Its still hot!

I can't believe it but it is still hot here. Usually it is in the 80's in October but its still pushing the 100's somedays, and 90's most days. I have been patiently waiting for fall, what we have of it, but my patience is running thin, by now.

Enough gripes about the weather. I am a creative person. By expressing my creativity in many ways it makes up for the fact that with my fibromyalgia keeping me from riding horses, playing tennis, hiking, camping out (and I mean out).

Camping out, hum, I'll talk about that. I love Nature. I used to drive 100 miles north every weekend to go to tall pine country in the White Mountains. I would take my photography equipment and sometimes even camp out on one of the Indian Reservations. The Apache have a reservation in the White Mountains, then further north are the Hopi and Navajo Reservations. I fell in love with the Hopi 20 years ago when I first came to Arizona. Indian life in the Southwest permeates the atmosphere. Since I am most familiar with the Arizona Tribes, including the Odom in Tucson at the beautiful 16th century church of San Xavier. Its called the White Dove of the Desert and has been lovingly restored inside. There are frescos on every wall up into the ceiling of 17th century iconic figures of Saints, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and is the oldest Catholic parish in Arizona. I have attended mass there a number of times. So sweet is the spirit.

The Hopi became my friends and I was invited to a Kachina Dance one weekend. I was one of the few white people allowed onto the high mesa which is the oldest continuously inhabited native american village in the United States. The stone huts now have TV antennas I admit but it does nothing to diminish the spirit of the Hopi. The dance was wonderful and meaningful and one day I will write an ariticle for you about it. I wrote one after my visit and it was published in Phoenix but I have no clue where it is now. Loving native americans was within me, my soul just communicated with the Hopi who are deeply spiritual people. Hopi prophets have predicted most major world events, yet their priests have never left the reservation.

Their holy places are call kivas. The men and young men prepare in the kiva before the dances with 24 hours of prayer and fasting. Then when they come out and dance, it is a prayer of Thanksgiving and they give out baskets of food and fruit. Like I said, some day i will write out the description of their dances and what they wore.

I always wanted to take my horses up there and just ride through Monument Valley and down to the Ancient Anastasi cliff dwellings and camp out for a couple of weeks ... just me, an Indian guide and my favorite horse Sheik a gray Arabian gelding.

My children have never had the same inclinations, though my daughter loved to ride if at night she could stay in a four star hotel. lol

Four years ago I lived in Wyoming doing a job, and I loved it. I took a job on a ranch, even though it was web work, I only took the job because the rancher had a big paint horse he said I could ride. So everytime work got too stressful I would walk sometimes through two or three pastures to catch the horse *Patchy* though I called her Apache which was a more dignified name I thought. I stayed there through the winter and it was the coldest place in all the state. But I loved it. After an eternity of too much sunshine sometimes, it was great. I left at the beginning of the summer for a trip to Ireland where I was going to write the sequel of my screenplay Daughter of Freedom, which a producer now has, however, has given me no notice of when it will be made if ever. These things take a lifetime to do so I may not get my Academy Award anytime soon, if not post-humously.

I stayed in Ireland for a month. I was supposed to stay there three months, but the weather in Galway City, where my apartment was, was too cold and wet for my fibromyalgia and I had to come back to Phoenix where I garaged my car. I decided to spend a week at Holy Trinity Monastery on retreat since while I was in Ireland I attended Mass almost every day. Ireland is very Catholic and it was familiar to me because I guess my ancestors came from Ireland and it was in my blood. On the way down there, however, I was involved in a serious car accident. I went through the side window using my head as a battering ram, and since I was unconscious the rest is blank except when they were loading me in the ambulance. So I had to stay in Arizona to recouperate, which took about six months. I was in rehab hospital in Tucson for three or four weeks then the casts didn't come off for another couple months. So, I never did get back to Wyoming and ended up buying a home in Mesa, where I live now.

I have for many years had a jewelry business and then several years ago started making jewelry. I suppose my jewelry making has filled a creative aspect of my life. I love the Southwestern stones of Turquoise, Azurite, Malachite, and peridot. I love unusual stones, stones of which I learn. There are usually new stones every year when I visit the gem show in Tucson which is one of the largest in the World. I am a gemologist but I only studied for my own benefit because I wanted to know everything I could learn about my passion, stones. My friend Lupe hates to go to the gem show with me sometimes, cause she says I look at every rock and ooooh and awwww over it. Then she takes me back to her house where I stay while in Tucson and points to her yard and the gravel. "There's lots of stones here for you to look at. You don't need to drag me all over Tucson looking in tents and every nook and cranny for rocks." Obviously she does not share my passion, but I love her anyway.

I have insomnia sometimes. I hate it and I usually lie in bed for a couple hours then give up and get back on the computer and play in Aelyria or write or do Ebay, etc. So this is one of those nights. I thought I would just blog and expose a little more of the face behind Joyau. Sweet dreams everyone!