Casita Klatsch

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. 

The Unbreakable

We took the boy to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today.  It was, well, long.  And slow.

Please don't misconstrue.  I quite like the series.  HP has a special place in my heart.  It's not that I am a costume-wearing, conference-attending fanatic, a status achieved from gobbling up everything that is Potter.  No, I can thank fatherhood for introducing me to the splendidly entertaining world of Harry and his gang of bumbling wizards- and witches-in-training.

Five and a half years ago, when Mark, Zane and I first moved in together in Tucson, we read the Harry Potter books to Zane every night.  We would all take turns.  Even Zane had a go at reading to us now and again.  Our dear Australian friend, Alison, whom we met in Tucson while she was also studying at the UA and lived just around the corner from us, pitched in as well.  Night after night, we would take our turn on Zane's bed, lying next to him and reading quietly from whichever book of the HP series was the most recent.  Sometime after the (book) release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we stopped, for Mark and Zane had to return to Australia when their visas expired.  Our nightly readings came to an abrupt end, but Zane kept up with the books on his own. 

Now, half a decade later and Zane nearly a foot taller, we trundled off to the mall to sit in silence and watched as the penultimate book of the series came to life on a screen in front of us.  We sat, our funny trio, and gazed intently at the even funnier trio before us.  We fidgeted in our seats and tried not to yawn as Harry fretted, Hermione wept and Ron drooled.  We all shifted uncomfortably as Dumbledore resigned himself to a dutiful sacrifice. 

It was all long-winded set-up, we realized.  Movie #6 was basically a 2.5 hour prologue to the potentially omni-effective and tear-evoking finale to Ms Rowling's beloved series. 

But that's okay.  As we left the cinema and then waited for the bus home, we neither complained, nor criticized.  Our unspoken understanding:  it is what it is.  It is our special something.  And it shall not be defiled. 

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!