La Bruja

Several years ago, Kelly and I joined our best friends John and Sabine, and our friend Juan-Macias for a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca is situated in the very south of Mexico, closer to Guatemala than the U.S. It's known for Monte Alban, the 300-700 (CE) Mixtec temple site, extraordinary naturally-dyed textiles, Day of the Day celebrations, and alibrijes - brightly-painted intricate wood carvings.

We have a lot of great memories from the trip: cramming 5 adult Americans ~ with luggage ~ and a Mexican into his Volkswagen Bug; waking up well before the sun rose to march in a saint procession; sampling homemade chocolates from a retirement community's Day of the Dead shrine in a cemetery (it was nasty bad); and me famously mispronouncing "how much is it" and instead asking a vendor, "how's the cheese?" (Hey, she knew what I meant!)

And then there's La Bruja - the witch.

One afternoon we were in the artisan quarter doing some shopping. There was everything under the sun from inexpensive tschotskes to brilliant pieces valued in the thousands. I was in one small store while Kelly was in another. All of sudden, Sabine came walking briskly toward me with a look of  controlled horror on her face. She braced my shoulders, looked me squarely in the eyes and said, "Don't worry, I'll help you talk him out of buying it."

Oh no. What in the hell was Kelly buying??

We hurried into the store just as Kelly was walking out. Seeing nothing in his hands, Sabine looked at me, raising her eyebrows in "bullet dodged" triumph.  When I walked into the store my gaze fell upon a splendid, eye-catching alibrije. I pointed it out to Sabine and said, "I love that!" To which she rolled her eyes and muttered something about Kelly and me deserving each other. 

We've loved La Bruja ever since. And Sabine was right, we do deserve each other!