After reading back through the past few posts it has occurred to me just how homesick I am for California. (Well, I suppose I've known this for awhile now.) I've lived in Tucson for a few years and although I've settled in; it has always felt like a halfway point of sorts. I find myself lingering in limbo between the Bay Area (my beginning) and Rochester (my goal of attending The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation.) I'm trying not to let the past few years of doctors poking & prodding, Xrays, MRIs, pain, and hospitals taint my impression of Tucson. There really is so much here...I was sincerely excited when I first discovered this part of the desert. It is quite beautiful...especially just after a rain. If I can just get past the Heat & Dryness here I think I can make it a little longer. The Winter skin dehydration factor is in full effect. NOTHING seems to remedy this issue-not even the slathering on of various nut butters in their purest form...I'm just short of trying Lard.
I've settled into a very old neighborhood in the heart of Historic Tucson. There is such a sense of community here-so much flavor. The adobe row house that I call home was built in 1903 and the woman who resided here before us lived to be 100+ years old within these walls. I discovered that one of my coworkers, at my previous day job, was a great grandson of the man who built this house for his family! (so nice to be able to see old family photos!) I love everything about this little nest; with the exception of mice in the clothes closet
(I carried them WAY down the street in a towel & was fortunate that they did not return), the drafts in winter and annual indoor fire ant brigade. It has definitely been an adventure living in an old building; something is always ceasing to work properly! The neighborhood has certainly found a place in my heart...it is a fine collection of old families, artists and roadside shrines. El Tiradito-The Wishing Shrine is just around the corner. It is said to be "the only shrine in the United States dedicated to the soul of a sinner buried in unconsecrated ground." The soil around the shrine is dark from the oil of many, long since burned, candles. People visit to place paper wishes within slots in the stone & adobe walls or to leave various symbolic offerings. Even though I am not religious I have always been drawn to the beauty & mysticism of places that people find sacred. So much to see and experience right here in my own neighborhood!
Kitchen Windowsill
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