Putting things together and old beat up trucks

So on Monday I gave my notice at work. My decision has been met with first a look of disbelief and shock and then a reaction of amazement and curiosity. In recent years the Peace Corps seems to have been forgotten. I never heard it mentioned once in college and it is not pushed or advertised like it once was when I was a little girl. I suppose that since we are so busy conquering and blowing up the rest of the world the US government does not wish to promote a program that creates bonds, educates and promotes social justice and understanding.

I have much to do to get ready for leaving. I have to sell a lot of my belongings and get all my affairs in order, which included giving power of attorney to my mom and creating a living will. Mostly though I wish I did not have to work these last few weeks at my job. It is really stressful there and there is so much going on it is crazy. I have so many other things on my mind and work is now a distraction. Soon though I will be finished there and I can concentrate on going home.

My mom is coming to San Diego to help me pack and move the first week of May and then we are going to drive home to New Mexico. Thinking of New Mexico makes me a bit homesick. I have never felt home sick before but that is probably because I was just a short trip away. Soon I will be on the other side of the planet. New Mexico especially the north which is where I am from, is absolutely beautiful. It is sparsely populated and is wide open country as far as the eyes can see. To the north are is base of the Rockie Mountains we call the Sangre de Cristos because when the sun sets it bathes the range in blood red light. Sunsets in New Mexico are ledgendary and every evening is like a show with slashes of red and blooms of orange and violet and blue and soft petal pinks. Sunsets in New Mexico make you cry. People are friendly and there is the small town feel in most places. The landscape is amazing as well with fertile valleys next to the Rio Grande and mesas and hills dotted with pinon trees. I miss my home. The capitol city of Santa Fe, where I was born, is beautiful as well. It was the Spanish capitol during the colonial period of our history. And it is the oldest city in the Union. Sorry East Coast people but the Spanish were here a hundered years before the Engish landed at Roanoak and elsewhere.

Santa Fe is worth seeing and is second in the art market only to New York city. Art and culture abound and the food is outstanding.... if you can handle hot. The other thing I love about New Mexico is the old beat up pick up trucks that everyone drives. The older and more beat up the better especially old Fords. You see old trucks every where. People work them in New Mexico. I infact have an old truck and I love it. I am a truck girl. The other thing you see a lot of is old rusted trucks in fields of flowers. Just sitting there peacefully among the bees and grass and pinons rusting away.

Soon..... home..... then to another place of wide open spaces.

M