Taos

This weekend I am going on a much-needed vacation to Taos, New Mexico. I am leaving tomorrow morning and coming home on Sunday, so it'll be a quick little trip. Taos is very special to me...
-I went there when I was a pregnant teenager with my dad, stepmom and little sister. We stayed in a rental house with a broken down truck in the back yard. It was good enough and close to the downtown plaza. I remember buying a beautiful flowery dress on super sale, looking at lots of southwestern art, seeing petroglyphs, and eating eggs at some metaphysical cafe. It was a cool town, but I was there as a tourist.
-My friend Jamie moved to Taos a few years ago. I'd been wanting to visit her and found a good reason for a vacation when I got divorced. It was going to be a girl's weekend of support and nurturing. The morning I was supposed to leave Taos was hit with a major snow storm. I had to cancel my trip. Many months later I was able to carve some time and save enough money to try again. It was August, the weather was amazing, the drive was perfect, and Taos was wonderful. Jamie and I went to some bars, danced for hours, painted her living room (she wanted my help with the color), visited Ojo Caliente, went to a wild party at a gorgeous Earthship out in the middle of the desert (and mud wrestled!). It was a short trip, but it was long enough for me to fall in love with Taos. I grew up in Boulder and have never lived anywhere else. Part of that was simply because I couldn't imagine living anywhere else! But Taos was different, something clicked there and it felt like a second home.
This trip made me start dreaming about living in Taos, in an Earthship...
-My mom, daughter, and I went to Taos last year just before Christmas.  Again, it was a great trip. I went to yoga, we visited the Earthship Headquarters, crossed the Rio Gorge, ate the best chile rellenos I've ever tasted, visited galleries, soaked up the town. After this trip I knew, I know, that someday I want to live in Taos. It also changed my thinking about my pottery. It was shortly after this particular trip that I started my blog and opened my Etsy shop. I met artists and potters that were making it, and I realized that I could too. The photo of me for my profile was outside a gallery in Taos...
So needless to say, I am very excited to return. I'm going to see Jamie, take lots of walks (and photos), sketch ideas for new art, maybe even pitch some to the galleries (if I feel brave and bold), and feed the dream of building an Earthship and having a successful art business in Taos!