Blogging in absentia

I suppose it could be called 'journaling' if I actually wrote these thoughts down. But I guess it really comes out as daydreaming. Over the last couple months I've thought about a lot of things--traveling, education, family relationships, the state of the union, the state of the world, handcrafts, photography, growing up, teaching--the odd thing is that a lot of my thoughts turn to blog posts in my head. Not many of the blog posts in my head turn real-life, tangible blog posts.

Blogging in absentia takes on a new variety since I have an account on a widely used social networking site, yet hardly ever use it. With certain "upgrades" it happens that you only see updates from people that you more often associate with on their site. They are doing it so that the online sociality reflects reality, but the whole purpose is to stay connected with people that you aren't associating with regularly. I choose not to participate fully on that site, therefore with the quid pro quo system they've created, I am isolated unless I dive in and spend the time 'poking' people and sharing small talk on the wall. My blog, the one that you're reading at the moment, is not linked to that network, so is therefore somewhat isolated. I want others to read my thoughts here, so sometimes I post the link to a blog entry, but is that selfish attention pandering? I doubt it would work anyway, because of the isolation factor.

Here is a thought in praesentia. New Mexico is amazing. When we were in Spain we felt at home in the landscape. There was red rock, sparse greenery, mountains, plains, red tile roofs, dirt roads. Now that we are back it feels right to be back. There is something magical, and I know I've written about it before, about waking up nearly every morning to see hot air balloons all over the valley. The days are precariously hot, but it is worth every degree when the monsoon winds bring in storm clouds to play backdrop to a sunset. The wind picks up the smell of the living desert. Saturday I was doing yardwork and found a wild cactus growing. For real! And driving around the city is a tour of the unknown. We went jogging in our neighborhood and ran past an old Spanish mission. Perhaps, with all enchantments, the effects will wear off. But the complete randomness of moving away to Albuquerque a year ago and the trouble we had finding our place here has been worth it.