...a girl after my own heart.

I don't know about you but I've got a list of people in heart. Some of them are people I know well and see often, some of them are people that I know well and don't see so often, and some of them are people that I don't know well and never see. There is a list of people in my heart that makes my world better just by knowing that these people occupy space on this planet. I draw great comfort in knowing that they are out there walking this earth and living in this same time frame as I am.
Jessica Shuman is on the list. I experience great joy and comfort in her being her at the same time that I am being me in this lifetime. She is a ham (of the vegetarian kind). Jess was our neighbor when we lived in Tucson. She was a student at the U of A. She's still the same vibrant woman now as she was then. We all got together one night for dinner and we had the opportunity to meet her boyfriend, Marco. As Jess would say he's...good people of the earth.
We met Jess at her "new to us" home. Jess bought a place near 4th Ave. a few years ago. She wanted to get a place in the Barrio but Tucosn real estate went through the roof about 4 yrs. ago and her home now was a good compromise. It's a sweet adobe style bungalow. This is her kitchen.
She did all the counter tile work herself. Wow...it's beautiful.
Jess is an artist, activist, and kindergarten teacher. She has 21 cats at her home. 6 of them are hers and the rest are up for adoption. This is Xan and Artie with just the tip of the iceberg.Jess traps feral cats (of which there are a huge amount in Tucson) and takes them to be spayed or neutered and then releases them to where she got them from. Artie spent the night with her and went on some midnight cat reconnaissance. I have a feeling that it was a true adventure for her.
These are pictures of all of us having cake over at a place on 4th Avenue (our old stomping grounds). The cake was enormous!!
As were eating Jess said that she remembered all the cakes we used to make for the "Taste of Chocolate" event that was put on to raise money for the Arizona Right To Choose. What memories...that was when I had my baking business and I baked for restaurants in town. We used to make these enormous cakes and displays for this event and for every entry we did we had to provide 500 samples for people to try. We made chocolate bread, white chocolate prickly pear cake, brownies with green chilies and all sorts of other stuff. No wonder Jess hung out at our house...a girl after my own heart.