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Here I go.  One more place, one more adventure, one more life.  I’m gonna miss all of the wonderful people Boulder has brought to me.   I don’t move for another couple of weeks but I’m already gone.

Goodbye Boulder.

So, being the bad blogger that I am, I just realized I haven’t blogged since BEFORE spring break.  So sorry.  During the first week of my two-week spring break, I went to Ohio to see my family and friends.  A great time was had by all and I got to get some baking and cooking out of my system.  I made a lemon mascarpone cake and chicken and spinach roulade for an early easter dinner since I was returning to Boulder the day before Easter.  I got to see some great friends while I was in Ohio; Sr. Kristina from the Brama Kumaris, Pastor Michael from the Science of Minds Church in Fairlawn, Raynard Packard the founder of The Packard Institute of Alternative Healing, Wendy, my best friend in High School, Sr. Lakshme of the Brama Kumaris and some friends of the family that I grew up with and consider aunts and uncles.

My second week of vacation was spent partly here at the farm, doing some planting and weeding, and the second half was spent in Northern New Mexico.  It has become unbelieveably clear to me that I am moving to New Mexico this summer!!!!!!!!! I have started the application process for the Transition 2 Teach program for the State of New Mexico to teach in high needs areas with at risk youth.  WOW.  I’m guessing that means that I’ll be spending a lot of time on an Indian Reservation….and I get the feeling it’s going to be The Navajo Nation in the north west corner.

I also recently found out that I have family in Farmington, New Mexico and have been invited to their place to crash to look for work if I so desire.  I am DYING to go!

Yup, it has hit me like a brick wall that it is REALLY time for me go leave the farm.  And speaking of leaving…..my buddy Michael Suko is done regrouping and is headed back out the door, aimed for China!  HE leaves May 24th and I’m SO excited for him!
That’s all for now.

3 days until my spring break officially starts.  THANK BUDDHA.  I am so needing some time away from the farm.  My plane to Ohio takes off at 6:00 this coming Saturday morning and returns next Saturday afternoon.  I’ve been spending lots of time in the green house transplanting things like Lemon Bergamot and Chamomile.  The pepper, aubergine and tomato seeds I planted are finally sprouting so that’s good news!

Not much more going on than that, except for figuring out how to get two carry-ons on the plane since the sucky airline I’m flying with CHARGES for checked baggage.  I will not be flying American Airlines anymore after this.  What a joke.  I’m lucky I can afford the flight, period, let alone another $30 so that I can take my underwear with me.  JEBUS.

The bad news is, I can’t seem to post pictures of Dorothy and the baby (JUNO!).  Oh well.  Sorry.   Happy Spring, people.

After planning everything by the full moon and not being able to see her milk bag get heavier because of her HUGENESS, I totally miscalculated Star Garden’s new arrival.  Dorothy’s baby arrived at about 6:00 p.m. Sunday, March 15th.  No tellin what gender the little squirt is but man is it CUTE!  Brown and white spots, sweet little face and LONG legs.  Dorothy’s owner, Lawrence, has yet to name the little bundle of joy but he came by yesterday to check out momma and baby.  All is well.  I was close enough to touch the baby but didn’t because I didn’t want to cause Dorothy any extra stress while she was tied up and being milked.  Evidently, Dorothy makes too much milk for one right now and I’m pretty sure Jeff is going to have to step up and pitch in on this little adventure.

Pictures to come!

So, a rundown of what has gone on lately…..

Judith returned from Tanzania with Terry so my 3-week stint as house-sitter extraordinaire is officially over.  AGAIN.  I fell in love with Judith’s big kitchen AGAIN and of course, her flush toilet that I ABUSED.  I got my kitties back from Jeremy, who had them while I was at Judith’s and they have officially disowned me.  Jeremy got them a new brush, new catnip, new toys….sheesh….makes it hard for a working mom to keep up!  He claims they both have their own cell phones now and and are his family plan.  Shit, I might as well give up now.  They will happily go back to his house for my week in Ohio next month.  I’m hoping to have some nice down time in Ohio with my family.  I’ll take dad and the dog for walks because I’m sure neither get out enough.

Star Garden is going well.  We’re settling into a nice routine and the kids have all finally stopped calling me the name of the last person that did my job.  They’re LITTLE!  It takes time for them to wrap their heads around things like what the new person’s name is.  And half the time they call all of us each other’s names because well….to be honest….they get confused easy, THEY’RE LITTLE!  But SOOOOO cute.

My latest realization is that my time is over at Star Garden and the farm.  I believe that at, the end of the school year, I will be moving on.  I see a Tibetan Buddhist Stupa, a nice Buddhist community, gardens and TRUE quiet in my future.  According to The Universe, I’ve learned some good lessons here and have like TWO more before I am ready to MOVE ON.

I have some other things going on but nothing I can share with you guys just yet.  So, my journey continues in a solo fashion.  I will miss everyone but that is what EMAIL and phones and plane tickets are for, yes?  I have the feeling that I am supposed to be relatively isolated for my next adventure but will be taking the kitties with me.  And by relatively isolated, I mean living out in true RURAL America.  None of this 5 miles to town crap.  And I have to admit that I am truly spoiled by not having to live within the freaky city limits of The Republic of Boulder.  The bubble proved itself full of jobs and resources but some of the people weren’t exactly nice.  Everyone I had the privilege of working for were SO sweet and kind but other than that, I’ve not been impressed one bit.

I was on a date the other night and my date pointed out something that I hadn’t thought of.  I’ve spent the last 15 years in lots of places where I was the only white face and in some instances the only English speaker and to be quite candid….Boulder is so white it’s dreadfully BORING to me.

SO, time to move on, kids.  I’m ready.  May and June are going to be CRAZY!

Where on earth did February go?  For pete’s sake!  I get tired just trying to figure out what the heck happened in the past 28 days!  So we’re into March and I just purchased my plane ticket to see my family for the holiday that makes little kids think bunnies crap plastic eggs with money and jelly beans in them.  Easter?  Seriously?  I’ve got less than 5 weeks until I leave for the midwest and I am so excited I can’t even stand it!  I’ll be seeing Kristina, fresh off the plane from India, Michael, pastor extraordinaire, and Wendy, my best friend from High School.  Of course my family will be in there but darnit, I refuse to sit in Seville and rot!  Okay Okay, I’m pretty jazzed for fish on friday at Bradley’s, I’ll give you that much.

Last week was a break down week.  I had an internal shift from Thursday to Sunday and now I’m feeling pretty good.

I’m good and ready for what’s coming next.  Don’t you worry.

As my first full month teaching at Star Garden rounds out, I am in awe.  I am amazed at my sense of belonging there.  The three of us agree that I have managed to fall right in and our intuitive group work is coming right along.  Working with gesture and eye movement is HUGE when you’re trying to keep 17, 4 year-olds quiet at the lunch table.  One word from any of us has the potential to release a torrent of chitter chatter about hair barrettes, what they got for Christmas, what their favorite dinner consists of and why they are rock stars.  It can be a little over whelming at times but teaching them quiet table manners is a challenge that must be taken seriously.  Some parents refer to us as miracle workers, some call us angels.

With February around the corner, I am thinking about more snow, more house sitting in the foothills, whether or not I am going to have the money for school or travel this coming summer, the development of my craft program for my afternoon acorns, what needs to get planted in the next 30 days and a visit from someone special who lives in Montana.  His visit is going to make my month if he can actually make it.  More on that later if he consents to being included in this fine blog.

Michael is doing well in Russia (which I fully counted on happening) and might be coming home for a couple months this summer to re-visa and possibly head to China.  What a HOOT!  I am living vicariously through him this year as my itch to travel keeps resurfacing without the funding to make it happen.  I miss the girls so badly and want to go back to India as soon as I can afford it.  I even have someone that wants to come with me so that would be a nice change of pace.  I’m so used to doing things alone….

Welcome February…..I’ve never been so happy to see you.

The weekend is coming to a close and I am now looking forward to week number 3 in my new life.  How exciting is this?  Friday night I did a Liver Flush (number 2 in a series of 4), Saturday, Jeremy and I went to the National Stock show in Denver, Saturday night was spent at home resting from the liver flush and Sunday was working in the garden.  We were given some coconut shell compost from a nice person so I weeded the fallow and turned some into it.  I also worked on getting old carpet up and getting new carpet in place.

Keiko is attached to my side tonight.  Every Sunday is the same.  I spend a lot of time at home and she ends up being my little shadow.  By Sunday night, she’s stuck in the chair with me at all costs and being BOSSY.  I swear.

Why can’t she take lessons from her fat, lazy brother on how to be TOO BIG to share my chair….

Have a good week.

One who is on the way but has not yet arrived, yet flashes learning and runs off at the mouth with intellectual understanding using eloquence and sharpness of tongue to gain victories, is like painting an outhouse vermilion. It only increases the odor.

Yesterday, my entire neighborhood was evacuated for a fire.  It started as a downed power line over the first major ridge of the foothills and came down the hill like a freight train, straight for us.  The wind had other ideas.  ANOTHER fire was reported to the east of us and took out a barn and a house at a llama farm.  All in all it covered about 6,400 acres and only took 4 structures.  It stopped across the street from us……of all the strange things.  The 100+ mph winds made the fire burn fast and furious to the south east and it ended up heading straight for town.  36 was closed as were the back roads to our house because of the llama farm fire.

My car was in the shop and I managed to get her back last night to the tune of $1,572.00.  He said he had to do the 180,000 service on it just to get it back together so he just did all the work and told me to pay him what I could.  He is perfectly okay with me just owing them until I can pay the rest.  Between the magnitude of the work on the car and the fact that my home almost went down in flames with the kitties in it made him feel kinda bad for me, I’m sure.  I got calls from Jeremy, Steve, Brendan and Ruthe all offering a place to stay as well as a call TO Judith making sure she, Terry, Kate and their animals were safe.  The guys all tried to make it to the farm to retrieve the kitties but the fire marshalls were pretty adamant about nobody getting through.  I spent most of the day with the family, cleaning up the farm.

What a day.  I’m off to bed early.  My first week teaching has been a little crazy?  Thanks to Jeremy for coming to get me and giving me a place to lay my weary head last night.  Dude, yer sofa kinda SUCKS.  But that whole beggar/chooser thing kinda got in the way there.  Thank you to everyone that called to make sure I was alright.  I wasn’t, but I’m a good liar…..NOT.  Thanks to Steve for also trying to get the kitties for me.  Thank you to the guys that fixed my car and let me take it without paying the entire bill.

Tomorrow…..TURKEY MEATBALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY!