Greetings From Taos...: cheap thrills

I sometimes spend too much time with fashion magazines. I pick them up with the intention of seeing what's new with jewelry out there in the big world, but I'm usually bored and disappointed with what I see, and always grumble something like, "...wish somebody out there would notice lampwork for a change.... all these diamonds.... snore....". But then, against my better judgment, I continued to flip through the pages, sitting on the patio, drinking coffee in my funny glow-in-the-dark cookie pj's (thanks Jean!) and worn out rubber Crocs flip-flops. A fashion statement of a different kind, to be sure... It's not healthy for me to read about the Rich and Famous romping around the world in their private jets, wearing shoes that cost as much as my mortgage payment. It makes me feel envious and icky. And eventually I have to close the glossy cover, splash some water on my face, and move on to something real...

This happened to me this weekend. In a moment of insanity, I pointed to a big shiney picture of tall pointy shoes covered in delicate fuchsia plumes, and said to Rick, "I want new shoes." Blame it on menopause if you must, but I think Girls are just nuts sometimes, and there's nothing any of us can do about it. Thankfully, Rick is a very level sort of person, and knew it was time to get me out of the house...

Cheap Thrills in Taos are everywhere. No need to be Rich and Famous to have a good time. The Friday night Fiestas on the plaza were all we expected...

Hoards of people, loud, wonderful Mariachi music, the smell of deep-fried-anything-you-can-imagine, and lots of cheap, tacky stuff for sale. I bought some. It was my mission to find something just awful, but also wonderful, and at a bargain price. What I ended up with was a bracelet.... jewelry, of course! It's made of wooden disks with different pictures of the Virgin Mary, badly decoupaged and varnished, and strung together on elastic string. I liked it so much, I bought two, and will send one to Jean, because while not Catholics ourselves, we understand that Mary, in her many forms, is a good mother-goddess-friend to have on our side. And all that Goodness for only two bucks!

Saturday night was dinner with Deborah and Thomas. There's nothing better than time with friends... especially friends who cook! We often have people over here, but our parties tend to be more "bread, cheese, wine" than actual planned and prepared meals. Sure, it's mostly about the company, but nothing beats a lovingly made salmon and salad feast!

Sunday is my Day Off. Rick knows I'll look for excuses to work if we stay home, so he stuck me in the car and drove up to the Ski Valley. Fresh air, and a short hike were positively medicinal. We found patches of tiny wild strawberries that tasted like jam, and saw alpine butterflies that never venture down to our lowland altitude of only 7,000 feet.

A breakfast burrito lunch at Tim's Stray Dog Cantina convinced me that I could carry on for another week... well maybe it was the beer...

And so we headed back down the mountain, and into town, where we bumped into the tail end of the Fiestas Parade. Remembering my happy shopping excursion on Friday night, I had Rick find a parking place, and we headed back for more Mary Jewelry. This time I got hand-knotted Virgin of Guadalupe rosary necklaces for myself and my girls. I feel like Madonna in it, which I guess is fitting.

And then... shoe shopping! Fortunately I'd come to my senses by this time, and didn't waste my time looking for fuchsia feathers. Instead we went to the Crocs store, where I splurged on beautiful new turquoise rubber clogs, and went all out and got a little plastic rose decoration to pop through one of the holes. I'm stylin' now.

Later, Deborah and I went to have our palms read - a $5 deal! - but Miss Marks was not in at the time, so we'll have to save that particular bargain for another day. An evening back on the patio brought me full circle, complete with cookie pants and Crocs, but minus the fashion magazines. Instead, Karena came by for one of our not-fancy dinners. We sat outside and watched an incredible thunderstorm in the near distance, and she gave me a wonderful hand-made birthday gift that was so perfect it made me cry.

This morning, back on the patio, looking out where the storm had been last night, things seem calm and pretty and just-washed. If I avoid the dumb magazines, I'm off to a good start to the week.