been here before.... back in 94 in the damn yugo. So I look at my rim and see that the holes for the bolts are totally ruined, the lug-bolts are ruined and i probably screwed up the brake drum as well. So much for the great drive home.
We call aaa, thinking oh we can wait 20 minutes for a tow truck and be on our way. Again our luck is lousy, so we wait 4 hours with the two boys for the tow truck... I should have just had kind take the boys and go home (duh?). Apparently because we actually told the AAA peeps what happened to the car they had to find us a rollback and a driver willing to leave the county on a Sunday. Finally our rollback and redneck arrive. He seems nice enough, I'm like hey my kids are starving, mind if we stop somewhere before we go far. hes like sure. of coarse there is actually no where to stop so we stop at a gas station and buy crappy chips and sodas (my kids don't get to eat that crap ever). We drive and drive and then we see our favorite bbq place and at this point kind is griping about hungry the kids have to use the bathroom and are hungry too so i tell AAA guy hey I can buy ya lunch or we can just catch up and you can use the GPS to find our house. He decided no lunch, and then proceeds to get lost (thank god we didn't have to pay for miles). We go and find him and since he went down the wrong dirt road we have to back up about 2 miles before we can turn around. Finally home.
I did call the tire shop this morning and they are all about "making it right"... but what does that include? I would have thought it to include our tow bill, the rim, the lug bolts, the brake drum, maybe a car rental till its fixed,and something for my hassle and crappy day :( since it was all because some young tech couldn't bother to tighten my lug bolts! At this point i think they will cover the brake drum, labor to install it, new rim, new bolts, new hubcap (even though that was my bad) and that is it. I am a bit irritated that they wont pay the tow bill (because AAA covered it) and now i wont have a tow to use when i need my AAA. I think i will send them a copy of the damn bill anyhow.
I'm super thankful that I stopped the car before the wheel entirely fell off (as it did when we unloaded the bug from the tow truck), and that we are okay. It would have made our crappy day worse if anything happened to my boy and I. It's still a bummer that now i cant drive until its fixed (which i don't have money for and i have to pay for it all in advance, and then be reimbursed for it). At least I know that my bug is still cute and the idle is set right :) and that eventually I can drive it and know that there won't be another mishap like this. I suppose this is why my dad always told me to work on my own car if i could manage to do it right...
On the plus side, my neighbor guy mechanic friend is gonna fix the linkage so it shifts better this next weekend :) then i can drive and downshift (the only other quirk with my new car).
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Growing Roots....
While I intend for this to be a blog full of my many crafty projects made here in the middle of no where New Mexico, I figure you should know "where" I am coming from...
Over the past 12 or so years, I have gradually been learning more techniques and learning so much more about sewing and crafting. I really love to sew and have basically been sewing to afford my hobby. Now that I am no longer busy traveling across the country, I have time to put down some roots. I found a nice spot in the middle of nowhere that I love and can't imagine leaving.I plan to work on a children's clothing line this summer! How very exciting for me, I cant wait to get started!
I started sewing basically because my expensive patchwork pants fell apart when I washed them. After I fixed mine, I had to then fix all of my friends... it was a learning experience to say the least. I wound up traveling and sewing when and wherever I could, often selling cute patchy shirts for a meal or a place to crash. Often without any real sense of direction, or destination. Life was just one big trip. I was constantly seeking a place that simply seemed like "home".
In 1998 I had my boy Jasper, thus the traveling had to slow down. I settled in Louisville, Kentucky. I found a few store that would sale my goods on consignment, but generally that meant that I could sew up all the fabric I had available, and wait to get paid. Usually they ran out of my stuff and wanted more before "payday". Often I felt like it was a catch 22.... never enough to keep up or to get ahead. Eventually I moved back home to Seattle, Washington. I sold stuff to a few stores and at the farmers markets in the summer, but at most times it was rather unpredictable and not very consistent. I got a "real job" and moved on with my life.
Sewing was always part of my life, and for some reason no matter where I ended up, I always ended up with a machine and some fabrics. I decided to move to New Mexico about 2 years ago to get away from the dead end road I was on and go to college... after a year and a half into the program that I was in my school made the program "phase out", which meant i had to finish my classes in the next 6 months. Maybe I should have tried harder, maybe I should have kept going to college without any true direction.... but instead I stopped for a while. I figured it was a great time to re-focus.
This "break" from school actually did something fabulous for me... it reminded me of when I was just some girl who liked to sew. I unpacked my machine and started sewing again. Nothing major just a few pairs of pj's for the kids, a dress for my friends little one, and some Christmas stockings. As most of my friends and family know, now I sew daily and often into the night... it has replaced my need for cable t.v. and movies. I just set up an online store and plan to add items in the next few weeks and see how it goes. At this point I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Hopefully you will come back and check out my projects!
Over the past 12 or so years, I have gradually been learning more techniques and learning so much more about sewing and crafting. I really love to sew and have basically been sewing to afford my hobby. Now that I am no longer busy traveling across the country, I have time to put down some roots. I found a nice spot in the middle of nowhere that I love and can't imagine leaving.I plan to work on a children's clothing line this summer! How very exciting for me, I cant wait to get started!
I started sewing basically because my expensive patchwork pants fell apart when I washed them. After I fixed mine, I had to then fix all of my friends... it was a learning experience to say the least. I wound up traveling and sewing when and wherever I could, often selling cute patchy shirts for a meal or a place to crash. Often without any real sense of direction, or destination. Life was just one big trip. I was constantly seeking a place that simply seemed like "home".
In 1998 I had my boy Jasper, thus the traveling had to slow down. I settled in Louisville, Kentucky. I found a few store that would sale my goods on consignment, but generally that meant that I could sew up all the fabric I had available, and wait to get paid. Usually they ran out of my stuff and wanted more before "payday". Often I felt like it was a catch 22.... never enough to keep up or to get ahead. Eventually I moved back home to Seattle, Washington. I sold stuff to a few stores and at the farmers markets in the summer, but at most times it was rather unpredictable and not very consistent. I got a "real job" and moved on with my life.
Sewing was always part of my life, and for some reason no matter where I ended up, I always ended up with a machine and some fabrics. I decided to move to New Mexico about 2 years ago to get away from the dead end road I was on and go to college... after a year and a half into the program that I was in my school made the program "phase out", which meant i had to finish my classes in the next 6 months. Maybe I should have tried harder, maybe I should have kept going to college without any true direction.... but instead I stopped for a while. I figured it was a great time to re-focus.
This "break" from school actually did something fabulous for me... it reminded me of when I was just some girl who liked to sew. I unpacked my machine and started sewing again. Nothing major just a few pairs of pj's for the kids, a dress for my friends little one, and some Christmas stockings. As most of my friends and family know, now I sew daily and often into the night... it has replaced my need for cable t.v. and movies. I just set up an online store and plan to add items in the next few weeks and see how it goes. At this point I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Hopefully you will come back and check out my projects!
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