(written earlier today en route from phoenix)
shapes must be inherently appealing to man. god knows i hated geometry in high school, but as i look at middle (i think?) america from an altitude of 35000 ft. (or however high planes fly), everything is cut up into perfect little squares of green and there is something neat about that. i guess it also goes to show, though, that there are some things man's anal retentive need for control will never conquer- mountains, rivers, the soaring sky.
sorry for the over-earnest cheesiness there, but i'm in a particularly nature-loving mood since i am on the way home from the wide open spaces of arizona. i have never really seen anything quite like the desert before, and it was pretty awe-inspiring.
(where are we flying over right now? i wish i knew. i am a little kid geography geek when it comes to flying. when i flew to the UK last year, i spent half the flight playing nintendo and the other half watching this cool map monitor gizmo that lets you track the flight. alas, today i am on continental and have no such luck. [even though it would be so much more interesting to watch the cities of america go by than it was to see the atlantic ocean- gets kind of monotonous, ya know? although we did fly over greenland...])
anyway, the flight to phoenix was super-long but i had my own row which was sweet. since it was a nighttime flight nothing too thrilling could be seen, but i thought it was cool how the various cities that passed by seemed like floating ships on an endless black sea, either that or some sort of computer chip. the in flight movie was 'johnny english,' which i actually wanted to see because i heart silly british humour, but the screen was too small and far away for me to watch.
when i got to phoenix, cab and her dad met me and once again i couldn't really see anything exciting in the dark, but i did observe palm trees (palm trees in the desert struck me as incongruous for some reason, although im not sure why) and of course many cacti. then we got out of the car, and see pretty much the trippiest natural phenomena i have ever seen-- moon halo. we tried to get some pictures, but cab's camera wouldn't zoom far enough out, then we looked it up online by typing "circle around the moon" into google. all hail google. anyway, i thought seeing an awesome natural phenomena was a harbinger of good things to come. (can a harbinger be positive, i can't remember?)
well, anyway, not to bore you with every inane detail of the trip (or cramp my hand, i wish i hand a fancy travel-ready laptop!), i'll just give you the highlights in list form (in no particular order):
1. old scottsdale which is set up like a (hokey and cheesy) replica of an old west town
2. cruising paradise valley, home of phoenix's rich (Really Rich) and famous
3. various mountains and tonto national forest (didn't look like a forest to me, but hey, what do i know)
4. mountain (sorta) biking on some trails in the desert, where we saw some odd things like a mattress, the frame of a car, and an old washing machine. all told we rode about eight miles, which i consider a great accomplishment especially since it was so fucking hot and i am so re-donkulously out of shape.
5. hockey-- went to a yotes-canucks game @ the new glendale arena. yotes lost but danny cloutier (yay!!!) was in goal for the canucks. also went to an ASU game, apparently hockey is a pretty popular sport in phoenix, which was cool to see- and everyone was going crazy because of brian boucher's record breaking 5-game shutout streak. twas pretty damn cool.
6. good food-- japanese and mexican, specifically. oh, and i learned how to eat with chopsticks (kinda).
7. 'bend it like beckham' - i had been waiting to watch this for a while. i <3 cheesy sports movies & kiera knightley, and of course, the brits, and becks himself (soooo hot, and even though he was barely in the movie there was a sufficiently cute male co-star.) also the movie made me want to try to make curry, although i doubt i could get my folks to eat it. maybe i'll try it on the roommates.
8. swimming and sunbathing- the absolutely fabulous weather was just coaxing me into the pool. i finally made it in yesterday to do some laps, and spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the rays poolside-- and that, my friends, is what vacations are all about.
so, even though i am returning to ghastly weather, i think this trip will provide me with the necessary good cheer to cope with my family for five more days before i go back to school.
plus, i have lots to look forward to coming up very soon-- FOUR MATT NATHANSON shows in a ten day span!! [go read matt's journal and fall in love :)] a bruins game with KL! and hopefully, fingers crossed, a patriots super bowl! (speaking of, tom brady {meeeeow} is on the cover of ESPN mag, which i picked up at the airport along with the orlando bloom cover of GQ, which will both be faithfully placed on the wall at the head of my bed when i go back to school.) so here's to a good 2004, i hope, with lots of pretty boys to look at :)
somewhere over america
