A Plethora of Thoughts

For such a blogaholic, I've really slacked this week! And I was on such a roll... disappointing. But for all you blog readers, know that I've been saying, "oh I need to blog about this!" all week. So this particular blog will be a hodgepodge of different thoughts I've had this week.

First I'd like to note how awesome it is to live in Arizona this week. I've discovered an entirely new appreciation for the city I live in. The weather has been fabulous. It gets cloudy and rainy for a day, then the next is crisp, clear, warm and picture perfect. I have found myself driving along and looking around at the scenery, as though it's my first time to notice things. For example... did you know that there is a certain spot on the 202 (at about 52nd Street) where you can clearly see Papago Peak, Camelback Mountain, and Squaw Peak all in a row and clearly recognize the distinctions between all of them? There have been a couple of moments this week where I would have like to have been able to take a picture of that, although I don't think the camera could capture the same mystique that I felt from the view I had. There was also a moment driving home on one of the rainy days last week that I encountered the largest rainbow I've ever seen. Again, I wished that I could have captured that moment on film, but it will forever be engrained in my brain. I did, however, pull out the camera for a couple other moments. I realize that taking pictures while driving is not the safest thing in the world, but be assured that I was either completely stopped or there were no other vehicles around.

The first picture is of the Simpsons cloud sky. Now that I'm looking at this picture, I'm noticing that it didn't quite translate (see that's why I didn't take a pic of the rainbow..) but overwhelmingly while I was stuck in traffic one afternoon, I kept thinking, "WOW, this is SO weird! I feel like I'm ACTUALLY in the opening of the Simpsons!"

Unfortunately, these pictures don't really do justice either, but as I was driving to and from my mom's today, I was noticing how very GREEN everything is. This is AZ people, so don't expect a freakin forest, but normally, these are all BROWN. No color whatsoever. Just the color of ugly rock and dirt. But today was different. There is green and yellow EVERYWHERE. Wildflowers abound! It was awesome. My mom lives in the foothills of South Mountain, appropriately named, the Ahwatukee Foothills. This rain has really done some awesome things! I was noticing when I drove past Club West (the golf course) that the winter rye is just LOVING the rain. I didn't take a pic of that because they only overseeded the actual fairways and greens - usually as a money saver and water conservation effort - so it looks fairly silly right now because the fairways are all super deep green, and the surrounding areas are a lovely shade of yellow-brown.

Yesterday I did my usual Saturday morning powerwalk, but I decided to take a slightly different route this time. While I was walking down 22nd St, I realized that I was looking at the building that John McCain lives in. Being the freak that I am, later in the day, I jumped in my car and clocked the distance between his condo and mine. Can you believe that I live exactly .6 miles away from a presidential candidate?? I have always known that, but it didn't dawn on me until yesterday. How many people can say they live less than a mile away from a presidential candidate? Not that many. This doesn't make me want to vote for him, but I thought it was kinda cool, nonetheless :) On a similar note, I also live within a mile from Amare Stoudemire. My 'hoods filled with ballers and that's just how I roll.

I know there are a bunch other things that I'm forgetting about right now, so hopefully I will remember and post in the next couple of days. But I will leave you with one last picture, just cuz it's freakin cute as can be. We went to the Matsuri festival downtown today. The food was awesome and the entertainment was great! Jonathan & Anika especially enjoyed the Taiko drums and were dancin to the beat. Okay, so maybe not to the beat, as they dance to beat of their OWN drummers, but they were hoppin around like it was their job and loved every minute of it! Check out Anika lookin precious in her kimono :)

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!