Santa Fe love

Apparently Santa Fe loves me, because two great things happened last night. My boss had me over for a barbecue with some other people from work, which was excellent by itself, but then, two miraculous occurrences:

1) I ate a hamburger and it was really good! I HATE hamburgers and the number that I have consumed in my whole twenty-three years I can count on one hand. I had one a month ago in Barstow at midnight on my way out to New Mexico, and that was only out of desperation because I was tired and craving protein and In-n-Out was right off the freeway. But this burger last night blew In-n-Out away. As my hostess said, it had a surprise inside! In the middle was a cherry tomato with goat cheese and basil, and it was tasty. I actually didn’t mind eating it to be polite!

2) As we were sitting down to eat, my hostess changed CDs, and I heard the opening chords of “Eye of the Hurricane,” by David Wilcox. I LOVE DAVID WILCOX! I cannot adequately convey my feelings of comfort and joy at hearing his guitar and expressive tenor voice. I own most of his CDs and have seen him in concert five times in two states. I have dragged roommates and ex-boyfriends to see him live, and even if they did not all walk away converted I’m sure they would admit that seeing him perform is good for the body and soul-- like wheatgrass but much more pleasant. As the Birchmere says, “Through yearning melodies and direct lyrics, [his songs] dare us to remember the promises we made to ourselves of who we want to be.” And now my new boss loves him, has seen him live many times, and tells me that he played a few months ago for free in front of a supermarket here in Santa Fe! She and her husband talked to him, and he said he likes to just play unannounced in public to keep up his street chops. Do you see why I love him? Perhaps this will help:

Tell the truth, explain to me
How you got this need for speed
She laughed and said "it might just be
The next best thing to love."

Hope is gone and she confessed
When you lay your dream to rest
You can get what's second best
But it's hard to get enough

--"Eye of the Hurricane"