Anticipation

I'm pretty excited.  I've been rummaging through our old travel clothes, checking out shoes, thinking about Laos and dreaming of THE TRIP.  I want to go everywhere in Laos.  Its hard to make a decision...Namtha?  Muang Sing? Sam Neua? Nong Khiaw? Do we fly?  Can we fly?  Or do we have to take a car or a bus?  Do we want to be traveling all the time or do we want to stay in one place and try to be a very falang part of that village for a few days?  Do we go someplace we've been before or do we strike out for someplace new?  And just how much energy do these old bones have left in them?  Its been 8 years since we first went to Laos and I have never lost my love of this wonderful country nor my desire to go back, go back.  This will be my 5th trip, Muzzy's 4th.  Its never enough.  Can we just bypass Thailand and go straight to Laos?  Hmmmm....

It's true! Mid-January, after the Christmas rush and blues, we are off to Thailand and Laos again. I look forward to being back in Laos, this time maybe heading up to Sam Neua although it is tempting to go back to Luang Namtha as I do love it so up there. We will visit Luang Prabang again. As taken over by tourism as it is, it is still such a lovely, gentle place, so beautiful. I love Laos and want to see more and understand more, so I think maybe a new area is on the agenda. I have no store to shop for this time and Muzzy will be coming along. It will be a whole new set of adventures.

Bijoux Trading Company

Its gone. The store at 1417 Cornwall in Bellingham is no more. With the help of my faithful and stalwart partner, Mr. Muzzy, we emptied the shop over Memorial Day weekend and stuffed the leftovers into our house. I spent the first week nursing my wounds, hooking up a new WiFi system, calling people to disconnect this and that, and getting ready to "re-invent". I have a small studio space at the Waterfront Artists Studios in Old Town and have been busily arranging the sewing room upstairs to accommodate and anticipate a bit of sewing. Who knows where this new path will lead? Hopefully more travel in our future. Certainly more writing. And if I can create even one of the wonderful ideas that are percolating around my head, I will be happy. In fact, this staying at home, going where I like, spending the morning in my pajamas is not so bad!

Bijoux Trading Company Reinvented

I am closing my retail store in downtown Bellingham. I thought I had already posted this on the blog, but after review, I didn't! So, farewell to the retail grind. I am renting a very small studio space that I will work in on my website and my Ebay sales, plus my writing, my jewelry and my clothing. It feels very exciting and it will be nice to not be burdened by the expense of a storefront. I will miss my customers very much, and I will miss carrying all the wonderful cards I have in the shop. What I won't miss is the worry about money, putting money into the store instead of getting some out of it, turning people on to wonderful things I find, and the fact that I have been in this building in some form since 1997. Now I have to get rid of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! On the positive side, when Muzzy and I travel now I won't have to concentrate on shopping for the store. I can shop for myself and I don't have to shop at all if I don't want to. That will be lovely. AND we can stay gone longer (and longer and longer). So if anyone who reads this shops in the store, come on in and we'll make a deal, or just come in and say goodbye and make sure I have your email so I can send you notices about my studio sales. Muzzy and I are off to Mexico this summer and back to SE Asia this next winter. I am already excited!

Tucson

I practically ran out of town on Thursday the 4th. The trip to Tucson was a little bumpy, but not bad and we arrived in Mesa where Annette's father met us. While not a whole lot warmer, it was dry and smelled dry and that was nice. Heading out from Mesa, Annette drove her father's van, which we borrowed for the weekend. She took the back road from Phoenix to Tucson so we could go across the desert. I could just barely see the outline of the Superstition Mountains as we headed into the night. Out the windows on either side the ghostly shapes of the saguaro loomed in the darkness. We stopped once to get out and look up into the night sky littered with stars. I love that communities in Arizona limit the use of streetlights because of the sky views. I have a limited knowledge of the night sky but I found Orion straight off and from there located the Seven Sisters. I was unsure about the Big Dipper. Can you see it from down there? As the weekend wore on it was obvious that a sense of direction is not one of my strong points.

We arrived in Tucson at Christy's little house and I was tired so I went almost straight to bed. A long day. Christy was up early to get ready for work. She made us each a latte on her espresso machine and after she headed off, Annette and I mapped our course for the Gem and Mineral Show. We had 2 shows in mind for Friday, the To Bead True Blue/Tucson Bead Show at the Doubletree Inn, and the larger J.O.G.S. at the Tucson Expo Center. We got to both though the second show was a little illusive. Our return from the J.O.G.S show required quite a bit of driving by the incredibly patient Annette. Luckily she has a better sense of direction than I do and after a few calls to Christy, we found our way home and saw some exciting sites too! I recall that I used to be able to read a map quite well, but the inability to tell north from south from east or west makes it really really hard. The map ended up on the floor of the back seat. Christy greeted us with margaritas and we walked to dinner.

If we had tried to pack any more into Saturday I think my head would have exploded. But of course, it isn't necessary to detail every hour. I think a quick list of highlights...
The Nacimiento at the Museum, installed in the oldest mud adobe house in Tucson. It goes up well before Christmas and stays into March or so. It is not to be missed. Done by an old woman, now assisted by family and friends, it is a nativity on steroids. Oblivious to scale, it meanders up and up with scenes from domestic Mexican life peppered with traditional nativity figures, donkeys, elephants, hidden devils, goats, pigs, chickens, wise men, angels, temples, tents and humble adobes. Mud adobes with thick walls, squat with smooth rounded corners, pots of cactus out front, hidden glimpses of courtyards hung with plants all painted in Easter egg colors, ochre, lime, turquoise, fuschia, red, gold. Arroyos, dry depressions running through neighborhoods and across highways with signs warning not to go through them when there is water. They duck under the flat desert with precarious overpasses perched on crossing highways. Barrel cactus, agave, yucca, the amazing saguaro and prickly pear which comes in many colors. I didn't know that! Strange trees and shrubs with mean spiny stems that rip and tear your flesh. Different birds, grapefruit trees, orange trees, lime trees, pomegranates and front yards that are nothing but rocks that people rake and plant with all the amazing desert flora. Really wide flat streets, the Santa Catalina's one one side and two other mountain ranges on two other sides. Sweet green corn tamales. Huevos rancheros at the Cup Cafe in the Hotel Congress. The Hotel Congress with newspaper clippings along the wall to the bathrooms that extol the legend of John Dillinger, the Congress's claim to fame. The old Rialto Theater across the street with its western sort of New Orleans architecture. The barrio, where mud adobes are not an anomaly and probably don't cost $500,000.

And the gem show. Well, since its the largest one in the WORLD, it is quite impossible to see all the venues. We touched on a small part of it but it was quite, hmmm, stimulating? I walked my butt off! Since I am a retailer, I didn't find any real deals, but I did see a lot of things in one place that I don't usually get to see. Silver sold by the gram and it was all over the map. I did find some fine old pieces, but I couldn't afford them. Parts of the venues reminded me of being in Asia, except the prices weren't as good. Some of the dealers were fussy and snotty, lots were friendly and fun. My big discovery was Sally Bass...if you don't know her work, you should. Its big, colorful, clever, fun and exciting. If I could I would carry it in my store. I also saw lots of ammonites, trilobites, crystals, geodes and an assortment of "troglodytes." In short, it was a great getaway. I'm glad I went, grateful to both Annette and Christy for helping me enjoy a short respite in the grind. Hope I get to go again. I am inspired and excited and ready to move into yet another phase of my life.

Shopping in Tucson

I can't deny that the local weather makes me feel like its spring, but I know in my heart of hearts that freezing temps could descend at any moment. All that aside, I am mourning the lack of travel this year. Mr. Muzzy is in a play and the best I can do is 4 days in Tucson for the Gem and Mineral extravaganza that I have long heard about but never visited. I have my ticket and a place to stay, so there will be at least 4 days of warm weather and different vegetation, not to mention aisles and aisles of goodies to look over. Mr. Muzzy will be performing that weekend, so it is a "girl's time". I like it. And on the horizon is a trip to Mexico, Oaxaca to be exact, later this year. THEN....I am going back to Laos and Thailand next winter come hell or high water...don't know about the rest of you, but that is where I will be. And as for poor dear Bijoux, its been a rough sea these last 5 years, especially the last 2, but I feel a change coming. I'm hot on the trail of the "fish waffle" pan I saw in Chiang Mai in 2007, and having lost some weight I'll be dusting off my phasins, moving the hooks over, and trying to figure out how to sell kanom krok and fish waffles at the Farmer's Market. I have joined a writing group and have begun to realize just how awful my poor Haight Ashbury memoir really is, but it gives me something to do late at night and early in the morning when mortality and time weigh heavily on my soul. And re-inventing is right up my alley...does the world seem crazier to you all too or is it just me? Politics in the US are just right out of my realm now. I think I have given up and will concentrate on my karmic future.