Some days just shine....

Some of you (ok, really there are only like 3 of you anyway) may wonder what the "independent contractor" part up there Ý in my banner means. Fear not, dear readers. I am not a Mary Kay consultant. Or Pampered Chef. Or Quixtar. Or Amway. Or...anyway, you get the picture. My husband however sells this stuff called Mannatech tho'...I LOST 4.25 lbs over the holidays. Email me if you want to know about it..I digress. What I AM is a Notary Signing Agent. This is a fancy way of saying that about 4 years ago I got my notary commission so that I could notarize camp forms for kids at church. In NM it's pitifully easy to become a Notary Public. Basically, you pay a $20 application fee, purchase a bond for $50, get some unsuspecting upright citizen to vouch for your character and you are good to go. Then I hung out my sign (virtual sign on the internet) as a NSA. As a Notary Signing Agent, I get assignments from different title companies all over the country. I either print out loan documents (typically refinances or reverse mortgages) or they are overnighted to the borrowers' or my home, and then I go to the borrower's home and assist in their loan signing. "I am not a lawyer or attorney. I need to disclose to you that I am here to act only as a witness and courier, and had nothing to do with the preparation of your loan package. Should you have any questions about your loan, you will need to contact your lender."

Yesterday I got a call to do a signing today near a town called Ramah (pronounced RAY-Muh), NM. Ramah is about 135 miles from Albuquerque. In the flat out middle of nowhere. I drove west on I-40 for about an hour and a half, turned left and drove about another hour....then I turned off the main road and turned off onto a dirt road. Well, a mud road. At least it was mud for about a mile. Then it was icy packed snow for the next mile and a half. It sounds terrible. It wasn't. The ice just GLISTENED. And the home? A beautiful custom adobe home. This was the view out their living room window:

(sorry, this is a cell phone shot and it just doesn't even begin to do it justice)

The gentleman showed me a large basket that was just filled with potsherds from the native Zuni, Laguna and Acoma Indians that had to have been hundreds, if not thousands of years old. He picked them up out of the pasture just to the northeast of his house. Being trampled on by cows after summer rains and spring thaws. He's been picking them up for about 7 years. Now, how cool is that, I ask you.

The drive there and home was a delight. Best of Eagles CD played at top volume. I know pretty much every word. I wailed on it, too. I was glad for Ted's Jeep with the 4WD..I needed it for that road. Bigredtruck is a 2WD and would've been slip-sliding away...and I didn't bring any Paul Simon CD's....I have to get his Jeep washed now, tho'.

Anyway. I had a shiny, great day. Got paid well. Got to see some of God's best handiwork. Got to listen to my tunes, totally uninterrupted (no cell service out there, friends). It was a good day.