For the past month, I’ve been driving one hour each way every day from ABQ to Santa Fe and then on top of that working a twelve hour day. That didn’t leave much for doing anything except going to Starbucks every morning, high-tailing it to Santa Fe, working and coming home. It even hurt to stop and get gas . . . . which of course, I had to do quite often.

I noticed the beautiful countryside of the high desert on some days, but most days I was just inside my own head, hoping to get to work on time, dealing with lack of sleep or feeling a little miffed that I didn’t have any time to do any real life stuff. The beauty was surrounding me, but I never could be in the moment and actually enjoy it.

I will be going back to ABQ and most likely to Santa Fe as well at some point and I will enjoy all that the wide sweeping vistas of New Mexico have to offer. But for now, as I told myself while I was zooming away the hours on the freeway between ABQ and Santa Fe, constantly scanning for the numerous police cruisers that frequent the area, I am going to enjoy the lesson that my month long drive time taught me – - I have two whole hours of my life back every day!

Am I going to be working long hours in South Carolina? You bet your sweet shugar ass I will be. But the perspective on suddenly having two extra hours every day to do . . . well, whatever I want is not lost on me now. It is a gift.

I don’t want to jinx myself by proclaiming out loud what I will do with my new found time, but let’s just say that the results will show, besides I’m still figuring out the ‘what’ part. Case in point – I slept in this morning . . . . a needed and quite necessary use of that precious time.

My typical day this week has gone something like this:

I nearly get blasted by fire by a chef who’s flipping bananas foster and brandy under a big white tent in the high desert in Santa Fe.

I’m drinking Arnold Palmers and watching well-muscled men in metal angel wings walk past my office door while eating gourmet chocolate dipped strawberries.

LuLu the accounting dog hides under my desk whenever she gets in trouble.

And, last but not least, I’m forcing people to sign papers with a light up Winnie The Pooh pen.

No, I’m not at Burning Man, although it sorta feels like it. Life is good when work sort of feels like Burning Man.

The first time I drove into Santa Fe was last week. I noticed work crews of prisoners in orange jumpsuits picking up trash by the city roadside, in a heavy traffic area. A city bus pulled away from the corner, revealing more orange-clad workers, trash bags in hand, bending over.  And then all of a sudden, it was like slow motion. I watched one of the guys stumble and try to catch himself, but he just kept falling. I actually had time to think, “Oh my god, I think that guy’s gonna fall in the street!”

And then that is exactly what happened. I watched the guy fall – right into the busy six-lane divided highway - right in front of my car. Only thankfully he was up the street nearly a block, so by the time I approached, he’d already scrambled back up to the sidewalk.

It reminds me of the time I was riding my bike in Chicago under the Fullerton street exit off of I-95 . It was about 10PM. I was on a neighborhood street that sort of branched off from the on-ramp. I had to ride past the on-ramp entrance to continue down the street. And for some unknown reason, just as I rode across the on-ramp, I busted HARD and fast on my bike, a rarity for me.

The side of my face was all of a sudden lying flat on the smooth, oily pavement of the busy Interstate on-ramp and the wind was knocked out of me.  I actually had enough time to think to myself, “Holy Shit! I’m lucky that there are no cars coming at this moment!” before scrambling up and picking up my bicycle and getting the hell out of that busy thoroughfare.  

Well, I started a new job today (yeah, already!) on a different movie, this one in Santa Fe. I’m working with people I’ve not worked with in seven years! And I had the best day!

I really enjoy crunching numbers, solving problems, speaking the language of numbers. It was nice to remember that.

And I was thinking all day about how perfect my weekend in Los Angeles was last weekend. I quit my job on Thursday, flew to LA on Friday, flew back to ABQ last night, Sunday, and drove to Santa Fe this morning and began working again right away. Life just constantly wows me. Highlights of LA coming tomorrow.