I had the strangest dream early last Sunday morning. I dreamed I was in a house. It was apparently my house but it was so bizarre. It had levels upon levels and each level was a room. The rooms would have a floor and one or two walls but no ceiling, very open. These various room were suspended and connected by staircases.

It was as though the house was in outer space as it was dark all around and there was a thunderstorm off to the left side (ha ha, I'm laughing at myself as I type...who ever heard of "the left side" of a dream) When the lightning would flash it would light up a gorgeous purple velvet clouded sky.

In my dream I was running around trying to light candles in each of the rooms in case the electricity went out. Andrew was in one of these rooms. It was like "his" bedroom. And he was dressed in a costume...a drag costume. He was getting ready to go to a party.

I didn't have a chance to stop and talk to him because I was so busy trying to get these candles lit. They were hard to light and were flickering a lot even though there was no wind.

And then I woke up!

Andrew in 7th Grade
I have mentioned before that Andrew's father was in the National Guard consequently each month he would have a weekend where he had to report for drill. Andrew and I took full advantage of these weekends to go and do things that he and I loved.
We would go to museums and antiques stores (yes Andrew loved antique stores). We regularly went to Old Town (Albuquerque) where we would spend the entire day. We would visit the great shops and eat in the wonderful restaurants like La Hacienda where we would both faithfully order red chile cheese enchiladas.

Now about the time this school picture was taken Andrew and I had our best outing ever. We spent the day in Santa Fe. It was a day I will never forget as long as I live. We both dressed up and headed out early for Santa Fe. Our first stop was the Santa Fe Plaza where we visited the Georgia O Keefe Museum located in the Palace of the Govenors. Then we had lunch at the La Fonda Hotel. We dined on, you guessed it, enchiladas in the hotel restarant and were pleasantly surprised to run into old friends. Following lunch we went to Canyon Road where we spent the afternoon going from one Gallery to another feasting our eyes on all the art.

One very special stop was at what was then called The Fenn Gallery where we saw many works by The Toas Six impressionists. Andrew was especially intriqued by the sculpture garden.

We returned home to Albuquerque by way of Galisteo where I had lived for a time before getting married. Andrew and I stopped and visited the family of the young man I had once been engaged to. Gracious and loving people I still revere.

Andrew was always good compeny no matter what his age was. Even as a young boy he was intelligent and very witty. I enjoyed every minute I spent with him. Several weeks before he passed away he was here for visit and my best friend Jody and her husband were also at our home for the weekend. When the weekend ended Jody and Kevin had enjoyed Andrew and Jamie's company so much that they made plans to get together again. Andrew was very comfortable with any age range and could always hold his own in a conversation.


It was on this trip that Andrew discovered The Ventures. I had a "greatest hits" tape and he fell in love with the music. We played the tape over and over while traveling. After much debate we finally decided that Apache was the best cut on the tape followed very closely by Telstar.

Music was one of the many things I shared with my son..