FARM REPORT - ARMY SGT. FIRST CLASS LEROY A. PETRY

The city of Santa Fe goes all out when it comes to protecting and promoting the welfare and well being of it's youth. Children and education are tops among the many charitable institutions in the City Different. The Boys and Girls Clubs is a place where any kid in Santa Fe can feel safe and protected.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Fe held their annual Christmas Gala at Bishops Lodge on December 21. I was so privileged to be able to attend this event for such a worthy Santa Fe cause. Bishops Lodge is a breathtaking venue just a few minutes from the downtown plaza. A resort and spa, it is named for French missionary priest Jean Baptiste Lamy, the first Archbishop of Santa Fe. The property consists of buildings nestled in a hilltop. At Christmas the pink hued adobe at dusk topped with traditional iluminaria is an awe inspiring sight.
The celebration was all about the children of Santa Fe. There was the inevitable appearance of Santa and his place of honor giving out toys and bags of delicious candy. This is Santa's season and if he decides to make the party you can bet all attention is generally on him, this year the most important person in the room was Congressional Medal of Honor winner Army Sgt. 1st Class Leroy A. Petry.

Sgt. Petry, an alumnus of the Boys and Girls clubs of Santa Fe is the City Different's very own hometown hero. While in Afghanistan Sgt. Petry lost his hand in a heroic grenade incident. He now sports an amazing bionic hand which I was privileged to shake. The feel of his hand is a touch I will never forget.

Afghanistan is a word to most of us. Of course if you have a loved one in the military you are more intimately acquainted with events in that far away country but I would venture to guess many people would be hard pressed to find it on a map and only associate it with newspaper headlines and a CNN crawler. Sgt. Petry makes it real. A handsome and devoted family man, its hard to imagine the smiling face
that I see tonight with the pain, terror and trauma he and his family have endured.
He wears a dark blue uniform jacket covered with honors and medals. The Purple Heart hangs closely about his neck. So obviously a hero.

When I met Sgt. Petry I saw the future of New Mexico. Something very genuine and caring exudes from him. There is a special aura about him that is evident to anyone who approaches him. I saw a man of intense integrity and honesty. A man who cares deeply about his family, his state, and his country. The ball room of Bishops Lodge was decorated in the rich red hues of Chistmas. There were political dignitaries and contributors everywhere you looked and the dinner was scrumptious.

I sat with Sgt Petry's family and they told stories of a brother whom they obviously admire. They spoke of his sense of humor and his bravery. His mother's eyes as he received his Senate Proclamation were full of the pride of a mother, a look that is without question something every mother wants to have looking at her son.

Sculptor George Rivera, Pojoaque Pueblo Governor, is donating his time to create an interactive eight foot bronze of Sgt Petry that will eventually stand in Santa Fe.
It was a night of inspiration, pride, mariachis, and interesting people. I even got sit on Santa's lap!

THANKSGIVING FARM REPORT

I spent Thanksgiving in the anonymous atmosphere of a huge metropolis. The ability to walk through Times Square and be overwhelmed with the sensory perception of one's own skin with a million different colored lights reflected on the surface. The Godiva Store sells white chocolate covered strawberries in glittery paper cones while a street vendor hawks ten dollar handbags outside. This is the tasty essence of New York.

Broadway theatres, bistro chairs and tables in the middle of the street. You can have you photo taken with Mickey Mouse, Elmo, or a silver skinned Micheal Jackson. My eyes are overloaded with the eclectic beauty of it all. The artist in me wants to take the colors and embed them into my brain to be recreated later. Photos are useless; you must commit this scene to your memory and make the energy a part of your life.

A holiday star is suspended high overhead on an avenue of stores glittering with diamonds, five dollar pashmina scarves and LV knockoffs. I love New York. It is the Grand Canyon made of cement and steel. It is every imaginable type of food and dirty water hot dogs and pretzels on the street. Carmines for Italian, Rue 57 for French, and Virgil's BBQ and a seats at Ruby Foos for uptown Chinese that is so worth the wait!

Music is everywhere. The Carlyle, Smoke, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center or the steps of any subway station. I hear the music I love lit by a million glittering lights all over this amazing city. My rooms are on the 53rd floor on 57th. Across the street is new construction...this building will be 98 stories when it is done. I can look out my bedroom and see the work in progress. It will be fun to measure how much higher this new face of the canyon wall will be when I make my next appearance. I feel suspended in space. At dusk the lights begin to appear out of nowhere and below me, the turquoise waves of a roof top swimming pool are illuminated reminding me of the City Different. Morning finds me having a spinach and Swiss omelet at La Parisiene,meetings to feel out the William Morris Agency and a cab ride to see Alfred Stiegliz at MOMA.

Santa Fe has followed me here, just to subtly remind me of where I "LIVE WORK and PLAY". Over a dirty martini at Trattoria Dell Arte across the street from Carnegie Hall I meet the vibrant and beautiful Marguerite La Corte, Global Trend Tracker and Product Anthropologist. She tells me her Santa Fe story. In the City Different she purchased an Indian Corn Necklace. Enthralled with the vibrant colors of the corn, she lovingly transported this distinct local favorite home and stored it in her jewelry box amid her Cartier and Tiffany treasures. When it was time for the Corn Necklace to make it's New York debut, she discovered the necklace had deposited worms that were now living amid the diamonds. Taking her new inhabitants in stride she laughed, "...just goes to show you, don't wear food, wear diamonds...!"

In Princeton I am invited to a private concert. Among an elite gathering of Jazz enthusiasts, in the comfort of an absolutely awesome home filled with contemporary art, rare books, sculpture and an incredible jazz trio playing the music I love, I met Dr. Ferris Olin. Dr Olin is the director of the Institute for Women & Art at Rutgers University. When she found out where I LIVE WORK and PLAY, she lost no time in chatting me up about her daughter who is the bartender at the Rouge Cat. She has been coming to Santa Fe for years. It seems there is a fabulous house guest in my future!

Lunch with my Facebook Bestie, a professor of Egyptian History who lives in Bonn Germany. She is in New York with her charming 2 year old daughter doing some work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On turkey day I am with my children. We cook everything even remotely associated with Thanksgiving and pass out comatose with food overload! Let me not forget a casual and flavorful dinner with my editor Stasia de Marco. She is half of one of Philadelphia's power couples and treated me to a great fish dinner freshly caught on Thanksgiving Day. Sixteen days of east coast wonder with a bit of Santa Fe flavor sprinkled throughout.