Desert symmetry
What the heck have those two girls been doing in Tucson for so long? What are those two broads up to?
Is that what you’re wondering? I’m starting to wonder too! What HAVE we been doing? I’ll get around to telling you. Shortly.
Guess who is inside that hill? Me! Leah was hiking; I was in the cave.
For many of you, one week goes by in a flash. You wake up, go to work, come home, eat something, maybe change some diapers, play with giggly children (or maybe unruly animals), and then go to bed. And then 5 days slip by. Maybe you vaguely remember Wednesday because your co-worker pissed you off. And you definitey remember Friday because you were thankful for its arrival. Well, as you know, when you’re traveling, time takes on a different consistency.
Because we move so rapidly from place to place, this past week of stagnation has taken on a surreal quality. After two days, Leah’s cabin fever was so intense that it resulted in a song. The lyrics to “Tucson Blues” shall dapple the rest of this post.
Sunsets for sanity
“Stuck in this old motel room
Got nowhere else to go
No money in my laundry
Should be feelin’ low”
We quickly realized that funds were low. Way low. No more luxuries like visiting caverns, touring Biospheres, or driving 50 extra miles to see a neat ol’ town. We did, however, take ourselves out on Saturday night. Tour the town. Big city. Ha. Ha. Ha. We ended up on what appears to be the “retro” nightlife street in Tucson touting the imaginative name of “4th Avenue”. Maybe if I was 22 and wearing 2 extra pounds in make-up I would be excited.
No more cute little towns
Tucson’s nightlife is definitely upheld by the university crowd. And that’s it. Needless to say, it was an uneventful evening. Didn’t even see any cute frat boys or muscle-clad football players. The most notable people we encountered were two fake lesbians elaborately kissing on a table. Fake? Yes, fake. Have you ever seen two people kiss, pause, look around and see how many people are watching, smile coyly, and then resume kissing? Who else could do it but a couple of fake lesbians?! Anyway, we did manage to see a decent band playing live at Plush. Their existence restored Leah’s faith in the dying live music industry by approximately 10%. There is hope! If you’re curious, a semi-ok youtube video can be viewed here.
Twilight views from Sentinel Hill
But that was it. That was our thrill for the week. Cabin fever re-ensued. What did we do? We spent a lot of time laughing. Laughing at nonsensical things, laughing at bad jokes, laughing at our own stupidity, making up sick jokes, laughing at Badger, laughing at the neighbours, laughing at ourselves. At least our tummy muscles were getting a work-out.
“Well, I’m stuck in this old motel room
Got nowhere else to go
I laugh at my own amusements
With the coyote’s luck in tow”
Even death looks picturesque in the desert
Laughing was interspersed by watching. We watched Rome. An excellent HBO series, by the way. And once we had devoured both seasons, we switched to film. We watched movies: Poltergeist, Poltergeist II, The Fly, Legend, Labyrinth, My One and Only, Borat, Poltergeist III, Dracula. Don’t watch Poltergeist III. I invite you to watch all of the above, but not Poltergeist III. We also watched our neighbours, but you already know about that.
“200 people livin’ next door
They’re comin’ and goin’ all day long
I wonder if they’d give me some
If I played them this old lonely song”
And about 4 days into our half-crazed, near-hysterical self-seclusion we really needed something to do. So now we have a project! Leah’s diligently working on a new music video, filmed on location, here in Tucson, Arizona. We have been steadily occupied by scouting locations, illegally filming in them, wandering through the desert, and recording cacti waving in the breeze. It’s been great. Nothing like creative work to keep our shared brain happily occupied.
Illuminated armpit looking for inspiration
“Scrounging up one last meal
My dog, he’s thin and he gets to steal
My last cigarette
He was always good at winning bets”
One week may seem like nothing to you, but it’s been an epic adventure in my brain. We’d like to thank all the various things that helped preserve our sedentary sanity: the kitchen, the next door neighbour with the cactus, the abundance of towels, the beautiful sunsets, and of course, the wireless internet.
Leah plays tomorrow at The Glass Onion Cafe in north Tucson, and then Monday we’re off!! Leaving the beautiful saguaro cactus behind and heading up to the land of lights and schmaltz: Las Vegas.
“Broke and tired in a desert motel
Could be worse, I reckon, you know
Way up North and 40 below”
Blue skies before dusk
