Memorial Day etc

Back from a very long weekend in Phoenix, AZ visiting Mary and nursing a sprained/twisted knee while I upload photos and avoid thinking about work. Given my usual knack for injury the knee should come as no surprise although to be fair I didn't fall myself. Rather I was knocked down by a very exuberant Weimaraner. See the culprit, Reilly, here with her very patient owner Max.




Despite this, and two nights with a bit too much sangria, it was a great trip. We hiked in Flagstaff on Saturday (the scene of said accident) which was a nice change of pace given that I usually only experience the desert side of AZ. Flagstaff feels more like Colorado than anything else, cool and evergreen.


Monday we went to the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden. Chihuly is a glass sculptor and this exhibit was particularly gorgeous when paired with the desert flora and fauna and seen in the late afternoon sun. I took too many pics to post here but these are some of my favorites.







Now I'm back, icing my knee, swallowing painkillers, wondering if I absolutely need to go to campus today, and trying not to miss space and sky so much. I never really thought about space until I moved here and now it seems like all of my problems really come down to lack of space. Since making the decision to leave New York, I've been thinking a lot about my ideal living space and coming up empty. I like urban spaces because of the proximity to culture, good food, a variety of people etcetera. At the same time I've overdosed on crowds, dirt, and concrete. Flagstaff seems an attractive area to teach in a lot of ways. Yet I remember how small Ann Arbor felt at the end of my four years there. Chicago too seems crowded and unbearable sometimes until compared with New York in August. Then it seems very livable.

Given the nature of my work, I have to be prepared to end up anywhere and deal with it like a grown up. So for me the real quesetion isn't "What's my ideal space?" but rather "How do I cope once I'm there?"