A strong wind was bellowing across the valley when I woke up, and outside taking photos this morning I realized it was cold enough to snow. But that sun, those arms reached out and lit up every sage and pinon from here to the Ortiz range, leaving sharp long shadows in its wake.

Last night we lay in bed late, reading. And when I had finally finished my book, I put it down and laid my head next to his shoulder and closed my eyes while he read my Annie Lamott’s “Traveling Mercies”. I drifted and thought about the trip being over, the photos are all cataloged and posted in their galleries. Our things are unpacked and put away. Mail has  been un-forwarded. Work is getting done. Things are normalizing, settling back in.

But when it’s quiet and I’m alone, I miss the sensation of wheels turning underneath me.

Posted by tee in de la vida
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

“Does the moon have bones?”

- Sarah

Posted by tee in kids + pets, quotes
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

I write this in my head from under the covers where I fell asleep barely under an hour ago reading up on pilgrimage after spending the morning plowing through a pile of bills. The drawstrings on my pajama bottoms are tangled up together and I can only feel one sock tucked deep at the foot of the bed with my bare toes. I’m still here because I haven’t found the other yet, and because I’m sure it’s cold in the office and I don’t dare go without it.

The shoji screen I just put by the window earlier today is diffusing the light enough to make things too dreamy and quiet in here to be in much of a hurry to leave it. But I just noticed the blank, half-gone stack of post-it notes on the floor beside the bed, and the pencil. And now I’m too aware of the one thousand things swarming inside me I want to know and experience before I’m dead, and the polite knowledge that I’m only looking at another eighteen thousand or so days left.

So I better get up.

Posted by tee in de la vida
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

Today would have been my grandfather’s birthday. If he were alive, I’d spend the whole day walking around outside from hill to valley, mountain to riverbed, collecting rocks and flowers and things to wrap up in colorful construction paper for him like I did when I was a little girl.

I miss you, Grandpa. Happy Birthday.

Today’s also Shane and I’s anniversary.

Three years ago this afternoon, a photograph I had of the aurora borealis over Whitehorse, Yukon sparked a conversation between strangers about northern latitudes and road trips that lasted most of an evening and into the next day. Then it melted and folded into other things, like earthquakes and mountains and desert and exploration and photography and politics and weather and typography and land use and wildfire and design and architecture and sustainable construction… a conversation that, in some ways, is still in progress. We haven’t stopped talking since.

Happy Anniversary. I love you.

Posted by tee in wandering
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

We get our broadband/cable back tomorrow. So in the absence of a decent connection to catch up on work with today, we: napped, did some lite shopping at the market, cleared out the dining room, showered, napped again, hung new pendant lamps over the table, browsed dental plans, ate mint chip ice cream from coffee mugs, unforwarded our phones, took my shot glass collection down, built a fire and watched The English Patient.

So why is it 2am?
Goodnight.

Posted by tee in wandering
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

SEVERE WEATHER ALERT: TORNADO WATCH FOR SANTA FE COUNTY THROUGH 6:00 PM. CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND AROUND THE AREA. RESIDENTS ARE URGED TO MONITOR LOCAL MEDIA FOR UPDATES.

See? The skies are celebrating our homecoming.

Our stuff is all scattered throughout the dining room and living room, in the same place we dropped it last night when we came in, exhausted and road-sore just after midnight. We’ve been alternating between napping and picking at various left over camp food all day.

We battled heavy winds and rain, blinding lightning and fatique all the way through New Mexico to get here. Pulling in the soaked, muddy driveway in the dark felt strange - my shoes nearly sucked off my feet when I took the flashlight and walked up to check the mailbox. But the coyotes were out and Shane and I stood out there in the rain, by the light of the van with the back doors open, and listened for a few minutes before coming inside.

Posted by tee in wandering
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …

We made it.

Posted by tee in wandering
Leave a Comment | Permalink | Add this to …