Buckle up, you guys!

I've been traveling with four invisible vicarious companions on this solo trip. My parents love frequent updates, and my bosses want juicy details. Enquiring minds want to know, don't ya know? I feel like the star of my own reality show!

New Mexico

This is a new era. I can stand on a sand dune next to 150,000 year old volcanic rocks marked with six hundred year old petroglyphs while talking on the phone to my mom in Lincoln, Nebraska about my parents' dental problems and the funeral of their old friend. I can check back with Mike about the malfunctioning smoke detector while I empty sand from my shoes in the parking lot. I can nearly crash the rental car when the cell phone starts playing the Toreador Song when I am on the exit ramp from I-25 to Bernalillo. I'm into a very quiet journey, traveling solo, speaking rarely, listening to birds and rustling grasses. Even in my normal life I get discombobulated when I receive a rare cell phone call. I am the Maytag repairman of cell phone calls. Thank heaven the call is from my dear summer intern/assistant, so she understands that I am technologically challenged. Her news is great. She and her boyfriend are going to use the opera tickets that my parents couldn't. It will be fun to share the special occasion with friends, and it is a relief that I won't have to stand outside the box office trying to find a buyer. It's so amazing how everything is flowing on this trip.

Youch!

Checked in with my folks. Howie had lost an inlay. This is on top of Fritzi's root canal nightmare. I would have loved sharing this vacation with them, but am so relieved that this latest complication occurred back home.