The life of an ant:

A lil ROUNDUP baby!!

a little explanation:

I totally wasn't the only one who paid two dollars to sit on a nice navajo man's horse just to take a photo and feel like John Wayne. Two older Chinese women went before me.

I also chose to not to post the very choice photographs I took of these women getting on and off the horse. Those are for me to guiltily laugh at in the privacy of my own living room.

John Wayne, Tom Hanks and me.

Q: What do these three people have in common? Well, obviously beyond being very successful and well liked??
A: We've all been to Monument Valley!!!

And here is some proof:

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Traveling with Ruby.

Holy hell. The space is tight, and the steering rough, but the color is right and she's got a huge space in my heart. 

KKB+RUBY=LOVE FOREVER

Highway 96

One of the glorious freedoms of traveling by yourself is that you can do whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you feel like it. And if that means, pulling off the side of the freeway and then running through fields for that perfect shot, while looking like an idiot, then so be it. Because it's ridiculously freeing and fantastical.

Lunch date.

Step one: have lunch with club members at school.
So part of my new job is spending time with my kids outside of the club, and becoming more a mentor, less a babysitter. And I worried that the kids would be weirded out and not want to hang out with me. Ew! What the hell is Kylie doing here??!?!! kind of thing. But I got why it was important, so I told myself, "The hell with it! Quit being a ninny and just bring some stinkin cookies! Then EVERYONE WILL WANT TO SEE YOU!" And needless to say, the kids loved it. They showed me around their school, their friends, etc. And it wasn't awkward at all. Sometimes, sweets make your job/life/everything easier. And it really didn't hurt when I was leaving the school and overheard one of my most tender-hearted girlies say, "Oh yeah, that's Kylie. She's really nice. And if you start coming to the Teen Center, you get to see her all the time." And my heart grew to the size of a 40lb. chocolate chip cookie.

Roadtripping.

One of my most favorite hobbies, and newly accepted second job is roadtripping the southwest. So far it's been amazing. It's beautiful and slow and expansive out here and it's quickly growing on me.

Ruby.

I secretly love riding around town in my lil baby truck. Especially when I am surrounded by big ass trucks that could seat 12 and tow a great whale. 

Mesa Verde. (glorious)

Woah. Mesa Verde was a major thrill. I've had the plan in the back of my head to travel there for years. In my head it was a kind of desert Atlantis. And although the majority of my daydreams are much more ridiculous/beautiful/unreasonable than real life, Mesa Verde lived up to the hype. The weather was beautiful, the park rangers hilarious, and the fellow travelers both kind and exotic. 

Our lovely friend Jo inspired us/said it was okay that we walked the ruins in our bare feet. (To more effectively empathize with the ancestral puebloans that lived there more than 1,400 years ago.) And even dubbed us the "Barefoot Maidens." Needless to say, both Cassidy and I were quickly endeared and insisted on taking some photos with her. 

 

What a weekend.

It was full of random happenings, pizza deliveries, road tripping, ruin explorations, tourist watching, and a much needed photo partner. 

SANTA FAAAAAY!!!!

Santa Fe is the ultimate meeting place if you're a rich hippy artist who loves turquoise, blue tortillas and the desert. Aka: PERFECT FOR ME! Minus the fact that I am not rich or an artist. But everything else was glorious. My only regret is that I forgot to take a picture of my campsite. I got a new tent in ABQ and broke it in in the mountains southeast of the city. It was fresh, and green, and beautiful. Also, Beirut was constantly in mind, and played on repeat on Ruby's stereo.