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My Trip to
Tucson, 2007
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So, After several months of working about 10 hours/day drawing, on top of my 4 hours/day job, I needed a break. Due to fortuitous circumstances, a plane ticket came into my possession which would take me to anywhere in the lower 48. Having loved Tucson when I passed through in 1999 (visiting Cailin and Pasqualina), I decided to go it again. And so for a week I actually didn't write, draw, or panic about comics.
Below is a picture of Tucson taken from the Sentinel Peak, aka "A" Mountain, aka local necking abd teen-beer-drinking hangout. A gentle walk and not a bad view.
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I was put up by my friend Mary, who is a (talented) artist by trade, and about as friendly a host as ever could be hoped for. Be it crazy late dinner with Mamta and Eric, to humoring me by going to the local desert museum (Mary shown below in the fake caverns there), to being kicked out of line by bouncers because of my footwear, to possibly-German food talking of 2nd Life, to having a stocked supply of oatmeal for my morning desires. It was a fun week.
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And her rockin' desert adobe house.
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And gardens and lawns are made to suit the climate. I saw few green lawns, I'm guessing because anyone who tried wasting water on something like that would get quietly beat up by their neighbors.
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Oh, and if i bought a house there, it'd be this condemned one near 4th ave. Lovely.
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Here is me in one of my first quiet moments, by a fountain in the botanical gardens (even recirculating fountains are rare, because the water simply evaporates away). In this picture I was simply writing a diary, and was NOT doing work. Though it looks like I'm about to bite my own hand off for being so rude as to take my picture.
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Apparently the desert inspires people to name cacti after mentally unstable ground rodents.
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Speaking of mentally unstable ground rodents, I went up for a day to Phoenix to visit my friend Trail, who I've known since my sophomore year in high school. We tried to find a boat in the desert, but with no luck. I guess when they built a lake in the middle of all the sand, these kinds of thoughts didn't occur to the desert people. but Trail and I went to the zoo and also ate good food. Chile Relleno, you are my friend.
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Okay, of course I feel guilt for going to a zoo, but I find it amazing to see animals I wouldn't otherwise see, so i justify it to myself. The otters looked happy, and I was excited to see burrowing owls, and I had a good time. And here I was hanging out with a monkey.
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Here is Sabino Canyon during the day. I wanted to go because the night before, Mary, Eric, Will and I hiked it under nothing but the full moon (and the occasional annoying squeeze of a hand-powered flashlight someone (Mary!) mistaken let me take with us, and which I couldn't not play with). It was as lovely in the day as it was at night. Although this is not a fair pic of the hugeness, desert-ness and loveliness of the canyon.
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Here's me in the canyon. A bit blurry, but I like the picture.
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And lastly, a pic I liked which i took on the flight home. Also during which I thumbnailed a week of Little Dee, lost a dollar in the Vegas slots during a layover, and watched "10 Things I hate About You" on my ipod. I am so 2010.
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So yeah. Basically, it was a good and relaxing time. Amazing food. I got to meet Lisa and Rachel, who i know through freelance work through the company they work for. And Niki, the organizer; Eric, the astronomer; and April, the wild one. I spent endless hours checking email at Epic Cafe. Barely tanned due to continual self-slathering of SPF 50 sunblock. Went to a burlesque show where the MC was a 6 foot brilliant man, flamingly gay, in a blue bunny suit and sparkly high-heeled shoes, and the Princess Lea stripping act which brought down the house. Met several career-artists. And spent hours upon hours chatting with Mary about art and life and those fun nothingnesses one talks about into the late evening.
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