rasberrries, monsoons and reflecting

inspired by lisa s, i bought a polaroid camera at a yardsale and tried it out in new mex! one of the last things i expected to do in the desert was go raspberry pickin'! it made my summer. the wide open field, the sweat, the eating of every other raspberry! i immediately went back to a summer vacation spent when i was 10 with my cousin susan in nova scotia, where we picked raspberries, mushed them in plastic bags with our fingers to make own jam that we took down by the brooke to eat on crackers. we thought we were very clever and i remember thinking we should try to sell it on the roadside, but there wasn't much traffic.... any how, speaking of jam... this field is home of my new friend sofia's mother heidi's incredible organic jam.

another suprise of the desert was the monsoon that overtook Albuquerque! my friend emily lost her new red flip flops helping to push a car in knee high rain! new mexico was full of surprises, but the green chiles and sopapillas were as remembered. i got an ammmmmazinnnng massage from jessie (aka magic fingers) who is going to school for it, went to a poetry slam and was a guest judge!, checked out UNM's art department and chilled with jessie's sweet friends and now mine... emily and sofia. we visited with 4 month year old twins of my friend dina's!!! how does she do it?! the rain started coming down at the park we were at so there we were running with babies in each of our arms inside to shelter!

did i tell you how my love affair with Albuquerque began? my dear friend jessie who i was fatefully placed as college roomates 12 years ago (and lived with for most of my twenties) and i drove cross-country to begin our new lives in SF. we took 6 weeks to drive down through the south and spent 2 weeks in albuquerque because we were so smitten. i discovered for the first time again... between painting outside and photocollages at kinkos that i was an artist. i felt so spiritually, physically, intellectually and emotionally alive and connected in new mexico, but we kept on to San Francisco, to meet more discoveries.

So returning after 6 years of living in SF was a cause for reflection. Albuquerque looked little and wonderfully bumbly... funkyness in the yards of the adobes and small homes... and slow. i kept catching myself trying to be quick at the grocer's, but realized that people actually had time and were interested in talking! the people are insanely nice in new mex and help each other out constantly. it made me remember that i don't have to be so fast and impersonal in my everyday exchanges (a trait quickly learned in the restaurant biz).

oh, but i am happy to be home. to my studio. to my hugh. to my projects... currently putting stamps on the invites for the shared bridal shower for my sister...the other dear jesse of my life...and childhood friend bekah in maine in a few weeks!!! my excitement is building for this day as it seems real. i can't wait to see family and friends from years ago like miss moira:)

be well,
mati rose