No one said it had to be EVERY day. ;) Unrealistic expectations out the window! Day 5!

Day 5! Post a picture of somewhere you've been. Since I love landscape photography, this is gonna suck. See you in 30 minutes when I figure out which I'm going to choose.

This...is somewhere I've been. A lot. It's somewhere I lived. Well, not AT this overlook, but very near. This is in Los Alamos, NM.

Los Alamos was many things to me. It was a study in new things, survival, and isolation. I was at this overlook ALL the time. I used it as my own personal sanctuary to sit and think, to draw, to take photos, and to generally just sit in awe of where I lived. I could look across to see Santa Fe, over to see the waterfall flowing down from the cliffs....or just down to see the river winding through for what seemed like forever. I stayed for a whole sunset one time, just watching the colors change. I got caught in a crazy storm while I was sitting on open rocks over the canyon...that one was scary. The wind whipped up before the storm came and I was trying to get back to even ground, but I wasn't exactly sure when it was even safe to stand up. The storm had looked really far away across the mountains but it swept in really, really quickly. It was incredibly cold, I got soaked, and I still had a mile walk to the house. A mile's not that long until you're in the middle of a bad storm. But, honestly? It was pretty cool. Once I got in and safe, I thought... "wow, that's experiencing the power of a storm..."

And then there's this picture. I'm not sure exactly why I landed on this one today for this. On another day I'd probably pick a different one.

But I know exactly what was happening this day. This was taken on the day after I got out of the hospital when I had my sudden onset kidney infection. I'd gone to pick up my meds and was supposed to go straight back to bed, but I didn't. I know, probably not my best decision, but I wanted to go back and see it. I was feeling overwhelmed and scared and ...well, mostly scared, and sick, and I wanted to see something I loved, something that reminded me how amazing it was that I was there. How lucky I was. And with the snow falling over the mesas...it was great.

It was in December all this happened, and this was something I'd never seen before. Snow in the desert. It was going to be a totally new Christmas, maybe one on my own (though it turned out to be a two person, amazing Christmas enjoying new traditions and just taking it slow), and this was a totally new sight for me. I wanted to use it for Christmas cards for my friends, and I was too broke to do it.

So here it is, an early Christmas card to remind you that anything is possible. Even snow in the desert. ;)