Expounding

So yeah. Yesterday I drove down to Fort Huachuca to visit our friend T, who was taking some classes. This was his last weekend in our neck of the woods (he and his wife live in San Antonio).

We'd been talking for months about visiting Tombstone and doing some hiking in the area, but the weather has been (relatively speaking, of course) remarkably bad here for the past couple weekends. Rain or shine, we decided, this weekend we'd do it. R stayed home to do Christmas stuff sans me--it was his only opportunity, since I'm here *all* the time!

Tombstone was kind of a bust. I don't know if we were missing the good stuff--maybe it's further off the beaten path--but it just seemed like an out-of-control kitsch market. There were historical markers and information, but they seemed few and far between. And completely overrun by the cheese. Perhaps I should have done more research. We walked around for a bit, saw a silly gunfight show, got handed eleventybillion flyers, and hightailed it back to Sierra Vista.

The photo in the previous post is from our trip up Carr Canyon. We drove a goodly portion of the way, until it became too icy. Yes. Icy! There was a bit of snow, and the air was thin and so so cold--it was wonderful. You see I broke out the stocking cap hat for the first time in over 3 years. I also got to break out the cozy wool socks and my underarmour. It was a great day. There are some actual trails up this mountain, so if T makes it back for another round of classes, I think we'll try those. But for the first excursion, the scenic road was really spectacular and a good appetizer!

Here are a couple more shots from the day--check out the Flikr badge to the left there if you want to see more.

Snow! OMG! Water! OMG!

Went for a trip today. It was much pretty. And there was snow! And A Creek!

More to come....

<3

December First. The Holiday Season is half over! We've survived Halloween and Thanksgiving, and have Christmas and New Years to weather yet. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to not be working retail during this time of year. My stress levels have plummeted, although I do miss seeing all the fun new stuff and having extra money to spend.

Haven't gotten out with either of the meetup groups lately, although our family did go to Sedona on Black Friday for a Pink Jeep Outing. (See the flickr badge on the left there for new photos.) It was my brilliant idea to take mom and dad up to Sedona the day after Thanksgiving and avoid the hordes of people out shopping here in Phoenix. It was a great plan, in theory. Unfortunately, aproximately 90% of Phoenecians had the same idea. The main street where the tour met up was packed with shoppers and tourists--we had to park blocks and blocks away. And it was COLD! Hats and gloves weather. And hot chocolate. It really was an amazing trip, though; I wish we could have spent more time *in* Sedona, but we were all frozen to the core by the time we got back from the Tour. It was all we could do to haul ourselves to a soup and sandwich shop before hightailing it back to the warmth of the car heaters.

The folks got here on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and left the Tuesday afterwards, and I mean it when I say it was too short of a trip. I'm not sure why, but it seemed to pass very quickly and I wish they'd have stayed longer.

We had another houseguest over the weekend as well, a friend of ours who is in the military and is temporarily stationed down by Tucson for some classes. Now that he and my folks are gone, and R is back to work it's very very quiet in the house. I spend a lot of time talking to the dogs, and the oblige me by responding in whines and wookie noises. It's not the same as human interaction though, so I may just have to spend some more time (window) shopping over the next few weeks, just to get my human interaction fix.

And OH! Look:
I just took this photo out of the loft window here at the house!

It rained yesterday for no less than 7 hours--practically non-stop! It was glorious. It was all dark clouds and gloom and flooding in the streets, and although we are supposed to have showers all day today, the wall of blackness is breaking up, and we're getting wonderfully fluffy cumulus clouds. I'm not sure if I've ever seen these here before. It is still raining off and on, which is just fine with us. We rarely get to experience *weather* here, so it's a nice change. Break out the hot cocoa and chili--this is about as winter as it gets!

Wherein I Demonstrate My Skills Of Poing, and the Rewards Therein:

These are the mysterious keys I found as a result of washing a shower curtain this morning.

Bear with me, this is a twisty ride. . . .

My parents are coming to town tomorrow for Turkey Day and other Festivities, so of course I have cleaning to do. I was working in the kitchen when R left for work, so I left my sink-scrubbin' for a moment to run upstairs and grab the shower curtain from the extra bathroom (we're on an energy-saving(s) plan that gives us a discount if we focus our energy consumption between 9pm and 9am, so I needed to get the washer goin).

Our washer and dryer are in the garage, and when I went out to put the curtain in the wash, I saw that the garage door wasn't closed (note to self: tell R his garage door clicker is out of whack). "Well" I though cleverly to myself, "Since the garage door is already open, I should move my car to the center of the garage so I can access it more easily when I clean it out later." I'm ever so efficient, you know, not wanting to have to open the garage door twice when once would do.

I moved the car, and realised that with all the crap in the garage I would not be able to pull up far enough to A) close the garage door and B) get *around* the car to clean it. "Hm. Well, why not just clean it out right now, while the garage door is open?" So I did. I really only needed to clean the trash out of it and give it a vacuum, but after I moved it I saw that the wee bit of armor all I'd wiped down some surfaces with yesterday had really made a difference. Enough of a difference that I figured I needed to finish the job to even it out. And as I did that I noticed that the windows were mighty ooky, what with all the doggie nose prints and stuff.

After the exterior of the car was nice and shiny and spot free, I tackled the inside. This is where the keys come in. I should preface this by saying that I have given my car what I thought was a good thorough cleaning before. And that I was told by the crappy crappy place from which I bought it (that should tell you something right there) that it had been fully detailed. I was vacuuming under the front seat when I spied something shiny (pause for giggles). I reached in and grabbed a key...which was attached to this keychain.

I've never owned a Toyota, and neither has R. We don't know anyone who owns a Toyota. Therefore, these mystery keys must have been lurking under the seat of my car for *at least THREE years*. How wierd is that? Someone can't ride his/her bike because I have the key to their Kryptonite lock. Looks to be a house key or two on there as well.

I know I should throw them away because we'll never find the owner, but...keys! I can't throw away keys. Can anyone? Everyone I've ever known has had that strange collection of orphaned keys. You're not sure where they came from, or what they go to, but we hang onto them, just in case.

Because you *never* know when I'll randomly meet someone who will tell me a funny story about how they used to love cycling until they lost their bike lock key and had to give it up because, well, Kryptonite!

So anyway. It's 12:20 and I've thus far cleaned part of the kitchen--including the sink, part of which I had to *re-scrub* because the residue from the clean had dried out and gotten crusty!--and unearthed oddities in my car. Oh, and I washed the shower curtain. There's so much more to do, and away I go!

Po-Ta-Toes!

If you have dogs, you will find this as hysterically funny as I did. If you don't have dogs, you are SO missing out. Because this? This is EXACTLY what it's like.

For Your Consideration

with love,
A Happy Dork in the Periwinkle

If...

...I ever make it to my dream destination of the British Isles, I'm *SO* using The Landmark Trust.

Making Good Use of My Newly Emancipated Weekends

I joined a couple meetup groups here in Phoenix, thinking that finally I'd be able to get out and meet people. Whaddya know?? It works! Went on a really beautiful hike this morning with a bunch of total strangers and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Here is some cholla. It's evil. Don't ever ever ever touch this plant. It will bite and then cling forever to you.
Not that I know from experience or anything. . .












These little guys are apparently Barrel Cactus --NOT BABY SAGUARO. There was a sign that stated as much, but it had exclamation points and everything. They are kinda cute tho, what with the squattiness and the growing out of any nook or cranny. Plus, they're red. Within a sea of brown and more brown, with some brownish green accents, red is a nice lil punch of colour.










This was probably about the halfway point of the hike (which we were told was going to be about 4 miles, but I'm pretty sure was longer; next time I'm hookin the Forerunner up to my camelbak). See the two highest peaks? Just below them is a bit of a ridgeline. We hiked up and over there, and in the next shot you'll see the view looking down to the spot from which this photo was taken.














So. Right about in the center of the photo you can kind of sort of see a bare flat spot? Can't you? That's where the previous photo was taken, and here we are looking down. It's hard to believe that there is all this "wild" land in the middle of Phoenix, but it is. Off to the left of the photo you can see the rows and rows and streets and streets of homes. It's much the same to the south of this preserve as well. But it is nice that so much undisturbed land has been set aside. I hope it remains so.



So it was a lovely lovely morning, and I'm so glad I went. The downside of treks like these is that at this point they completely wear me out. I was home by 1pm, but spent most of the rest of the day crashed out--lounging with the puppies, or sitting right here at the computer. That just means I need to get up and out more and work on that endurance! We'll see about that!

Wherein I Continue To Digress. . .

I realise I have (seemingly, apparently) completely dropped the ball in the whole "These-Are-All-My-Past-Jobs" vein I had started. I haven't forgotten about it though, I've just, well, dropped the ball. See it bouncing? Right over there in the corner? Yep, there it is. I see it. I'll get there.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post some photos I took this morning.



This is the big wide flat trail that starts near our house and runs...a ways...through Scottsdale--that is when it's not blocked due to highway construction. I only got to ride about 7 miles this morning because of that, which is fine, because my bike is making bad scrapey scratching sounds. We'll probably get to that in the bike maintenance class I'm going to in a few weeks, but the basic class last night only covered...basically nothing. And since I hope to ride between now and December 8th, I'm either going to have to suck it up and pay someone else to fix my bike, take a wild leap and try to fix it myself (which would mean having to buy certain tools anyway, as well as taking the chance that it won't come out quite as well as the vacuum cleaner extravaganza), and/or ride R's bike or my old one.

I'm thinking a trip to the bike shop is in order. So just send some happy thoughts my way, will ya? Something like "It's nothing major and will only cost about $20 to fix."

Thanks

I've always wanted to see myself in an ad like this...

Several of the zine/papers that were run in the college towns I once inhabited ran an ad section called "Missing Persons". These were ads taken out by the lovelorn; someone sees another someone at a concert or a grocery store or walking down the street or whatever...and before they can muster up the courage to say hello, the potential object of their affection is gone. *poof*

The ads are a way of saying "I totally think you're cute/hot/interesting/cool and I want to meet you for coffee/hotsex/a debate on nihlism/to boost my ego. Sorry I'm a shy idiot and let you get away the first time. Please call me."

So I guess this girl in NY really made an impression on this guy. aww...

Go Here. See the big gray banner? See the lower right corner where it says "View Volleys"?

Doo Eeeet.

It's much cool. And it's distracting me from the abundantly dusty job of organizing, dusting, sorting, dusting, and cleaning and dusting the CDs downstairs. We need more Bennos! Or fewer CDs.

Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!! ROFLMAO!!!

(I blame the dust. There are gremlins in the dust. I inhale the dust, they take over my brain.)

It's a slow going day, because in addition to the cleaning thing, I'm replacing broken cases, making sure the right CDs are in the right cases (something that you wouldn't think needs to be done, but apparently there are those of us in this household that are ...*impaired*... in regards to getting our toys back home.), and trying to figure out why we have 2 identical CDs with no cases (yeah, yeah, it crossed my mind too, but this particular selection came out *after* R and I got together....), and many cases with no CDs. Our front room is clearly a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and suffocating in dust.

And these won't mean anything to anyone that hasn't lived here for the past 3 years, but here are some shots of the living room, which I finished cleaning/re-organising yesterday:

They are a bit of the blahs, because we aren't supposed to paint or hang anything on the walls, but I'm sick of white white white, so I'm going to put up some of R's very cool artwork and photos, and some art done by some of his friends. And that hideous hole behind the telly?


It's getting some schmancy velvet curtains--a la theatre.


We're tired of looking at the backs of the stereo system and the rest of the music junk.

I find it amusing that the one thing you can really make out on our shelves is the Yahtzee game. :) We have all these games around, just in case a bunch of people ever show up at the house and they aren't sufficiently amused by the dogs or our wit. Of course, the last time any of them got any play was when we lived in Oklahoma City. But we keep them around, because you just never know. And they give me something to dust. :D

Mistakes made, never learned from.

Once again, I've disobeyed my own 1st rule of blogging... Never ever read other blogs before posting. It garbles up whatever was in my brain to talk about, and makes me feel as though I really have nothing to say. I mean, check out what I put myself up against:

Pioneer Woman
The Fat Cyclist
Dooce
and
Shanny

(yes I know they are in the sidebar. But how often have you clicked the links from anyone's sidebar? hm? )

The closest I get to working calves is when I have to roll one of the pups for misbehavin' (Bucket *is* nearly as big as some of those critters, I think).

I did go for a bike ride this morning but there were no single track mountains of gorgeousity involved, and I only have 2 bikes in my arsenal, unlike Fatty, who has at least 6. And I haven't lost 40 lbs (I'd settle for 10).

Ah Dooce. No one wants to see my office space. But then again, it wasn't designed by an eco-artist. It wasn't designed at all! And even if it was, I don't think I could take such pretty photos of it.

Shanny--posts regularly about her insanely happy, amazingly normal life. New house, crazy critters, game-playing hubby...things I know about and can relate to! <3 Shanny

However, the problem still remains that I was going to jot down thoughts about my past week of "sick time", and/or continue my detailed delving into works past. And now, my brain is mush.

Maybe later.

Plans Awry

On this, my first full day off work, I had planned to completely clean out the kitchen. It is now just after 1pm, and I have successfully done the last two shelves in the pantry (so I fibbed a bit last night--they were an afterthought, really), the cabinets above the fridge, and the fridge itself.

There are a couple of factors here that are hampering my progress, the first one being that things were a little messier, dirtier, clutteredier (!!) than I had anticipated. The second, and more problematic problem, is that I'm a bit, um, obsessive compulsive on the rare occasions that I *do* clean. My old toothbrush has already been donated to the fight against the grime that collects in every nook and cranny. I took everything. EVERYTHING. out of the fridge, checked dates, reorganized, *CLEANED OFF THE BOTTLES/BAGS/BAGGIES/ETC*, and tossed out the stuff that we should have consumed up to a year ago. Everything came off the front of the fridge as well. The top and sides of the fridge are sparkling, and that grill on the front--down on the bottom there? As clean as it's going to get.

I've done two loads of dishes, and handwashed the meat and veggie drawers that go in the fridge. I've taken out two loads of recycling (aforementioned past-their-prime bottles and such, primarily), and have nearly filled my second trash bag. The garage sale pile has even gotten a few new goodies.

So it's been a busy morning, but I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I had hoped. The one day kitchen project will probably be at least two. But hey--I've got 7.5 more paid days off work, none of which I'd planned on. So technically? Way ahead of the game!

Unemployment starting.....NOW!

When my phone rang yesterday afternoon, I immediately recognised the phone number from work. I assumed they had finally figured out that they had scheduled one manager from 9-5, and the next manager from 7pm-3am (we're having the floors done), and that they'd be asking me to come in for a couple hours.

Not so much.

They basically said I don't have to come back, effective immediately. Seems I have an overabundance of sick time available (over 100 hours) that I will lose if it's not used. And they are WAY over budget on payroll hours. These two items are fact. So, as my "reward" for having such great attendance--read: never calling in sick, and going home early 2, maybe 3 times in the 3 years I was there--they offered to pay out my sick time. I get to stay home and get paid for it and they save on payroll hours. Win Win. Right? So why was I so suspicious and upset about it?

The unspoken bit of it is that they just don't want me around, stirring up the rest of the folks during my last 9 days of work. I am going back in for one final 11-7 shift next Saturday, November 3rd--it was going to be my last day anyway, and they have *graciously* said I could come in and work that day and they'd throw me a party and whatnot. Thing is, as of today, I've only personally told 4 people that I was leaving. Two of those were the GM and AGM, and one of them was as I was walking out the door today. I feel more than a little uncomfortable at not having told anyone myself. I made a copy of the phone roster before I left today, and I'm going to start making some personal calls over the next couple of days.

I also typed up a nice little letter for the boss guys to sign, indicating the reason that I was taking the last 8 of my 9 days in sick leave--specifically that it was not my request. As well it states that I will still be eligible to receive all vacation and float hours due to me, as well as accrue the whopping 3 or so hours of vacation that I would have gotten for working. I tried to cover all my bases because, quite frankly, I don't trust them.

So, yeah. I'm effectively unemployed, barring the token shift to say my farewells. After I dropped by the store today to get my little love note signed, I went to Home Depot to get some stuff for making our lawn pretty. Project time commences! I'm going to take some before and after photos, but I'm not showing you *anything* until I see some improvement. It's a pride thing. And the yard is really gruesome right now.

The pantry though? The pantry is already cleaned out. Like mother, like daughter! :D

Onward!

When I realised that it was not a good thing that the company I was working for was moving out of our sweet sweet office space and into the owner's home--not to mention the fact that he was using money *I* was bringing in by booking bands out to pay the bands *he* was bringing in (instead of paying me and my bands), I started looking for an hourly job. Sound Warehouse it was. Wow. They are still around too. You may remember that it used to be a chain, but in a big hooray for the little indie stores, when the chain started to implode, Rudy and Holly bought out the place and made it their own. Or something like that. The fact that they are still around makes me happy.

When I worked there, it was a combination video/record store. Yes, records. Vinyl. Cassettes. Old school, baby. I discovered Akira Kurosawa there, and named my (best friend's and my, that is) first-outside-the-safety-of-my-parent's-home dog after him. My Akira ate a bottle of blue paint and lived to tell the tale, but that's another story for another time.

I worked with a guy named Kevin Blakely (he played bass for Punkinhead)--the first black guy I'd ever really spent time around. His buddies used to come in and they would start chatting in this unbelievably incomprehensible way; it was utterly fascinating. I was too naive not to express my curiousity, and thankfully he was too well brought up to make fun of me or take offense about it. Thus I learned my second foreign language. The only thing I really remember is "Aight den". Which, of course, means "All right then".

I got a lot of free cd's and a lot more free passes to this or that live show. Mike Watt of Firehose showed up on my doorstep one morning after a show. He'd lost a filling or a cap or something during the show, wasn't going to be able to get to a dentist for some time, and I happened to have had a prescription for Tylenol w/ codeine (I'd recently had my wisdom teeth out and couldn't stand to take the stuff). Sleuth that he is, he got my address off the bottle, and showed up for breakfast the next morning.

And this one time, I got a boot to the head at an Agnostic Front show. Damn crowd surfers (thanks Shanny, for the proofreading!)

The job itself? I don't remember a whole lot about it, except for the part where we used to have to handwrite all the receipts. I used to be able to tell which album and which record label was represented just from the barcode. No joke.

Stay tuned for tales of how I moved on from my life in the music biz. . .

It'sThe Little Things: Witness

I just took this photo after the FOURTH time vacuuming the first floor of the house(the first two were sans belt). I'm shocked and a little embarassed at how filthy the carpet was/is. But I've got the new belt on, and a spare waiting in the wings. I'm ready for it!!

Sent from my iPhone

Vacuum Cleaning and Diagnostics

Add that to my list of jobs?

Well, unofficially. Probably more of a hobby than anything, I suppose. I was wondering today why a simple stray string wasn't playing along with the whole vacuum-suction thing. So I upended the machine and took a screwdriver to it. Turns out that odd sweet smell I've been noticing for...oh, let's just say a rather long time...was a direct result of the belt having melted and fused to the roller brush. And then disintegrating. Turns out two heads of long hair are mightier than the Eureka Power Vroom or whatever the hell it's called. I think I pulled enough hair off of the roller mechanism to donate to Locks Of Love if I'd washed and combed it out. So we're in the market for a new belt in the short term...but high on the wish list is a whole new machine. I did feel rather...crafty...for having dived in and taken the thing apart. Would that I'd have done it months and months ago. Word to the wise: if you have long hair or other sorts of windy (wine-dy) stuff on your floors, clean your vacuum from time to time. I am available in the Phoenix markets if you need such a service performed.

What's that you say? How can I digress so boldly when I've neglected the completion of my epic saga of past employment. A-Ha! It was a lead in, don't you see?

So yeah. Jobs after college.

Booking agent for Rock Solid Entertainment and Supersports. I had a lot of nerve when I got out of college. When I moved to Fayetteville, I started calling around to all of the hot clubs in town and asking for jobs. Amazingly enough, Chris King of JR's Lightbulb Club knew of a guy who needed some help booking bands and events. I gave Beau Whalen a call, and he gave me my first job in the real world, although you could hardly call it that.

I was fresh out of college, sharing an apartment (and soon after, a house) with my best friend, booking the hottest bands in NW Arkansas. Don't laugh. There was a pretty hip music scene in Fayetteville back in the day (still is, for all I know). I worked with Punkinhead (omg, they're still around! amazing!) The Faith Healers, Gypsy, Cosmic Giggle Factory--several others whose names escape me. I worked part time, at best, rolling out of bed late in the morning, working from no earlier than 11am--usually going in after 1pm (the clubs we booked into weren't generally open before then, anyway) and staying only until 5 or 6 at the latest. I got paid cash commissions off the bookings, and got into free shows almost every night of the week. Oh, and we lived about 3 blocks from where I worked, so I walked every day. The primary clubs the agency booked *into* was less than a mile from where we lived, so we walked there as well. Ah, the good ole days.

Still to come: The realisation that a regular wage is better than commission only.

But first...sleep.

Working Title

I did it. Last Friday I put in my notice at work. I gave them one month to replace me, given that A) it's the holiday season and they'll want to get someone in to train pretty quickly (although I've seen no movement to that effect) and B) I'll be hard to replace. :P

Of course I've been thinking about what I'm going to do next, aside from spending a couple days cleaning the HELL out of the house and perhaps hosting a garage sale to unload some of the stuff that's been boxed up for 3 years with nary a thought.

Thinking about what's next invariably gets me thinking about what's in the past, so I thought I'd share a rundown of my illustrious working history.

1. Babysitter. I don't know how old I was, but I know I was barely old enough to be left alone myself. I used to stay with my mom's friend's boy Ryan a lot. It was more like an unsupervised playdate than anything else. After Ryan there were a lot of in betweens, but the main other kids I sat with were Chris and Kyle Corbin, and the Lane boys, whose names escape me. I don't really recall ever babysitting little girls--at least on a regular basis, and I now find that odd. I always got along better with boys, anyway...

2. Video Store Clerk. I once made an error on a receipt that made it look as though we were $2,000,000 short at the end of the night. I didn't get fired!

3. Lifeguard. Yep. I worked as a lifeguard at a country club. Once, a friend of mine from school walked up to me and asked what the writing was on my hip. Turns out stretch marks don't tan well, and look like a form of writing from far away...

4. Disc Jockey. I was an unpaid DJ in college, and then one summer got a real live paying on air job at a local radio station. Power 105.9FM Northwest Arkansas' Best Music! I was the overnight weekend DJ. There are some freaky people up late at night, and they are not afraid to stalk the dj booth.

5. Baby Chicken Processor. Somehow I had in my head that this job would look good on a Peace Corps application. I debeaked and innoculated baby chickens, among other horrible, horrible things. It was godawful work, often for 16 hours a day. I saved a baby chicken from becoming chicken food once (oh how I wish I were kidding). Any "off coloured" chicks were tossed into the grinder, so I stowed a tiny black chick in my shirt pocket and took him home. He lived in a box in our front room and hung out with me on the front lawn. His name was Little Moufette.

6. College Radio Station Manager. After I was a dj for 2 years, I managed to become Station Manager. This entailed mainly making schedules, reading CMJ, and creating and booking a lot of live shows, including but not limited to: The Mongol Beach Party, Bunnies of Doom, and Sweet Baby. Ah the good old days of bands sleeping on the couches and floors of the house and getting their tour trailers stuck in the back yard. Good times, good times.

So that's the jobs up through college. Post college forays into the world of work will be for another day.

This green behemoth is the last place I lived in Lawrence, Kansas. The window(s) just above the porch roof? Mine. I had a fantastic 2 br/1bath apartment, with the smallest kitchen known to man. My cookie sheets wouldn't even fit into the oven, it was so tiny. If I had owned a microwave at the time, it would have had to sit in my spare room because there was absolutely no place for it in that kitchen. Literally, I'd say it was probably about 7-10 square feet. And that's probably being generous.

But that wasn't the only quirky thing about this apartment, oh no! As you might have guessed from the exterior, it was an old house, and as we all know, things tend to sag as they get older... My apartment ran the length of the entire house, and if you stood at either end of it and put down a spherical object of any kind, it would roll to a point roughly in the middle of the apartment.

And then there was the fact that all of the utilities were included, but communal. What that means is that although I had purchased a spiffy window air conditioner a few years prior to moving in, I was not allowed to use it. That would have shifted the electric bill rather a ways up, but everyone split the bills, so no go. The house did have a/c, but it was woefully inadequate. My "scrape-the-freezer-ice" trick was put into play again, but I also cleverly parked my self in the main hallway of the house on the hottest nights. There was a vent at either end of the hallway (there was but one in my rather large room, which happened to sit over the open entryway of the house, so was bordered on three sides by hot hot air), so I hung blankets to keep the cold air in, and slept between them on the floor.

Ah, the good ole days! I lived on a brick street, the photo of which I can't show you because Blogger apparently hates me just at the moment. But I had always wanted to live on a brick street, from the very first time that I visited Lawrence (thank you thank you thank you to my good friend Kevin Waddell for moving there and inviting me up--and introducing me to the guys that sold me my very first mountain bike too, btw!), and this house gave me that dream. And let me tell you...it's no picnic, especially in the little pickup that I was driving at the time. Or on that mountain bike. But it sure was pretty.
Ah! Now it works. See? I told you it was pretty.

Ravaging Burros

Yesterday, I went back to Lake Pleasant for National Public Lands Park Cleanup Day. I'm fairly certain that the wild burros were culprits behind all of the trash. They were clearly feeling surly about the fact that we were removing all the tasty styrofoam cups and Capri Sun pouches:
The day was strictly volunteer; I wasn't serving any community service for wrongdoings (despite the constant and very real urge to do bodily harm--or at the very least, curse at--the folks who frequent my place of work), and I wasn't having a guilt attack for tossing a huge pile of garbage out of my car window while driving down the highway (NEVER!). I just wanted to get outside, do something I could feel good about, and maybe meet some cool folks in the process.

So I took a floating holiday--and a lot of flak from my co-workers for having another Saturday off after having just been on vacation--and hauled myself out of bed at 5:30am in order to get to the lake by 7am. It's only a 30 minute drive, but a girl has to bathe and eat you know. I was paired with three other "singles": Krista--a girl about my age, Beverly--an older lady, and Arthur--a much older gentleman with what appeared to be Parkinson's. I only mention that because I was so amazed and impressed that he was out there climbing around and bending and lifting and shaking visibly the whole while.

Our little posse spent about 5 hours picking up junk from a day camp site and a big ravine on the side of a roadway. It truly is amazing how many Capri Sun pouches we found. As many or more of them than beer or soda bottles. True story. Another odd fact: plastic cups and lids disintegrate at a touch after sitting in the dry Arizona heat for a few weeks or months. So many times I'd reach for one of those quick stop plastic lids, only to have it break into a thousand teeny pieces at my touch. Oh the humanity! We found socks, flip flops, a couple styrofoam coolers, feminine hygiene products, lots of diapers, and tons of plastic bottle caps and plastic shopping bags, among other things.

At the end of the day, I looked like I'd stuck my left
arm into a clump of these.........................................
(which I guess, sort of, I had)
and I was more tired than I recall being in a very very long time. More tired than I was after chasing my best friend's 2 year old all over Kansas City! I actually laid down and took a nap after lunch. I never nap!

So I got out of work, got out of the house, got some scratches, and got some sun. I didn't get Krista's number, which I should have, because she seemed pretty cool. My friend Shannon would have done it, because she's outgoing that way. I need to take some more lessons from her on that front. Despite coming away without any new buddies, I had a really good exhausting day! And yes, there is water in Arizona!