In which the theme color is yellow

Trip to Arizona is a lot smoother this time because I've done the bulk of the route before and retained a vague memory of where the rest spots and gas stations are (or more specifically, which point has cheaper gas than the rest of the route -- v. important these days with the 4$+ / gal pricing). This time I also had the benefit of taking the same route both ways, which means I get to drive through a part of I8 in the morning light, which is quite pretty. There were wisps of very dense fog on the ground, but only enough wisps to look fantastic and poetical under the sun and the blue, blue sky. There were also a couple areas with deciduous trees with bright gold leaves tucked into the nooks of the mountain, which I missed completely last year on the account of the sun being in my eye when I drove through that area in the evening.


Have I mentioned I love driving through deserted areas? I think I said as much to Lucy that time we went through Joshua Tree, where it was just a long road stretching through miles of rocks and trees. Part of I8 goes through this desert area where the sand is piled into silk-smooth-looking dunes  (the sand and sky contrast is as striking as you might imagine) and there's something oddly serene about driving that part of the road, early enough that there are almost no cars on the road. I wanted to stay around that place so I can see what the sunset looks like, but since it was very much in the middle of nowhere I couldn't have done that and avoid driving (and navigating) after dark and I'm definitely not equipped to camp out in the middle of a desert.

Malvina's new place (they moved since when I last visited) is north east of where I went last year, a bit more remote and has multiple signs warning me of "animals" on the boulevards leading up. I kept wondering what animals the signs are referring to. Coyotes, apparently, according to Malvina, and hyenas and rabbits, who would roam through their neighborhood. Also they had a black widow nest under their bedroom window that they had to get sprayed and a formerly live scorpion in their garage. Ah the joy of living in desert country. The stars, though, are something fantastic -- her place is far enough from the city that you could step out into the backyard after dark, look up, and be mesmerized. Or as mesmerized as you could be when there's an energetic one year old boy around. He is very active and steady on his feet. Perhaps overly so since it means he can travel very far very rapidly for someone who's about the height of two basketballs stacked on top of each other (there was a basketball in the livingroom that we were playing with, so I know of which I speak). He is also teething and loves bananas and Malvina is teaching him Russian along with English so 90% of our conversations seemed to be composed of "nanananananana" (something like "banan"? Along with "luna" and "na" and "nan") (he also knows "da" but that didn't show up as often) (it was hilarious and Malvina also tried to teach us to say "rock" but we both failed). I also got to meet both dogs and one of the cat (the other cat was hiding under the sink, much like Rushmore had done, and refused to come out when I was around) and was introduced to green bean casserole, which is hugely unhealthy and pretty delicious.

Annie's place is located about 30min away from her campus and straddling somewhere between "respectable college neighborhood" and "really sketchy place I would avoid after dark". We went out for breakfast and had biscuits, which were lovely, along with these extraordinarily dense omelets while we compared notes about grad school and feminism. Maybe the eggs were dense because of the mushrooms, except mine had none (we ordered different ones and swapped half) and it was still very...solid. I also tried chai latte, because I vaguely remembered that Mike really liked it and figured I should at least know what it tastes like, but sadly fancy coffee also seems to be wasted on me since it just tastes like coffee.

Did you know that I never had someone pack lunch for me until recently? I realized that just yesterday. It was boarding school food to lunch at home (when the school's attached to the university and therefore on campus while we had on campus housing), then cafeteria food until I was old enough to pack my own lunch. I believe Lucy has the honors of being the first one, complete with surprise chocolate truffles. Malvina's also packed me leftover Thanksgiving food (with surprise corn chips) (I've given up on keeping track of tupperware since I bring people cookies in them anyway) and I want to take a moment to cherish the warm fuzzies of a)being fed by my friends (esp. since I come from a fairly emotionally repressed background where food is how you show affection, verbal and physical affections being practically nil) and b)people remembering how much I like fruit. As in both times now when someone packed lunch for me I found some kind of fruit in the bag without me ever saying anything (or maybe they just stuck it in because it's a pack-a-lunch thing, but I'm going to pretend anyway because it makes me happy and does no one harm). It's kind of weird to feel this taken care of by someone not my mom, but also enormously nice.

Annie's also lent me her audiobook for the roadtrip. I'm...actually I have no idea how far I am into the book, but I'm listening to Pratchett's Going Postal, which is also enormously nice.

In conclusion: the two day trip is one mood booster after another and I'm willing to declare this Thanksgiving a success!