a day in Phoenix

I really am behind on this blogging thing, I know.  Here I am, in the United Club at Phoenix Airport, and finally I am blogging.  I had a lot of work to do these past evenings at conference, truly, and that left me no time or inclination to do more writing just for fun.  But now that my exile to Arizona is coming to an end (don't jinx it, Peter), I can jot down a couple of entries.  So, shall we?

You may or may not recall that when we first got to Phoenix, I was feeling less than great.  36 hours later, and I was alright.  Ready to head out, walk a little, eat some food.  It was a lovely, sunny Tuesday, so the three of us ambled around the downtown Phoenix area near us.

Through the ASU downtown campus.

Into the Civic Space park with its Echelman installation and views.

Down 1st Ave. and past older buildings and new,

admiring them, heading to the Maricopa County Old Courthouse

and the nearby modern county and court buildings.

Past and into the Luhrs Tower,

then up Central Ave.

toward the hotel.  And then a bit of a rest for all of us, but especially the guy who was a little less than 100%.  We had dinner plans that night to get to, after all.

Jose and April live in Phoenix, and since we try to meet up with them for a meal whenever we're at conference, we happily scheduled a dinner. 

They suggested Ocotillo, and we met them there for a bite.  A mocktail for me,

some conversation, some dinner.  It was tasty food, but I will say that the pasta was a little dense and perhaps undercooked.  Ah well.  Still tasty enough!

That was our day in Phoenix.  Poor Conrad and Van - we had hoped for a nice AZ escape before my conference, but that wasn't to be the case.  They headed back to California the next morning, I hopped onto a meeting, and the room was mine for six more nights.

Nice enough to visit here, so much better to get to come home!

alma mater

I had some free time today to head out to Tempe and meet with a development officer for a tour of the Arizona State University campus and enjoy lunch.  Sorry, no photos.  I perhaps should have - it was only my second time visiting campus - but I didn't want to look too, well, something or other.  My third alma mater, though, not that I attended classes face to face in classrooms here.  Online only.  But I am still, thanks to my doctorate, a Sun Devil.  And, honestly?  Proud of that.

But I did bring along an ASU hoodie and cap for those chilly morning walks.

And I did buy another sweatshirt from the store at the downtown campus near my hotel.

Fork U, as they say!

Back? Possibly.

Ten and a half years since last I blogged.  Goodness.

Things have changed.  Conrad and I are no longer in Chicago, having moved to Pasadena, CA, ten years ago.

A new job for me, a transfer and then semi-retirement for him.  He is well into his 60s.  I am in the early years of my fifties.  My professional title is now Doctor.  

We have Van (and Olive).  

Roy died in 2013, Mum died in 2019.  There is much more big and small.

Courtney and Robert have been visiting us in the desert this long weekend,

and during our conversations, I shared some old blog links.  Someone - one of them, or maybe Van - asked why I wasn’t blogging any longer.  The main reason?  After Dad died in 2009, I lost steam.  It took a while, but I came to a realization that I had been blogging as a way for him, at a long distance from me, to read about my life.  And that freed me to stop doing that.

But social media also took over.  A Facebook post, a Tweet, and Instagram story - all were so much easier than telling stories here.  Less work involved, immediate gratification.  New communities that blended old and new people in my life.

In recent times, though, I have suspended all of my social media accounts.  Various reasoning.  Twitter, for example, is very much not what it was, and I don’t care to support its new regime.  The suspensions certainly freed up my time during a tremendously hectic December as well.  And then January rolled around, and I found myself not missing all the time I spent on those platforms.

But still, I wanted to share, and somehow tell my stories.  So here I am, so many years later.  Back for good?  Doubtful.  Maybe.  We’ll see.

A hello, then, to anyone still reading this or stumbling upon it.  Food.  Travel.  Musings.  That’s what this will be.  An unambiguous blog, a place to share the things I’d like to share.