Last Thursday my mother accepted a job offer from Johns Hopkins University to be a pediatric research nurse on a Apache/Navajo Indian reservation in Navajo, New Mexico. Plan A was: drive out tonight and arrive in New Mexico sometime Wednesday. In true Janice, (that's my mother's name and she hates it) fashion, she didn't leave as planned. Plan B: she will begin the journey west tomorrow. We'll see if this actually happens.
She also received a job offer to teach LPNs at a small community college in St Petersburg, FL today. I patiently reminded her that she hates Florida and would prefer to work with Navajo babies instead of young women who can actually talk back to her in a language she can understand.
The JH position is perfect, almost too good to be true. They are furnishing her with a house ten minutes from the reservation. She will be living in a town; population 900. Needless to say, there is not much to do out there but that's perfect for my Mom because all she does is read anyway.
My Mom has always loved Native American cultures. When we were kids she would buy us books about Native Americans or sit with us on the couch and flip through National Geographics, always admiring the different regalia worn by tribal dancers or the pinwheel hairstyles of young Hopi women. I inherited her love of and fascination for their cultures. This is one reason I minored in Native American Studies at BYU and took every opportunity to visit the Navajo/Hopi reservation in Arizona.
Besides, anything beats living in a nudist colony, right? Seven weeks ago I traveled to "Paradise" to visit my Mom and I couldn't even handle five days. Old geezers with schlongs hanging to their knees is not my idea of "paradise." My mom, although beautiful, would never participate and thus, never truly fit in. I'm not sure a 50 year old sassy blonde will fit in among Navajo and Apache women but anything beats naked old perverts.
Moving to New Mexico would mean, Amber, could visit for Thanksgiving and feast on Navajo tacos and fry bread instead of the traditional turkey and dressing menu we repeat at Christmas. Not that I'm crazy about babies, but I would love to see all the Navajo and Apache babies. There is something about their dark hair and eyes that melts my heart.
In crazy Mom talk, she said she was thinking about adopting one, which I will care for during visits. I asked her who would care for the unfortunate child when I wasn't "visiting." It was obvious by her silence she had not thought this far ahead. If the "babe" resembles the man in the above photo I'll "baby" sit anytime.
So, congratulations to my mother, one of the best RNs ever, embarking on an adventure that will take her from nudist to Navajo (New Mexico, that is).