Thursday February 10 ~ 2011

My week in Tucson, exhibiting at the Best Bead Show and teaching, was a great time, once we got there! Terri & I left Albuquerque at 10:10am on Tuesday morning right as the blizzard conditions were just hitting their stride. As we drove south towards Hatch, NM the storm only got worse and at times we were traveling through near whiteout conditions. The conditions cleared as we approached Truth of Consequences, NM and to say that I was grateful to finally set the cruse control and relax my death grip on the steering wheel.

Setup went smooth and we hooked up with friends for our favorite Shrimp Culichi. Wednesday was our 14 hour day and it was so freaking cold that the outdoors exhibitors and those in the tents had to close up early. In the years that I lived in Tucson, I had never experienced temperatures that cold.

The rest of the show days got continually warmer and those customers that had gotten trapped in the countrywide storm trickled into town and added to the fun. It is always so great to see friends that I only get to see just once a year for these few days and the show atmosphere adds to the enthusiasm.

Terri & I got to spend this past Monday exploring the To Bead True Blue, Pueblo and Riverview Inn shows before we started out trek home.

As always, it is wonderful to get home, snuggle with my grey fuzzy and sleep in our own bed. Spent this past Tuesday, being a totally sloth, resting from the previous week and trying to get a list together of all of the things that I needed to get accomplished before Friday

All during these few days home I have been totally absorbed in the demonstrations in Egypt. The news has been on almost non-stop since I got back to New Mexico.  I am amazed by the courage and determination of these Egyptians and the desire to fight for the freedoms that they have been denied for the last 3 decades. I am impressed that the people are demonstrating peacefully, policing the square themselves.

This evening’s announcement by Mubarak only continues to demonstrate the amazing amount of self-delusion that this man lives by. For some reason he just continues to believe that these protests will just fade away and everything will return to business as usual. He continues to try the same old propaganda, to try to blame exterior forces for causing this disruption and blaming the cable news media for inciting the hysteria.

I too, take off my shoe in disgust for this regime and yes… he must go!