What a beauty

Starting up the ol' bloggity blog again. I feel like I am only really good about my blog when I am traveling. We leave in about two months for tour, so I'm going to try to get the blogging routine back in my bones. Which means this will be a nothing blog. A blog about my everyday life and thoughts.

How are things since I last blogged?
Things are pretty good.

Last week was Aaron and my 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Say what? That is bananas. At the wedding Aaron wanted to have shirts that said "Juli and Aaron May 13th, 2006" on the front and "I give 'em a year." on the back. I told him no (he also wanted to sell them, I mean, seriously.)
We made it 10 years! More in love than ever. He's the greatest thing in the whole wide world. I'm a lucky duck.

We went to Jemez Springs for a few days for our anniversary. It was awesome. We took the pup and just relaxed and hung out.

Here is Shudek relaxing on the hammock. It's hard to be a sausage.

Fenton Lake.

If you are reading this blog and you know me, you know that I am a combo of two things: adventurous and clumsy. I often injure myself while adventuring. It's a boring story that didn't actually happen while doing something crazy, but on Thursday I hurt my eye. I tried to ignore it because it was my anniversary trip and I didn't want the trip to be ruined. However, it got so bad that on the morning of our actual anniversary, I woke Aaron up and told him he had to take me to a doctor. He looked at my swollen, red, gross eyeball and agreed. 

After a few u-turns and on the verge of tears (me, not him, he is used to this) we found a health clinic in Jemez Pueblo. I walked in the first door I saw and explained that I was on vacation with my husband and something was wrong with my eye and I needed a doctor. 

The lady at the desk said, "Do you want to see our eye doctor?" 

Are you kidding?

I said, "Yes, do you have an eye doctor in today?"

She said, "Yeah, he came in today to do paperwork. He's right there." She pointed behind me. 

He saw me immediately. 

He dilated my eye and did a bunch of stuff with the giant alien machine and then he told me that I had massive trauma on my eyeball. There was a half moon cut on my eyeball that went really deep. It had also become infected and I now had Iritis. He gave me steroids and antibiotics, told me that I should take a week off and rest my eye (are you kidding me?) and come back and see him in a week. He gave me his cell number in case it got worse while we were in Jemez. He told me it was REALLY BAD and he would make a house call if needed.

Jesus.

We did take it easy. The cabin had a giant whirlpool tub for two and a hammock outside so...

Relaxing.

Battleship Rock. I love a rock that looks like a ship. 

Today I had to go back to Jemez Pueblo and see the doctor for my follow up. I took the day off from all work related things and left this morning at 9am. The "gaping gash" (as the doctor lovingly called it) has healed. He is a little worried that it might scar so I have to keep using the steroids for two more weeks. But all in all, things look good. 

All better! That weird stuff is dye. Also, I used to do my makeup like this in high school. 

Yellow eye shadow that made me look sick 'cause, you know, I was a New Waver.

That long, boring backstory is to tell you this: I had to take the day off and go back up to Jemez and DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FUCKING BEAUTIFUL NEW MEXICO IS?

I just forget. Or I remember everyday but I forget to really feel it. To really see it and appreciate it. When I travel elsewhere, I take a hundred photos and write blogs about the magic of Prague, the green of Seattle, the charm of Krakow, the aliveness of Belize, the gorgeous light in Uganda, the brightness of Cozumel, etc, etc. etc. but I don't write much about the sheer beauty of New Mexico. What a lovely state this is.

Oh the sky!

I felt it was fitting to restart my blog, which is basically a travel blog, with an entry about the magic of home. I drove to Jemez Pueblo and the rocks and mountain ranges were just so beautiful. 

Red rocks!

The people at the clinic (both before and today) were warm, kind, and brilliant people. After my follow up appointment, I went into the town of Jemez Springs and paid $20 at The Giggling Springs to soak for an hour (I mean, if you're going to take the day off, just do it) in the natural hot springs that sit next to the river right in town. 

 It was hard to take a face selfie.

 Giggling Springs

Jemez River

On the way back I stopped by the side of the road near the Walatowa visitor center and ate an Indian taco (most of one, those things are HUGE!) Fry bread is so yummy.

Delicious. 

I drove home, listening to music, thinking about the upcoming show I am directing, and stopping to take a few pictures. 

No filter. Zero. Nada. It just looks like that. 

 Okay, I used a filter here. 

There has been a lot happening in my life. There are changes and exciting new things. Some things I am a little unsure of. Some things I know for sure. Such is life. Maybe the next blog I'll talk about that stuff. I'm looking forward to the road ahead. I always am. 

We live in a beautiful world. Yeah we do, yeah we do. 

 New Mexico

Seawitch