Visit Arizona!

We’ve got “Tanning Salons” & Medical Weed Shops

in every strip mall.

 

Can A Red State Go Blue?

 

 

Arizona could very well determine the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election. Just remember, Arizonians did not vote for Republican Senator Martha McSally. Republican Governor Douglas Anthony Ducey appointed her. She lost to Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat. Most likely, McSally will lose again, and then we’ll send another Democrat Mark Kelly to the Senate. Or at least I hope so after all, change in the air. 

Who could imagine that Arizona would send two women to the Senate? She became the first openly bisexual person and the second openly LGBT person elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected to the Senate from Arizona. That’s a lot of firsts. However, it could go terribly wrong. After all, a conservative was just railroaded through the Senate days before the election. It seems we can kiss the Affordable Care Health Act and women’s Reproductive Rights bye-bye. Clever to have a woman do it. Clever indeed.

 

Arizona is one of the least diverse states in the country. 

It’s  80% White.

 Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, Latino voters’ expansion will determine how our election goes. It explains all those tanning salons. Many White people risk being burned to a crisp to be brown when many of them have disdain for Black people has always baffled me. My first impression of Arizona was why in the hell would folks need tanning salons in 3-digit degree weather? Soon after I moved here, I took a walk around the neighborhood. I noticed a tanning salon and walked in.  The looks I got from the clerks were hilarious! “So what,” I said, “I can’t get a tan.” I was kiddin’, and they knew it. But, I swear there. Are a lot of them around town.

This is how the states define who is who in Arizona. Black or African Americans make up 3.4% of Arizona’s population. Native Americans make up 4.5% of the state’s population. Asian Americans 2.3% of the state’s population. And, Pacific Islander Americans make up 0.1% of the state’s population. That’s not a lot of diversity. Homelessness is growing across the state.

Scottsdale vs. Phoenix

Like many cities Phoenix, the 6th largest city in the country has an expanding homeless population. It’s sprawled out so you can go years without a need to travel outside your city to take care of your business.  It’s easy to forget that their a lots of poor people here and a lot of them are situated around the South Phoenix area. However, just like other depressed neighborhoods in major cities. it’s considered to be “up and coming” and 

But, Hot Damn! Arizona is Changing.

After all, I am an ocean girl living in a desert valley surrounded by mountains under a beautiful sky. At times I’ve cried just looking at Arizona’s sky. And by chasing cloud formations, I’ve captured beautiful visions while plucking the sweetest tasting oranges from abandoned fruit trees. On the other hand, there’s no lack of air conditioning and solar power (unless you’re homeless) to protect your automobile at Frys Food.

It’s Own Unique Culture.

Yep, Arizona is hot. On the other hand, it’s one of the loneliest places I’ve ever lived. Even the most deserted dried up the desert in Egypt or Sudan had more dynamic human interactions and energy than this joint does. This is the home of the snow-birds, and I plan to become one too. My valley-bound ears are blocked. That is until I reach at least 4,000 feet. But, change is coming, and I hope for the good.

Who Left The Damn Heat On?

It’s Not Always Hot Here.

When I tell people I live in Arizona, the first thing they say is, “Oh, it’s too hot there.” They say it like they’ve lived here before. But, Arizona is a place of contradictions. Yes, it’s crazy dry and hot most of the year but, not all year round and not everywhere. I didn’t know before I moved here because while it is the desert, it’s also the mountains, the snow, huge forests, lots of vast lakes, rivers, valleys, and the most beautiful sky you can imagine.

 

Home of the Saguaros

Arizona is home to the beloved and sacred Saguaros, but I was horrified the first time I saw them! Two of them were smack dab in the middle of the front yard of the house we were looking to buy. I told the realtor if we buy this, these guys, I remember pointing to them, have got to go. “You’ll need a permit to cut them,” he said. “Excuse me? These ugly things as I pointed at them again. “Yes,” he answered. They are protected. I thought to myself, better find out how much a permit cost because these things, along with the birds that get in them, have to go.  

I’ve Got The Arizona Cactus Blues.

I was miserable during the first year I lived in Arizona. I’m not exactly in love with it now, to tell you the truth. But, there is magic here. One morning I was sitting out in my back yard feeling sad and sorry for myself. What in the hell was I doing here? I felt trapped and alone. My husband, fortunately, found work fairly quickly. I was knee-deep in my disability of a brain injury, which meant I couldn’t drive. Looking back, I remembered that my husband, who spent 2 years working in Iraq with the U.S. military. We were so happy to be together again. In the two years, he was gone; I only saw him once when. I traveled to Sudan, where his family lived, and we got to spend a couple of weeks with each other.

Interpreters and Translators

From Dusty Boots to Home Again

 

The Armed Forces employ interpreters to provide military personnel with foreign language and cultural awareness. They work with intelligence. Operations, written translations, and collect and analyze intelligence information. He would go on missions with soldiers to meet with village Sheiks often in danger as the convoys ran the risk of being blown up by Al Qaeda fighters. I was a nervous wreck. All. Those years. We would welcome the community over the internet and send emails. You come to appreciate a partner and. Make a point to appreciate the time you spend together without fear that at the drop of a hard, the military might come to your door and let you know your loved one is dead blown up on some mission or another.

Reclaiming His Bed

He’d just returned from 2 years working in Iraq as an interpreter to our little apartment in Richmond, California. That first night home, he attempted to climb in the bed beside. Tiny, who’d become used to lying on the bed with me facing the door to be ready if someone came in to attack me, I guess. He showed his little teeth at my husband and growled, staking ownership.  I remember laughing and tell the man he’d better fight for his place in the pack or sleep downstairs.  After he raised his voice, Tiny moved to the other side of the bed beside my legs, dropping his head and refusing eye contact.

A House in The Desert

Our little doggie Tiny was here with us when I’d left everything and everybody else I loved in California. Working as an interpreter in a war zone pays well and, we were able to buy a house. The prices were much lower than in California, and he was a technician and just graduated as a solar installations tech, so I figured if there was one thing Arizona had was the sun. My family, my business, my friends, and the ocean were all gone. Arizona was the first place I lived where I wasn’t close to some large body of water. In California, the Pacific. In Egypt, the Red Sea, the Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea. And, In Boston, where I was born, the Atlantic. I also needed to know at least there was moist air to breathe. Boy, did I make a wrong choice moving here?

Red Sea- Almost drowned in it.

First, let’s get out of Cairo for a minute trip up north to the Citadel Mediterranean, Alexandria, Egypt.

Point Isabel in Richmond, CA — Pacific

Stinson Beach -Pacific

Nantasket Beach- Atlantic

I Love Fallin’ In Love

It was November 2018. The morning was overcast with a hint of chill in the air. It’s winter, and for us, anything below 60 degrees means people start burning wood, piling on sweaters, or cranking up the heat. That day I was sitting beside the pool, too cold to put your feet in, which I’ve subsequently learned is most of the year. If you don’t have a heated pool, which we don’t, you pour chemicals all year and get in it for maybe four months. But, I longed for the ocean. Its movement, fresh air, and the sounds of the waves smashing onto the rocks.

How Are People So Cold in the Heat?

Arizona is also a place where it’s hard to find your “place” People are friendly, polite, and except for all the car accident-prone everywhere, you go areas and aggressive White boys in huge raised pick-up trucks. There’s an entire cadre of, but you have to learn how to ignore them, mind your business, and keep driving at the speed limit and watch them gun their engines as they glare and jump in front of you. Other than that, You can live a peaceful life here. Sometimes it’s so quiet all I hear is the annoying buzz of sound in your ears, or maybe I’ve developed tinnitus from the quiet. I know I never had it before.

“No use in feeling sorry for myself,” I said, getting up to head outside, and then I turned around and couldn’t believe how magnificent the sky was. At that moment, the air was poignantly still. I was transfixed. The most enormous and powerful clouds I’d ever seen were sitting there like a snapshot.

As I watched them, tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t stop looking. They just stayed there, and I just stood there until slowly the clouds slid apart and like pink smoke drifted away. Since then, I have been in awe of the Arizona sky.

The clouds have become magical to me. I snap pictures of them all the time. If I step outside and catch a display, I grab my phone and chase the image from every direction. At our mall kiosk, someone stole my phone. I was pissed. They took it, but, mostly I was hurt at the loss of those first sky pictures I took that morning in the backyard when I had the blues.

I knew I like the “Dancin’ Couple” was when the wrens started pecking holes in them. I watched them fight over the best spots in these monsters.

No More Ocean Only Clouds

So what do sky pictures have to do with the truth? And, what do they have to do with the blog? I said I’d include some inspirational stuff and to give myself a break from all the politics, confusion, anger, and fear. Clouds remind me how small we are, and our limited imagination and view of the world are. It reminds me that no matter how many questions I ask, I will never know the absolute truth of everything.

Has Tiny Gone to Doggie Heaven?

After 17 years, my miniature poodle Tiny had to be put to sleep. He could barely see, so he was bumping into walls. He’d lost most of his hearing and yelped if we walked up behind him. He stopped eating or drinking water and kept squeezing behind the TV to get snagged up in all the wires back there. He was miserable, and so was I. I didn’t want to let him go because he was more than just my poodle. He was my companion dog, who kept me sane while my husband was working in Iraq for two years.

The Damage of Brain Injuries

While I was coping with the effects of a brain injury that led to uncontrollable seizures and panic attacks, having to put him to sleep was devastating. Ten years later, I still cry at the mention of him. Ten years later, I had to put his sister Teena a Maltipoo, to sleep. Having her after the death of Tiny helped me deal with the loss of him. Now that she’s gone, I feel lost. I remembered that the day after Tiny was gone, I sat out in the backyard crying.

 

As I wiped tears off my cheeks, I looked up and gasped. There he was floating across the sky. It was as if he was saying goodbye. The magnificence of clouds is that the slightest movement can transform it into something new or completely blow them away — a metaphor for our life experiences. Our thoughts, beliefs, opinions can shift, change, and expand our image of who we are, who we think we are, and who we can hope to be. I believe I am always in a perpetual state of growth. We all hit the wall. I’ve certainly had my share of them. But, I strive not to give up and go with the flow or at least encourage it.

I’m still here but wondering if I’ll Stay Forever.

 

I’m not going to stay in Arizona. I’ll become one of the many Snow Birds who return in the Winter to escape the Midwestern States’ cold most of they hail from. I hope that we’ll go to Sudan. Once this pandemic is over,  I still take pictures, especially during monsoon time, when the clouds’ beauty often results in me pulling over to the side of the road to get a good picture.

I’ve included them in a folder on my computer and set them up to roll across my TV screen in a variety of compilations to remind me of the beauty of this desolate place where I’ve made no friends, only see my Grandkids once a year except because of the COVID pandemic I can only hear their voices over our cell phones or on the few times a week virtual cycling walks with my 13-year-old granddaughter. She reminds me of how fortunate I am to have somebody to keep me sane.