Pleased to Meet You

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This month we meet one of 3 Story’s new contributors, Rachel Miller. Her blog Love Letters to Tucson invites people to write about what they love about the city. And since 3S is all about celebrating Tucson, we thought it was a perfect match. You can read the latest Love Letter in our Et Cetera section in this issue. By Gillian Drummond.

Early bird or night owl? “Both. In my perfect world I’d be getting up at 5.30 am and taking a nap at 10.30 till 2, and then staying up till 1 am. I really need a solid six hours, but then I need a nap as well. Because I have a two-year-old and a six-year-old that doesn’t happen. I just get about five hours.

“I love the whole European siesta thing. It makes sense especially in Tucson where [in the summer] you’re up and wandering around in the heat.”

Favorite accessory? “I have a few belts with buckles made my friends who run Velvet Glass. The one that I really like has a buckle that’s a piece of Italian glass, hand-cut. I love it because it’s one of those things that’s actually locally made.”

 Favorite faux pas? “My husband, Doug, and I were at a friend’s wedding a few years back. They had a beautiful backyard wedding, pretty much a DIY thing and a pot luck, and Doug and I were helping out in the kitchen. Someone came in and said they were hungry and asked if there was any bread around. We said we’d seen some bread out in this guest house area and told them, ‘Just go and get that, it’ll be fine’.

“After the ceremony there was this speech by a parent of one of the couple – the blessing over the challah. They reached for the challah bread and it had a nibble out of it. I’ve been racked with guilt ever since.”

Who is your dream Love Letter contributor? “People who come from across the Tucson population. What I’d like to do more of is someone that presents a different demographic than usual. I’d like to see more focus on particular places or particular Tucson events.”

If I wasn’t hosting Love Letters to Tucson I would… “I would do another project of some kind, like spending time with something community-based. I’d need to do some project that I feel the community would benefit from.

“My parents were really involved in politics. I grew up in Liverpool, England going to demonstrations and marches and having political meetings at my house. And it was all based on the premise of ‘What can you do to make your world a bit better?’ I have this hope that Love Letters potentially has some positive impact for the community, albeit small.”

If I could change one thing I would… “Have people have some empathy for one another. Then I feel a lot of the issues we fight about would go away. I feel like that with Love Letters. Because it’s seeing Tucson through another’s eyes, maybe you can understand a little better or feel some commonality with someone who might have completely different views from yours.

“Love Letters pushes me to do something that challenges me. I’m not artistically inclined and it pushes me to at least think about it. It’s challenging my boundaries and my confidence. It’s about me getting to meet members of the community that I wouldn’t otherwise get to meet, and having enough balls to take a picture of somebody.”

* When not hosting LLtT, Rachel uses her science and health education background as a social media consultant and writer for TMC for Children and TMC for Women.

* This month’s Love Letter to Tucson is from artist Mary Theresa Dietz. Check it out here. For more on Velvet Glass, read our feature, Poly Pop Art.