My second week of 8 in New Mexico was just as great, if not better than the first. Luckily I’ve had my sweet momma here with me the whole time, keeping herself hiking and playing tennis while I’m at work. She makes me gourmet lunches and thinks of delicious recipes for us to make every other night. When we’re not making homemade flatbread pesto, fresh mozz, and sundried tomato pizza, we’re trying out local restaurants, filling our bellies with flat iron steaks, green chile, scrumptious drinks, and spicy mixes. 

   

  This is called a “Pepino Chilaca” and it has hatch green chile vodka, cucumber, lime, agave, and salt.  

My internship could not be going any better. Everyone in New Mexico is incredibly welcoming, chatty, and helpful. Everyone in the office wants to help me get my bearings straight and they’re eager to bestow every ounce of knowledge they have on me. For this I am so grateful, for I am learning at an exponential rate. 

  
  
Though my days are busy and my nights end around nine, enjoying this beautiful desert climate is not the same without gabby and dad. Luckily they will be here by the end of the month and we will venture back up to Santa Fe and maybe Taos. Thankfully I look forward to seeing these two soon, but waiting for my other two loves is much further on the horizon. I miss my best friends in the whole world, little Tita, Keegan (who has been rough and tough like a little bad boy!) and of course Connor. 

   
   Even though he is across the globe and far from my love, I know he is in an amazing place doing even more amazing things and impacting so many young kids and even adult’s lives. I’m so lucky to have someone bring their positivity and love to me (almost always). 

But for now, I’m enjoying more than anything just getting to know myself and getting comfortable with being alone. It’s definitely a challenge but I’m trying to welcome it with the most open arms possible. 

I have had some awesome adventures here, making hikes through the Sandia Mountains, enjoying my morning hour drive to Los Lunas, driving through the mountains to Santa Fe for the weekend, and seeing Luke Bryan at the Isleta Ampetheatre! 

   
   

   
           

Thank you for joining me throughout my journey this summer! If you want some real inspiration and another journey to follow, look at Connor’s blog, http://www.mindfulmindsets.wordpress.com 

Cheers! I’ll let y’all know how Santa Fe goes!