Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Back from Phoenix...

Well, we’ve been back for a week now and I think it’s safe to say that Phoenix was a blast. It hasn’t ever taken me an entire week to unwind before, so you know we had a good time.

Good time =

For those of you that didn’t know, Jared whooshed us out west last week for a (much needed) vacation. We were all pumped up for some desert sun, but unfortunately we had a weather trailer in tow…we brought the rain and muck out with us. Yuck.

But that’s par for the course when Ohioans visit. Jared and Brandi can both attest to that. It seems like any time a Buckeye sets foot in Arizona, the clouds dip down and the skies open up, sandy mountains grow lush and green with vegetation, and it only stops raining when the buckeyes are fast sleep.

This visit wasn’t very different. The first two days were cold, then on the last day the rain subsided and the air temp warmed to a balmy 72 degrees…just in time for us to board our flight. Perfect. Nevertheless, golf was played, babies were squeezed, and we were able to sit back and relax. So much fun!

Since there was a nip in the air, I decided to drink it. Even though we stayed in quite a bit, it didn’t appear to hold us back. I seriously think I drank the Phoenix/Scottsdale area out of Crown Royal (or at least Jared’s Condo). I even came up with a new drink: the King Ben.

2.5 oz Crown Royal, Chilled
2 Benadryl Tablets, Pink

Directions: Take tiny pink tablets one hour prior to going out. Go to comedy club and do extra large shots of Crown Royal. Repeat. Giggle at inappropriate times (i.e. intermissions, standing in front of urinals, photo ops with the opening act, Ari). When it’s too late, remember that you took a double dose of Benadryl. Repeat giggling.

Yep, that was a rough night. For some reason I took the Don’t mix with alcohol warning as a dare, but I can guarantee you that dare will never be double-dogged. On the plus side, however, my allergies are now suppressed for the entire month of March.

This is how I felt...

I have to mention that golf was entirely too beautiful - partly to make Chris jealous and partly because I forgot how pretty the desert can be. Even though the day was cloudy and my play was horrible, I kept taking a couple of steps back just to breathe. Jared booked a tee time at a great little resort and the views were awesome. Hole 17 was particularly amazing. It was a short par 3, situated on the side of a mountain. I had a 180 degree panoramic view of all of Phoenix. There was about a 400 foot elevation drop from the tee to the green, so you were literally hitting off the top of a mountain to the bottom of a mountain. Here’s an artist's rendition:

On a sidenote, something should be said about hitting a ball Out of Bounds in Arizona. It’s a little more disconcerting than your average OB shot in Ohio, considering everything to the left or right of the fairway is labeled “Rattlesnake Habitat.” Needless to say, sometimes you need to just take your drop and move on to the next shot. I definitely left some soldiers behind on that battlefield.

As I mentioned before, we hit up the comedy club to see one of my favorite comedians, Joe Rogan. If you are a preschool teacher and you gave birth to me, I wouldn’t recommend Googling any of his work; he’s a little much for the use-your-words-not-your-fists crowd. But Rogan killed and we had a great time.
It was also the first time that we ever left Tenzin with a sitter. Sure he’s been watched numerous times by friends and family (either voluntarily or forcefully), but this was the first time we’ve trusted a complete stranger with our seed. Jared’s fiancé, Erin, had a sister that was nice enough to volunteer her services for our adult evening. While I’m not sure how much of her job was actual babysitting and how much was “knowing there’s a sleeping baby upstairs,” I was, in actuality, surprised that we were able to leave him so easily. I was proud of us! Not once throughout the evening did we freak, geek, panic, frighten, fret or fluster. We came home and, sure enough, the little man was sawing logs. Erin’s sister was not covered in bodily fluids, the house was not on fire, and we had enjoyed a poop-free evening…I think…like I said, I had the King Ben that night.

So a special thanks to the Phoenicians for hosting us last weekend. It was great to get away. I really wish we could say that it was nice to return, but yeesh…

We got off the plane flustered from travel, carrying enough luggage to make a sherpa crumble, only to find the temperature hovering at around 14 degrees. It wasn’t so bad that it was cold because, now, seeing as it’s almost Spring, we’ve grown accustomed to the cold (I can hear Rachel now saying “speak for yourself.”). But thanks to the TSA and their streamlined security, we were standing outside the baggage claim wearing flip-flops. Not good.

My folks were nice enough to pick us up, so they met us at the airport in the monster truck. Seeing our tired, spiritless faces, they offered us a warm meal. We’re not one to turn down a free lunch so we headed out to grab a bite, braving our tootsies in the frosty Ohio wind. Dinner was great and we got to recap some highlights from the trip, Tenzin tried tortilla soup and munched on some chicken fingers, Rachel and I enjoyed tall beers with our meal, slooooowly unwinding from the flight. We were so relaxed…and then it happened…the clouds parted and the snow started falling. And falling. And falling.

In the 45 minutes we sat in the restaurant, three whole inches of frosty goodness fell from the skies, all while twenty teeny tiny toes stared up at us from beneath the table. It was bound to happen; the weather we took out to Phoenix was back. It’s off the plane, it picked up its luggage, and it was now following us through the streets of Columbus.

Little man didn't like face planting too much...



That's all for now. I’m having an unspoken contest with everyone in my office to see who can eat a Girl Scout’s weight in cookies...and I’m winning. So much to do. I'll also try to transfer the rest of the movies we have on the camcorder to YouTube. Any other requests, let me know.

Until then, here's this...

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