Trader Joe's & Bonanza Ranch

Okay, so if my typing is more confused than usual, it is not my fault. I just had a Mexican meal and the strongest Margarita of my life. I am wondering if there was anything non-alcoholic in the drink. It was lethal. Here's how it happened. I got dropped back to the Campus after our shoot at Bonanza Ranch and then thought, what about dinner? We are staying in an isolated Monastery in the back of Santa Fe which is great, unless you are feeling peckish. Problem solved. There is a house Mum, called Carolynn who offered to drive me to a local Mexican restaurant called Maria's. She also kindly offered to pick me up bring me back. Well, I ate and drank at warp speed. If I had my camera, I would have tortured you all with an image of what I ate. Let's just say it was a mixed platter of heavenly Mexican creations and a monster sized margarita.

Then Carolynn took me to Trader Joe's for supplies. Lesleigh, I am converted. I stocked up on yummy snack bars, yoghurts, wholemeal crackers, vegan trail mix cookies and vitamin C to prevent colds in this snow and ice climate. I found a bottle of Montana Sav Blanc (re-branded over here as Brancott) to give to my lovely friends from Iowa who have been driving me around town. They are very keen on wine and I think a Kiwi wine is just what they would want. Please no-one tell the Carmelite nuns that I have contraband liquor in my room. I bought some Edamame hummous- can you even believe such a thing exists? I told Carolynn she was a saint for being my chauffeur and I am taking her out to her favourite Asian restaurant called “Ginger” tomorrow night.

I love Trader Joe's for its wide range of produce but I mostly love it becase the guy at the check out asked for my ID. I was amazed and was I joking about how I am 36 years old. He said that if someone looks under 30, then he always asked. I should move to America for the ego boost and the produce. At dinner, an older man (mid 60s) was leaving the restaurant and he came over, introduced himself as Sam, saying “You are really pretty”. Yes, the old guys like me.

Today in class, we went over our work from yesterday. Raul liked my photos of trees reflected in puddles. We started working on flash photography, which was a lot to take in. In the afternoon, we photographed up at Bonanza Ranch about 20 minutes drive away. It is still used as a movie set, comprising of a Chapel, house and barn with big wide open spaces. We had 3 models to photograph. The brief was to use the flash units to light the model and make the most of the scenery in the background with a wide angle lens. I think my work was okay, but it is going to be a steep learning curve.

I will try and get some images up on Flickr tonight. The thing about staying at an isolated Carmelite Monestry is that the Internet is so slow, which limits my uploading capacity. I am officially entering a food coma state now and I need to do another hour on my images tonight so farewell for now. Love to y'all from New Mexico.