My dog.

One of my high school role models and teachers, Mrs. Rossi, told me in high school that the best thing dogs teach people is the capacity for unconditional love. That's stuck with me over the years, because she is right.

I learned last night that Calvin, our family dog, was put down. He had a tumor and was bleeding internally. He lived a good life, and would've turned twelve soon. I remember taking him home from the puppy rescue, dirty, covered in bugs, and laying in my lap in the car in November of 2001.

He was definitely the best (early) Christmas present I could imagine, and he loved me despite my hair being dyed black and being an awkward pre-teen. My favorite memory of him was just once when he slept in my bed the whole night - he'd usually nap with you for a few minutes, then he'd go find one of his many beds to sleep on. That memory is followed closely by him tearing in to his battery-powered singing Frankenstein toy.

Calvin was an old soul. Affectionate, calm, and solitary. When I was in Colorado last, I got to walk him with my grandfather around Crown Hill Lake with their dog, Buddy. He was always there when I needed companionship and a friend to hug when that was all that could help. I'll miss you, old man.



-LTB

Reading & Writing

We begin today's blog with an anecdote:

In 5th grade, just like every year of elementary school, we had a chunk of time reserved each day for SSR - Sustained Silent Reading. (Also called DEAR - Drop Everything And Read.) This particular year, we would take five or ten minutes at the end of SSR time and write a paragraph or two about what we read, what we liked, what we thought would happen, etc.

This was, hands down, my favorite part of the day. We had so many interesting books in our classroom library! About kids who lived in Trinidad or had been kidnapped or went back in time to stop Lincoln's assassination! I loved reading these books so much that I started to take them home with me, and sometimes I loved them so much that I would go home and read them until I finished the book. Soon this became a regular thing, and my teacher noticed that in my reading journal I only had one entry about each book, since I was averaging a book a day. Because of this, I wasn't getting to reflect a lot on plot devices, character development, etc., and it kind of defeated the point of the whole activity. So my 5th grade teacher and I decided that the books I read during SSR should be classroom-only books, and I could take other books home that I could read whenever I wanted. (I wonder how often a teacher has to tell a kid to read less.) At the end of the year, I got the "Class Bookworm" award because I read the most books out of the whole class.

Reading Harry Potter, age 10.

 I tell that story not to brag about what an awesome reader I am, but to illustrate that since I was little, it has felt natural to spend most of my free time reading. My love of books goes back even farther than that - there are some pretty cute pictures of me, 3 or 4 years old and in footie pajamas, asleep next to a pile of books in my bed - but 5th grade was the first time I realized that I might like reading a little more than the average person.

Cultivate

So this year is the first year I've ever tried to grow my own garden.

One of three strawberries so far! Mmm.

My parents and grandparents are all great gardeners. I've got some great childhood memories of gardening with my mother, finding "wormies" in the garden and saving them from imminent death. My grandparents gave me odd jobs around the yard, and I'd get to see my grandmother's wonderful wildflower garden. My dad grows lots of great veggies, and in the summer you can reliably find him tending it in the backyard. I guess I always thought that one day I would just know how to create these beautiful spaces.

This is what happened. 

Not really so much. My first attempt at growing plants has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, with mistaking what I planted for weeds, to frying nearly all of my seedlings in the sun, to a squirrel absconding with my first strawberry.

My first ripening tomato!

Anyway, it's rewarding, if only I have grown a couple strawberries and kale. Also, I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver right now, and it's makin' me feel all folksy and connected to the earth.

You can see some of the blooms unfolding in a spiral pattern. Cool!

Cultivate. I've been thinking of that word conceptually lately. I'm sure it's influenced by making my first home with my partner, and truly nesting for the first time on my own. Regardless, I can't shake this feeling that I am at a beginning of my life, starting not just a new chapter, but a new novel. And in this novel, the epilogue will be determined by cultivating different facets of my life, if I have any say over it.

Kitty helping me siphon the Red Chili Pale Ale.

Marie and I left rainy New Mexico for beautiful, sunny Oregon.  Our wonderful friends Kyler and Alex got married on Gray Gander Farm, Albany, OR.

Daw.

There was plenty of Maiden the Shade to go around.

The ceremony and reception were so beautiful and fun! The goats approved.

We also stared in awe at Kyler's marble race. It's pretty awesome, all ten minutes of it.

It was so great to see the old Bellinghamsters! I do miss the green of the northwest, the berries aplenty, and the hint of the ocean in my nostrils. Marie and I both really wish we could make it up there again this weekend for Matt and Marcela's wedding in Washington.

Happy to be in the Northwest and happy to have just eaten a huge awesome meal.

The day after, Marie and I hung out in Powell's in Portland and met up with the none other than Marie's college roomie Anna!

She also brought us macaroons, which were delicious. 

Just a few weeks before that, Jenni, Preston, and K McRae came down to Santa Fe. We played Settlers of Catan, ate ugali at Jambo Cafe, hiked in the foothills, and learned to marinade for a three-month belated housewarming party.

Representin' the Fort Collins hometown brew. (Also, I totally won this game!)

Grilling veggies.

Oh, and I think Zeezy misses them.

Rawr

Anyway, I hope the people in Russia, Germany, Thailand, the United States, and everyone else out there who apparently have checked this blog are out there, living, loving, cultivating.

-LTB

Gratitude

One of my favorite things about my life here is my commute to work. Not a common thing to love, I know, but hear me out. In the mornings, I walk 15 minutes up the street and through the plaza. I see all the jewelry sellers, restauranteurs, and shopkeepers setting up, and I see tourists slowly wandering through the streets. I walk past the oldest house and the oldest church in the United States. I walk over the (almost perpetually dry) Santa Fe River. On Wednesdays, I grab a copy of the weekly alt newspaper of Santa Fe. Then I get on the bus, where I have 15 beautiful minutes of uninterrupted time with whatever book I'm reading before I get to work.To me, this is the perfect way to start the day.

Today is my 3-month anniversary of living in Santa Fe, and I've been thinking a lot about all the little things that make our life here pretty wonderful. Included in that list are the things that make me feel like a real Santa Fe local. When I can give tourists accurate directions, for example, or the fact that I am a recognized regular at our neighborhood grocery store and our neighborhood liquor store. (Just FYI, they sell pints of ice cream at the liquor store, so we frequent it much more than we would if we were just buying beer.)

Lots of great important things have happened lately as well: Three of our friends from Colorado visited this past week, I just finished a 20-hour self defense course with IMPACT Personal Safety (the organization I work for!), Eric fixed up the garden and bought us house plants and added worms to our compost, etc. And the reason I am so happy about all of these things is that I love the feeling of settling into our house, into the community, into Santa Fe. Here's to many more months of happiness in the Land of Enchantment!

Our new New Mexico beer koozie! Now we are legit locals.

Coming Home

Eric & I are back in NM after a great vacation in Idaho. We spend almost a full day traveling from Boise to Santa Fe in planes, trains, and automobiles, quite literally. It was our first time taking the Rail Runner, the train that runs between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and it was awesome. As we rode past the scenery of northern New Mexico, eager to get back to our kitty and our apartment, Eric said something along the lines of, "Now that we've left Santa Fe and are coming back, it's really starting to feel like home."

He's right. Walking home from the train station, it was easier than ever to appreciate everything I love about Santa Fe: the smell of a desert rainstorm, the beautiful green hills surrounded by adobe abodes, the undeniably incredible food, the art, and all the eccentricities that the city and its people possess. It is good to be home.

Honestly, one of the best things about being home is being reunited with our favorite lil' fuzzball:

Nothing makes you feel better after a long day of travel than having an adorable cat purr contently on your lap. Having a pet is really the best. (Even if he does try to eat our chips and sandwiches when our backs are turned.)

So like I said, we had a vacation!

Triumphs of Love

Okay, ya'll, this might get a little cheesy - but hopefully you expect that and are totally into it. Eric & I have been engaged for exactly four months, and for almost as many months, the nation has been anxiously awaiting some big Supreme Court decisions about marriage equality. This morning I woke up, read about my new feminist hero Senator Wendy Davis, and then watched the internet explode with news about the decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act and then the decision to keep California's Prop 8 overturned. While neither of these decisions guarantee marriage equality for all, it is a huge step in the right direction.

In the last year, Washington (my adopted home state) legalized same-sex marriage, Colorado (my real home state) legalized civil unions, Jason Collins came out on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Obama spoke in support of gay rights for the first time, three GOP senators have announced support of same-sex marriage - all of this is so, so inspiring. Our country could legalize same-sex marriage in my lifetime, maybe even in my parents' lifetimes! Even two years ago this would've seemed impossible.

There are still a LOT of injustices that our nation needs to address, but I have learned that you gotta take the small victories as they come. Eric & I have been talking lately about how the US seems to be moving backwards in regards to some things - health care, incarceration rates, etc., so it is heartening to see us moving forward in recognizing love and marriage rights for all. Here in New Mexico, our awesome Santa Fe Mayor David Coss is getting the ball rolling, and I did have a dream the other night that same-sex marriage was legalized in Santa Fe... triumphs like today's give me a little more room to hope.

It's also a good reminder for me to check myself.

Running Running Running

I don't know about you, blog world, but these last couple weeks seem to have just flown by in Marie-and-Eric Land. Here's a quick chronological update of some of the things we have been running around doing.

1. Fancy Dinner Night
Anyone who knows me probably knows that I am a pretty frugal lady; I frequently get outraged at the normal prices of things like toothpaste and underwear. Living in Santa Fe, I've started to learn that some things are worth spending a little extra money on, especially food. I'm sure we've written before that most food in Santa Fe is redonkulously good, and lots of the best places use high-quality, local ingredients to make their delicious and creative dishes. After spending most of my college years mostly eating Kroger-brand box mac'n'cheese, I definitely feel privileged to have enough financial flexibility to buy good food when we go out to eat and support Santa Fe. Sidenote: Something like 84% of restaurants in Santa Fe are locally owned!

All that rambling just to get to this: After we moved here, Eric (the true romantic in our relationship) suggested that we pick a day in the near future to dress up and spend a good chunk of money at a fancy restaurant. So a couple weeks ago, on a day that we had both gotten paid, we dressed up like so:

and went to The Palace, where we ordered appetizers, entrees, dessert, and a whole bottle of wine. It was awesome. The first time you order a whole bottle of wine at a restaurant is an important life milestone, right?

2. Whirlwind Trip to Colorado
In 36 hours over Memorial Day Weekend, we drove to Colorado and back so that I could run the Bolder Boulder, and we also managed to squeeze in visits with our families, a short photoshoot, and  lunch with a couple of friends.

That's me in the blue, about to cross the finish line!

Running the Bolder Boulder was one of the best things I have ever done. Growing up, I was never very athletic, and when other people would talk about running the Bolder Boulder, I would always think, "I could never do that." When I started enjoying running a couple of years ago, one of the most exciting things was that I might be able to participate in the biggest race in my home state. After I ran my first 10K in Bellingham last October, I knew that 2013 was the year that I could do it.

After the race I was so happy to be sitting down in the shade.

And even though I was nervous about the altitude, and it was really hot, and I didn't get a great night's sleep the night before, I DID IT! Not only that, but I did it 19 minutes faster than I thought I would, AND it was FUN! I could write paragraphs about how empowered I felt and how quirky the race was (it is Boulder, after all), but for now I'll just say that it really is incredible to have a new appreciation of what I am capable of. And the free snacks and beer I got afterward weren't bad either. (Actually, the free beer was a Michelob Ultra, which is pretty bad, technically speaking.)

3. Our First Visitor!
A few days after returning from Colorado, Colorado came to us in the form of my brother Paul, who stayed with us this past weekend! He was our first visitor and it was really fun to show him around. We also spent a good amount of time in our house, playing with Zeezy, which he definitely appreciated.

Spoiled kitty.

We went on a hike, ate delicious food, played Settlers of Catan (Eric and I finally bought our own game!!), walked around the plaza, and saw an Argentinian band in the park for free!

Siblings!

Guess who won the first game of Settlers of Catan.

We also went inside the famous Cathedral of Saint Francis; it is HUGE and very ornately decorated inside. It was a little weird because half of the people inside seemed to be having a very spiritual experience, while the other half (Paul and I included) were just walking around the periphery, admiring the decorations.

Shrine to the Virgin Mary

Being there as a non-Catholic felt a little sacrilegious, but at the same time, this cathedral has a gift shop. Not kidding. Sometime I'm sure I'll write something more about tourism in Santa Fe, especially since tourist season is upon us. So stay tuned!

Now that I have written a novel, I will leave you with one more photo of Assisi:

"PLAY WITH ME!"