August 20, 2011

If you like chocolate and are looking for a snack,
try Fiber One Chocolate Fudge Brownies. Only
90 calories and high in fiber. Yummy!

This is Indian Market weekend in Santa Fe, probably my least favorite event on the Plaza. Thousands of people come to Santa Fe for Indian Market, but I haven't found the charm. The advertising (and we KNOW it's true) states that 1,100 Native Americans participate in the event. Most vendors have a six-foot folding table where they display handmade objects. The problem is that each Native American tribe – such as Navajo, Apache, Zuni – make the same products, so you see a lot of the same thing. Don't get me wrong, most of the items are beautiful, but imagine seeing the same color and design of pottery over and over again. If there are 300 vendors who are from Navajo pueblos, they all use the same color and design for their pottery. Some may be better quality than others, but I'm not an expert to know the difference. The first year I spent August in Santa Fe, I went to Indian Market and was on visual overload!

I had a visit yesterday from a woman whose grandparents lived in the casita when she was a young girl. She toured the casita and told me what was different from when her grandparents lived here. For example, the original kitchen was where the master bedroom is now. Where the kitchen is now was her grandparents' bedroom. And there wasn't a bathroom in the house. This was in the 1960s. The indoor bathroom wasn't added until much later. The private road the casita is located on has three other homes past this one. It was all owned by the same family and the children/grandchildren ran back and forth between the houses and played in the huge outdoor space. It was explained to me that it's a cultural tradition of Hispanic people to have their family live nearby. The woman's great uncle, who lived at the end of the road, had a picture on the wall in his house of himself with Billy the Kid. It was exciting to hear details about the casita's past, but more interesting to learn about the Hispanic culture.

Today I'm creating leisure time, not to go to the Indian Market, but to watch the Project Runway  marathon. Project Runway is one of my favorite shows and I didn't know it had already started it's new season. I need to watch the shows I've missed and then get the show dates and times on my calendar. As Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!"