Trip Out

We just got back from our trip out West. It was awesome. We really miss Arizona and deeply hate ourselves for having moved to New York. But all the reasons we had to move away from AZ are still valid. It's just that all the reasons we had to move to NY seem like thin broth.
My wife climbed my favorite mountain with me out in AZ. We fell in love with bulldogs. Then fell right back out. I came to have a new under- standing and profound appre- ciation for one of my wife's friends, "Porcelain"


I saw my long-lost brother for the first time in over ten years, "Eagle." He was sporting this wicked bite from a desert recluse spider on his finger. He was cool with it though. Taking the meds his doctor prescribed and having my sadistic sister scrub it clean once a day. I am proud that he's my brother. My two nephews seem to be miraculously shaping up quite nicely as well.


In San Diego, CA, we missed out on the seals. Heck, we missed out on the whole ocean experience all together. We were rushed. But the wedding was perfect. It was the second best wedding I've been to. Of course, being married, I have to say that! "Polaris" made an absolutely beautiful bride, like out of a wedding magazine. And the bride's maids were all knockouts. Including, and especially, my wife.


She actually got me to dance to all the slow songs at the reception, and a few fast ones. The bride felt compelled to don Skechers and have us dance the "Thriller".


I hopefully made some new friends there. There was this "you-had-to-be-there" incident we will conspiratorially refer to as the "Love Dove".


And then, back "home". Within minutes of setting foot on native Western soil, I summed up my hatred of the Northeast in one statement: Anything you want to do, you have to drive through SNOW.


Regardless, our cats survived their caretakers (or maybe it's the other way around) and my wife saw to it that we overwhelmingly enjoyed ourselves. Every time we ate out, it was REAL Mexican food. Every drink I was offered, I had two. Plus one I'd never tried before. Every old friend and associate got a hug, even the pretty ones. And I feasted my eyes upon the splendorous beauty that can only be seen in the mountains of the Southwest.

Jeannie said...

I love the west - only visited a couple times but I feel like I belong there. Coming back east, the first thing I notice is how crabby people are.

March 2, 2008 5:54 PM

Anonymous said...

YES. people are crabby.....i had a great time too, pacer!

March 3, 2008 3:15 PM

Kicking the Pennies

Wow. I've cried tears of joy only twice in my life. Once, when I saved my mom's life, and today. Sure, today's reason may seem shallow, but you would only think that if you didn't have all the facts.

My Step-dad let himself die in October, throwing my mother in California into heart-rending despair. I wanted so bad to be there for her, but I'm on the wrong side of the country. My best friend in AZ died in December. I found out in January, the same day my big-shot Fortune 500 company laid me off after 18 mos.

This stupid company doesn't hire temps for at least two years. If that's not illegal, it should be. Six months as a temp, no problem. Eighteen months is emasculating and demeaning. After we helped them exceed their fiscal year quota, establish half a dozen HUGE name customers, earn their maximum possible bonuses, branch off into their own company, open a larger state-of-the art facility, and have it operational a week ahead of schedule. Then, to repay us, after bragging about their status, they lay off all the temps...

My new job. They allowed me to take a week off to go to San Diego for our close friend's wedding. I'd only been with them 3 weeks. I got back this week. So did the owner. He said they really appreciate me and that I've already proven how good a worker I am. They plan to hire me on within a few weeks, in the meantime, they've demanded that the DIFFERENT temp agency is to give me a 20% raise. TWENTY PERCENT. Damn.

That made me smile. But it's Tuesday. So the boss comes back up to me and says: "That raise, it's effective as of yesterday." Now I was grinning. So what made me cry?

HA HA HA! I got a SECOND phone call from my old "assignment" asking me to return; they're bringing back all their temps. I've never acted on the desire to tell an employer to KISS MY ASS until today. So, life is decent after all.

I lost a friend and gained a brother. Lost an "assignment" and got a "position". Revisited my old home and reaffirmed my convictions--my faith, my family, my future career.

On the way home, traffic wasn't bad--for ONCE. As I was cruising down the "express"way a BIT over the speed limit, I saw a Trooper going the other way and imagined getting pulled over for speeding. I just started laughing. Until I cried.

Aww. I'm such a tender heart... (toothy grin)
<( | )> = <( | )>

Jeannie said...

Congratulations! That's excellent news.

March 4, 2008 7:21 PM

I Hate Rochester

I hate Rochester. That's not saying much, considering that I hated Lake Havasu too. But I don't remember hating California.

There's this parable I heard, I think from my wife, about this old man at the train station. He greets people as they get off the train. One man gets off the train, old man asks him: "Moving here?" The traveler responds: "Yes. How is this city?" The old man, rather than answering, asks a question in reply: "What was the city like where you moved from?" The traveler responds: "Pretty lousy". To this, the old man answers the travelers previous question: "Yeah, this city's pretty lousy too."
Another train comes in and another traveler steps off. Again, the old man, in greeting the traveler, asks :"Are you moving here?" The travler responds: "Yes. How is this city?" The old man, rather than answering, asks the question in reply: "What was the city like where you moved from?" This traveler responds: "It was pretty nice." The old man assures this traveler: "This city is pretty nice also."

If I have to explain the moral in this, you either need to drink more coffee or, like Sylar, eat more brains.

I don't mind the cold temperatures so much; I prefer them to the incessant triple-digits of Arizona. And they have trees out here, unlike most of Arizona, and you can TOUCH the trees and hug 'em if you're so inclined and NOT get spiked. I'm not just talking about cacti. There are these trees out West called Palo Verdes, they conceal spikes under all the leaves.

When I had first moved out to AZ, I was walking home from a late movie at about one in the morning. I needed to relieve myself and all the businesses were closed. I saw a lone tree on an embankment to the side of the road, and decided to provide it with a rare treat in the desert: water. As I was navigating the embankment, I slipped. Slid into this pretty pale green tree. Having grown up in Cali, I considered trees friendly. Sure, I suppose parts of So-Cal are classifiable as desert. But parts of Arizona are DESERT. So this "tree". I slide into it, figuring I could have stopped the slide, but why? Trees feel relatively friendly compared to sand and rocks. Son-of-a-sea-biscuit! That friggin' hurt, BAD. And so began my incredibly long list of things I hated about Arizona.

Now here I am in New York. People scoff at me when hearing of my decision to move out here. "WHY?" they ALL ask.
My wife's family is from here, she missed them. Of course, now the roles are somewhat reversed: I miss my "family". My mom and my sister. And my friends, damn I miss them. I've been out here nearing two years. I haven't talked to my best friend in California in over a year. My best friend in Arizona died in December. I just found out last week, I hadn't talked to him since September.

My wife, though successful, seems to be jealous of her brother and her relationship with her mom typically is tentative. I and my mom are thick-as-thieves, despite the crap she put us through and I don't ever think I'll be jealous of my sister. Though I think at times my sister may have been jealous of me. I think it's just a stereotypical girl-thing to be that way with moms and siblings.

Back to terrain. Everything in Arizona seemed dangerous. Snakes, scorpions, cacti, heat-stroke--you remember the evil sun in Super Mario Bros. 3? On the original Nintendo in desert world, like level 2 or sumthin'? It was as big as you and chased you around trying to kill you? Yeah--CLEARLY the Asian that created that level wasn't native to any Asian country; THEY WERE BORN AND RAISED IN ARIZONA!!! But, oh, I've never seen stars or sunsets as beautiful as those in that rugged desert. And as much as humans long for beautiful green pastures, nothing surpasses the colorful beauty of the rocks and mountains out there. More colors than a gay clothing-designer could fathom can be seen on one mountain-side in one dusk out in the desert.

New York. Different world. Before coming out here, I assumed that this being the older part of the country meant they'd be more advanced somehow. WRONG! This part of America should just revert back to horse-drawn carriages. They don't know what to do with vehicles. Out West, sure, about 1 in 3 drivers need to be shot. Out here, maybe 1 in 1000 deserve to utter the word "car". They drive 10 miles under the speed limit on a sunny summer day, yet do 70 in sleet, 50 mph winds, and 20 degree freezing cold. Like an SUV has better traction on ice than my Corolla. Every nightly news report: car crash, SUV involved. Hmph! The speed limits are wrong, the street widths are wrong, the street signs are as big as the fingernail on your pinky--if there's a street sign to be seen at all-- and the stop lights are on your side of the intersection so you gotta peer up at them! Oh GOD! I started off swearing profusely, now I just revert to this prehistoric growling and barking-- no words can dispel the primal rage I feel on the roads out here.