I know I haven't been posting much lately. I've been busy saying my goodbyes all over town.
I have a rather weird confession to make. I have never lived anywhere else but Phoenix, and strange as it sounds, I only lived in one house from the time my mother and father brought me home from Good Samaritan Hospital until a few weeks before my wedding.
(Yes, I had apartments and dorm rooms close to Arizona State, but I went home on the weekends and summers. I never considered those other places home.....just temporary crash pads.)
That house is the place where I did my homework, got quarters from the Tooth Fairy, watched Saturday cartoons, and played hide and seek in the yard. It's where my father died, so that he wouldn't be alone in a hospital bed at the end of his fight with cancer.
I remodeled it a few years ago, and swore I would never ever leave. Even after I no longer worked for the City, I still planned on being there until I died. I had decided what room I was going to use as a nursery when I brought home my daughter someday (I was going to adopt a baby girl from China, was going to decorate the room with stenciled Chinese symbols for happiness, luck, love, and joy, and walk her to the same school I went to for her first day of kindergarten.)
I love the terrific view of North Mountain Park, and was close enough to walk or run there with Alexa when the weather wasn't too hot.
Now I have to give all that up, and it's hard. I know that there were never any guarantees. Life doesn't work that way.
I am going to miss this place. There, I've said it. I will miss Phoenix.
I will miss driving down Central Avenue at night, Sonoran-style Mexican food, and people who know how to pronounce the words "saguaro", "quesadilla" and "cholla". I don't want to root for another team besides the Diamondbacks, and occasionally the Suns. I will miss that peculiar style of architecture that Sparkle Girl calls "Taco Deco", classic ranch house design (yes, I grew up in one....and dammit, they are perfect for this town. Deal with it.), and the city buildings designed by Will Bruder.
I'm going to miss people who think 90 degrees is a comfortable high daily temperature, who bring in oranges off of their trees in the winter to share with their coworkers, and know how to drive with oven mitts or two fingers on the steering wheel in July.
I'm even going to miss the clowns who whine about Phoenix being a "cultural desert", but can't seem to get off of their asses to create this missing enlightenment. The two local papers, the
Arizona Repulsive and the
New Slimes, really love blaring how inadequate they find this place that every chance they get. (The Repulsive's "this is going to make Phoenix a world-class city" story line hit absolute rock bottom when they applied it to the opening of a Planet Hollywood. I kid you not....they said that would finally put Phoenix on the map. Before that, it was a Gucci store in the Biltmore Fashion Park, and....brace yourselves.....the arrival of the Cardinals as our football team. Someone there desperately needs to get hit,
hard, with a clue bat.)
I'm going to miss hearing some yahoo whine and bitch about how Phoenix sucks and they can't wait to get out of here and go back to some frozen burg up north......yet when I offer to pay their airfare home, one way, if they would only shut up for one @#$%-ing minute....never seem to take me up on their offer.
On second thought, I'll probably be able to do the same damn thing in Florida. Ok, scratch that.
I'm going to miss the sunsets. Trust me....the pictures in
Arizona Highways don't need to be touched up much. It really
is that beautiful in this state. I'm going to need to get a subscription before I go. Me & the Tsar already got a little cactus to grace our new home so we can stare at it when we get homesick.
I'm going to miss laughing at dorks who tuck their jeans into their cowboy boots, who wear ties to Rawhide, and insist on wearing three piece suits in the middle of July.
I'm going to miss the way Phoenix looks at night, all lit up and pretty, even though it blots out the stars I used to see growing up. I'm going to miss going to North Mountain Park after a spring rain, when the creosote and acacia smell heavenly and the desert seems simultaneously timeless and new.
I know I'll be able to fly back and visit. I intend to do just that, and stay in the house I grew up in. The Jet Set Brother said I could, anytime. We extended the same offer to him, when he comes out to Florida.
But it's not going to be the same. He's got a new girlfriend, and they are changing the house to suit them and their pup, a sweet but shy golden retriever mix with a funny front paw. (Don't feel sorry for the dog. She's obviously not traumatized by it.) I eventually have to get all of my stuff out of there, I know. It's time to move on. I'm leaving the place in good hands, and I know the Jet Set Brother will take care of it.
I'm sure it sounds dumb, but at least there's not going to be strangers living in my old house. That's a comfort. I'll still have the key to the front door (damn thing doesn't work on the side door), and there will be a dog happy to see me when I walk in. Maybe I'm nuts, but I don't think a house without a welcoming dog can be a home.
Phoenix has been good to me. I grew up here, got more or less educated in the local public schools, and met the sweetest guy in the world in a sports bar on Bell Road.
Maybe Florida will be good to me & the Tsar, too. I hope so.
But if it's not....we know where we'll be heading. Back here, to the Valley of the Sun.
(I won't be regularly posting here for a while, so that I can give the new town a chance and settle in. It will be hit and miss for a while. If I can post, I will, but if there is nothing, I hope you understand.)
Till later....am off to my next adventure. Take care and will post later, I promise!
