Casita Klatsch

Adios, Tucson (otra vez)

The time has come once again to say goodbye for now to Tucson, my US friends and family, Mark, Zane and Martha.  It's odd leaving Mark and Zane behind in my old home, North America, and returning alone to my new(er) home in Australia.  Life has a way of leading us in opposite directions sometimes.  But then, I have often found that the journey back to common ground proves the most rewarding.

For all of us living in Casa Crazyhorse, it has been an eventful academic year, one full of surprises, discoveries, and accomplishments.  In a way, I feel it has been a year of intense learning, not only for my handsome, intelligent partner during this final year of his doctorate, but also for me in a way that is intangible and connected to the meaningfulness of life.  Sometimes the learning was fitful.  Sometimes it was pretty awful.  Occasionally it was transformative. Some people have one really big mid-life crisis.  I think I endure a limitless string of miniature crises, none of which is particularly train-stopping in nature, but all of which yield their own lessons.  I prefer it that way. 

As I return to Sydney, one year closer to the mid-century mark, one year more in love than ever, and one year prouder as a parent, I go with a light heart.  Although I realize that my aggregate time in Tucson is drawing to its terminal number, I know that I will be back, time and time again.  I have lived many places in my life.  And even though life gets more hectic and challenging to keep up with, I know what home is.  I have more than one.  And I prefer it that way.

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This brings Casita Klatsch to a temporary pause.  Please keep up with me on my original blog, The Banal Chew.  Thanks for reading, and I'll see you back here on CK in December.

Springtime for Sandy in Arizona

Spring in the desert is amazing.  I suppose it is everywhere, but when you're used to seeing brown (and some green) most of the year, the colors presented in flowers are astonishing.

Here are a few photos from around our house in Tucson.  Hopefully, I'll get to the desert itself and do some hiking.  I hear the desert wildflowers are out in force right now.

These popped up voluntarily in our front yard.  They are all over our neighborhood.

Desert bluebells

Poppies!

Audrey II   (No idea really, but I can't wait until that bud or seed pod or whatever opens up.)  NB: Homer says they're oriental poppies.

Agave or aloe

This one bloomed a few weeks ago, but the architecture of the former blossoms is fascinating.

Wee cactus flowers

Lions and Spiders and...Twiggers? Oh My!

In the desert you have always been able to see some odd things.  Plants that beguile you with their painful beauty,  shriek-inducing invertebrates, swine-like creatures so ugly they're cute (and so stinky they're nauseating)...the list goes on.

And then there are the humans.  Colorful is the kinder, diplomatic way to describe them.  Here in Tucson, a not-so-small desert city on the eastern edge of the Sonoran Desert, the multiplicity of type never ceases to amaze me.  Take a walk down 4th Avenue, where you will see a living collage of denims, dreadlocks, dandies and destitutes.

In the desert itself, the richness of diversity is certainly not limited to flora and fauna.  Once, while hiking in the smaller mountains west of the city, I had to step aside and allow a man on a bicycle to pass.  He was a portly man, somewhere in his 50s, perched high atop an equally aging, skinny-tired touring bike (!) and sporting nothing but the rubber band that held his graying hair in a long, sweaty ponytail.  I diverted my eyes as he passed, but I did sneak a peek as he rode off, both amused and horrified by the sight of his wrinkled buns flowing over the saddle of that poor bike.  Talk about muffin-top.

Anyway, I just read an article describing a new subtype of human that one could soon run across in the desert:  meth-heads who roam the desert, often in teams, digging up random areas and pilfering anything that may be of historical value.  Apparently, the effects of meth (hyperactivity, task-oriented behavior, sleeplessness) make the addicts the perfect workforce for this endeavor.  The dealers who lead these packs of "twiggers" take the loot and sell it on the black market.  And the payment to the looters themselves?  You guessed it, more meth. 

Homer is an archaeologist.  I wonder if his team will need new security measures to protect their dig sites.  Hmm.  Paul Blart II: Desert Cop. 

Beaver's got nothin' on me

...that's right.  Busy as.  And blog-starved.

Between work, settling in, family life and catching up with people, I have had no time to keep up with my blog posting, emailing, facebooking, and pretty much any other kind of 'Net-based socializing.  But I'm back now, if only for a second.  Mark is at the grocer picking up items for the gazpacho we are making for tonight's gathering with some choral conducting colleagues.  When he returns, it's chop chop and whiz whiz.

Oh, I think I hear the scooter pulling up to the porch.  Yipes!  Let's see, maybe he forgot the shrimp and will have to go back....

No such luck.  I'll leave it with a photo of our vintage Danish daybed/lounge we picked up for a song a few years ago at a second-hand shop here in Tucson. After languishing in our storage unit for the past 4+ years, we cleaned it up, got a new piece of foam cut, went to the local fabric shop and took it all to a highly recommended upholsterer in South Tucson.  The next day, we had our favorite piece of furniture back in our living room.  Zane hates it.  Martha loves it.  Mark and I adore it.

Back in The Old Pueblo

Apologies for the delayed post.  We arrived in Tucson last week and have settled in our new home.  We are loving the pool, especially during these hot, monsoonal days in The Old Pueblo.

While unpacking all of our things that have been roasting in our storage unit for the past 4+ years, I came across another piece of Zane's schoolwork.  It is a story he wrote in 1st grade, when he lived with Mark and me in Tucson.  This one has a special place in my heart.  Mark, Zane and I had just moved in together.  I was a new parent when Zane brought the story home to us, and it secured a sacred position on our refrigerator for the entire year we lived there.  It still brings a smile to my face.

The Dragon and the Acrobat
by Zane
Year 1

Once upon a time there was a fire-breathing dragon who captured a famous acrobat and ran off to an amusement park.

They played games.

The went on rides.

They went home together.

Touchdown

We have arrived.  Our house is great. The pool is fab. The martinis are shaken.

Stay tuned!

And we're back...

That's right, folks.  I'll be hanging my hat in Tucson yet again, with the arrival set for early July.  This time, however, I won't be staying in Casita Palomas.  That's unfortunate in some ways, particularly because I'll miss that place and having Homer as a neighbor. 

This time, the hubby and son will be coming with me.  That's the reason we're coming, after all:  Mark's return to graduate school.  It will be a short stay, only about 10 to 11 months, but that's enough time to reconnect with the desert and all of my friends there.  And one of the best things is I'll be there in time to catch some of the Naked Pool Volleyball games.

Stay tuned!

Here it is (again)

My final day in Tucson.  What an odd connection I have with this place.  Okay, so I just wrote this long segment on what Tucson means to me on a personal level.  Then I deleted it all.  A bit too Sally Jesse. 

Let's just say that I've grown here.  I've experienced both intense joy and pain.  I've worked my ass off here.  I nurtured a partner through the hell of getting his Ph.D here.  Then I followed up a couple years later by returning to get my own doctorate.  

And, here, along came Mark, wrecking my plans and stealing my heart.  It was here I began my life-changing role of parenting, when Zane arrived from Australia.

Now, here I am.  I was 34 when I first arrived.  Now I am 46.  More than 7 of those intervening years were spent here in the Sonoran Desert.  Most recently, I've just spent 6 of the past 8 months in Tucson, during which time I have realized that a full-time career in music is not worth the sacrifice of being with my partner and watching our son grow up.

As always, I'm a bit heart-heavy leaving Tucson.  Homer has made my temporary residency here a pleasure.  We have become very close, and I'm happy that we place each other on our list of best friends.  Fellas, for the record, here's one worth noting. 

So to Homer, as well as Lani, Forrest, Steve, Brian, Richard, Cobban, Ray, Lyle, Norene and everyone I've met or reconnected with here, thanks for keeping me company.  I'll see you all in July, when we return to Tucson for Mark's doctorate. 

Wait, did I just say that?

Home-away-from-home, sweet home-away-from-home

Returned to Casita Palomas to find:

• Martha in full-swing of her juvenile naughtiness*;
• A hen in the yard~;
• A handsome latino handyman doing some work next door#;
• The return of a warm winter to Tucson@;

* While Homer was taking care of her, she tormented his cats. This morning she peed on my bed. Typical puppy stuff.

~ Miss Hen appeared in Homer's yard one afternoon a few days ago, and she's here to stay.  She will have a name soon.  Homer has a ballot on  his blog.  Quick, go vote!

# Nothing much to say on this one, except that it's cool to have something to see besides the worn fence and leafless trees as I look out the work window.

@ Sorry, Mark and Zane.  Whatever controls the weather, feeling particularly cruel, must have known you were leaving.

Miss Hen

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What is it about puppies and slippers?  I hear Martha chewing on mine behind me.  I think she has grown a bit over the past week.  She seems bigger.  And she's nearly too big for the winter outerwear we bought for her in Palm Springs. 

Martha sulked a bit after I put the jacket on her.

After some convincing with a chew toy, she finally lightened up and we went outside.

Work it, chica!

 

Scary Titan

We got up close and personal with a weapon of mass destruction yesterday.  Our visit to the Titan Missile Museum, although interesting, was a very sobering experience.  Each of the 54 Titan missiles, now decommissioned, carried a nuclear warhead that was many times more powerful than the bombs we detonated in Japan.  Had the shaky fingers of U.S. and Russia not been kept away from the red button, primarily by the fear brought about with M.A.D. ("mutually assured destruction"), their plan of "peacekeeping", the world would be a very, very different place...if it still existed at all. 

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On a cheerier note, we're off to California today.  We'll spend some time with friends in Palm Springs, especially those amazing men, Doug & Woody.  We'll also take Zane over to LA and visit the Getty Museum, Six Flags Magic Mountain and who knows what else.  It's Mark and Zane's last week in the U.S. for a while.  We hope to make the best of it.