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Is it just me or are flight attendants usually pretty cranky lately?  I flew home today from Arizona and was excited about a straight flight right into Columbus.  All was pretty smooth, I can’t complain too much.  But, when I got to my gate, there was a really grumpy woman manning the loudspeaker, announcing over and over again that you could only have two bags with you on the flight, and then to be extra snarky and demeaning, she would say, “1+1 is 2 NOT 3,” in this bored, sing-songy voice.  I wanted to ask her if she lived in a trashcan on Sesame Street, but I feared a random bag search or bad peanuts (turns out I didn’t need to worry about peanuts because you have to pay for ALL snacks on the plane, even on a 3.5 hour flight.  Sigh.).  Then, when we were boarding another cheerful lady barked at a guy that had an oversized bag without even looking him in the eye; another guy wasn’t sure which half of the ticket to give her and she gave Oscar a mutually grouchy/annoyed look.  When we got halfway down the port to the plane, we were informed that there was no more room in the overhead bins and any of us with two bags would have to check one piece (so apparently 1+1=1).  The people taking our bags weren’t especially grouchy, but not friendly either.  However, when I finally got on the plane and to my seat, there were PLENTY of overhead bins available.  Perplexing.  Not that I’m never grouchy because God knows I am, but it just seems to me lately that flight attendants are in especially bad moods.  I don’t know why that is.  I’m sure it’s annoying dealing with the same problems day in and day out.  I’m sure that travelers get pretty annoyingly predictable.  But, really, if you hate your job, you should look into other things and if you can’t look into other things, you should try to be content with the job you have.  It would probably be more pleasant for you if you took joy in even the repetitive tasks that start to get dull.  Being grumpy, I am sure, hurts you more than it hurts anyone else.  They should take a note from my mom who deals with the same customers day in and day out, has done so for the past 15 years, and remains a darn cheery waitress.

I remember some time in my third or fourth year teaching I learned this same lesson (though I often forget).  I would get annoyed being asked the same questions over and over again by kids, especially when I had just addressed it.  You can’t really get angry in these circumstances (kinda like the flight attendants and waitresses), but you can sort of shut off and answer the question in a tone that clearly articulates annoyance.  I started doing this more often than I would like to admit and then one day I realized that I didn’t like myself when I did that (I don’t know what brought me to that conclusion).  So, what I noticed was that if I just accepted that kids were ALWAYS going to ask questions that they just heard the answer to and they were ALWAYS going to forget homework and they were ALWAYS going to run in the hallway (etc., etc., etc., I mean, they are KIDS for crying out loud), then I could quit trying to think that if I was clear enough, or organized enough, or scary enough that I was going to change their behavior.  Instead, I tried to see the child as the little unique person that they were and respond to each situation with as much love as I could manage.  This made my day so much more pleasurable and the relationships with my students so much better, and all I had to do was let go.  Let go of the crazy idea that things could ever go exactly as planned.  So, flight attendants… let go.  And, thanks for reminding me to that I need to practice this more often in my daily life.  And, thanks for making me miss teaching again.

Today, was another great lazy day in Phoenix.  I walked to a nearby theater to see The Princess and the Frog.  It was alright.  It was good as Disney movies go.  I was afraid that they were going to completely ignore the plight of African Americans in this country.  They didn’t, but still, getting to 2009 without a black princess is pretty insane.  Although I’m not so keen on the princesses in general, there should be equity in anti-feminism at the very least, right?

Heading home tomorrow… better get to bed.

Today was so great. I woke up to the beautiful Arizona sun, did some yoga in my room, read this blog and cried my eyes out: http://bandssullivan.blogspot.com/, showered, sat by the pool and read, took a walk to get coffee and read some more, talked to my sister, my mom and my cousin, and came back to the hotel to find Dan home from work.  Now, we are relaxing for a bit (like I need it) before heading out for some “authentic”* Mexican cuisine with his coworkers.

*A note on the word “authentic” since it came up in my cultural studies class a few times this quarter.  What does “authentic” Mexican cuisine mean anyway?  What does “authentic” anything mean?  Is there really an “authentic” Mexican that cooks some sort of “authentic” cuisine?  Yesterday, at the Heard Museum, Dan and I bought an angel ornament made by a Native American, and I thought it was funny because it had a tag on it that was a certificate of authenticity, which had the picture and the name of the “authentic” Native American who made it.  Can any culture really be boiled down to an “authentic” real?  Aren’t we all sort of a mash-up of some sort?

First of all, I just have to spend a moment on the name of this city.  Phoenix.  It’s such a great name.  It sounds great.  It has meaning.  I looked up the how the city got its name, just to be sure it was after the mythical bird, only to find out that it was first called Pumpkinville(!).  Then, it went through a series of names until someone suggested Phoenix because it described a city born from the ruins of a former civilization.  Interesting, no?

Today, Dan and I began again at the Black Bear Diner where we ordered the exact same breakfast we had yesterday (good thing we had a different waitress).  Then, we were off the Taliesin West, the winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright as well as his own school of architecture.  It’s set into a mountainside in Scottsdale (a suburb of Phoenix) and it’s so interesting and beautiful.  I just thought we were going to tour a house, but I learned so much.  Frank Lloyd Wright experimented with architecture in a way that I wish I could experiment with life.  He tried to confound architecture by making the building a part of nature, joining outside and in, and doing the unexpected.  For example, the main entrance was never in the front, in fact he purposefully made it hard to find.  And then when you found the front door, you would have to walk around some zig zagging hallways a bit to get to any room.  There were times I couldn’t tell if a hallway was going outside or in and sometimes we went through a tiny little courtyard where you could look up and see the sky (I felt a tiny bit like Alice in Wonderland).  Wright also didn’t like to waste any materials, so everything was very minimalistic.  I thought it was funny that he designed houses for the suburbs without an attic or a basement because he thought that if you put something in an attic or a basement, then you didn’t need it.  Isn’t that the truth?  He also said anyone over 6′ tall was a waste of materials (He was 5′8.5″).  That cracked me up.  His bedroom was a cool mix of outdoors and in and he made it so that he could pull his bed out and sleep outside on nice nights.  The best part of the tour, though, was learning about his school of architecture (which is still functioning today).  The school spends half of the year in Wisconsin at Taliesin and the other half in Arizona at Taliesin West.  He was all about learning by doing and he would have the students work on projects around Taliesin West.  There was both apprenticeship and trial and error.  The students also had to work 4 hours of day around the house.  They had to clean, make food, as well as design fireplaces and rooms.  Wright made the point that you can’t design a kitchen unless you work in one.  He also taught them how to dress appropriately for formal affairs because he knew that they would have to hob knob with some of the elites.  Oh, and when the students get to the school, they all get a certain amount of money to design their own tiny little room (some made tent-like structures, some made amazing tiny houses) to sleep in out in the desert.  To me, this sounded a lot like Dewey’s philosophy of experiential education, as well as the Montessori approach.  It sounded pretty fantastic.  And, since I’m an easy sell, it made me want to be an architect.  I now also would like to visit a bunch more of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses.

Our next stop was to the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix.  It’s a museum full of Native American Art both traditional and modern.  We got there a bit late, which meant we only had an hour to look around, but we got in for free, so that was nice.  Dan was sort of obsessed with these figures that he thought looked like Greedo from Star Wars, but I swear there were lots of things that were much more interesting (check out the piictures tab today).

Oh, Dan.

Our last stop for the day was to Tempe for a Greek dinner.  We went to a cheapo restaurant right across from Arizona State’s campus.  Dan said it was the best hummus he ever had, and he was also sort of gaga over his chicken pita.  I agree, everything was good.  Now, we are back at the hotel, I’m doing a load of laundry for Dan and watching Oprah’s White House Christmas special.  What a great weekend.

Yesterday was a long, busy day… and it was amazing.  We began on the Black Bear Diner and had the most delicious breakfast.  Then, we headed North on I-17 to Sedona.  The scenery along the way was pretty, desert mountains and cacti everywhere.  We took a side trip to see Montezuma’s Castle, which is a cave dwelling built right into a mountain and dates to the 1130s(!).  Of course, it’s misnamed because when the English explorers found it, they assumed that the people that lived there were the Aztecs, but they were actually another culture called the Sinagua.  But, the name stuck (and I bet it attracts more tourists).  Anyway, it was neat to see, but I was REALLY disappointed that we couldn’t go inside.  Dan thought that was funny, but who wants to just see the outside of a castle?

We got back on the highway for a bit and then we took the exit for Sedona and drove about 10 miles west, all of the sudden it was so beautiful I thought I could have died right there.  The red rock formations were spectacular and the mountains in the distance had snow on the tops!  Dan and I visited Bell Rock first and hiked around it.  There were some families on the trail with us and one little boy kept shouting, “It does look like a bell!” And, we were at a much higher altitude than we were in Phoenix and we were feeling every bit of that thin air.  We were both getting winded and feeling loopy… so that little boy was probably funnier than he would have been.

After that, we stopped by the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built right into the rock by a monk or a priest (can’t remember) in the 1950s.  It was pretty amazing and the view from inside was awe-inspiring.

Then, Dan and I heard (from the nice guy at the visitor’s center) that we could get a really amazing view from the airport.  So, we took airport rode up and, it was a fantastic view.  It started to rain a little bit and then the sun peaked out and guess what we saw… a rainbow! The picture didn’t turn out too great, but if you click on the piictures tab above you can see more scenic pictures (including the rainbow).

After all that sightseeing, we went to this little arts and crafts village called Tlaquepaque (T-lockey-pockey) to look around and grab a bite to eat.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, but last night was the light festival!  So, everything was all lit up, music was playing, and we got free apple cider and ate at a little Mexican restaurant.  It got me in the Arizonian Christmas spirit.  We finally headed home to find somewhere to watch UFC, which is why I was too pooped to write my blog last night.  Today, we’re going to do some Phoenix touristing.  Oh, what fun!

No, it’s not what you think, it’s a vegan restaurant here in Phoenix.  After Dan and I went to see the movie, Up in the Air (it was alright), we went to the Loving Hut to eat.  Dan got some fried rice with vegetable protein and he liked it!  I got a Hawaiian burger and fries!  The only downside was that I’m so used to only having two or three choices on a menu that it took me FOREVER to order… but it was a good forever.  You wanna know how I finally decided?  I was deciding between three dishes and Dan had me name all three and then he said, “Okay, pick my right hand, my left hand or my foot.”  “FOOT!” I said (of course), which turned out to be the Hawaiian burger.  Ha.  They also served free veggie soup before the meal and their water had orange slices in it!  We are going back!

Dan with his chai drink.

Me and my vegan burger!

Yesterday, I walked to work in the coldest temperatures of the season.  It wasn’t such a bad walk, aside from the intensified windiness of downtown.  Try standing at the corner of Nationwide and High sometime and you’ll know what I mean.  Work was work and then I was on my way back out into the cold, which I’m pretty sure had gotten colder somehow.  Back at home, I sat around for a while thinking about packing for my trip and not doing it.  Ben stopped over for a bit, so that helped me put things off for longer.  I finally packed and even wrapped a few Christmas gifts.  I went to bed much too late for my wake up time of 4:45am.  My first flight was at 6:40am and, needless to say, I slept through most of it.  I woke up in time to see the snowy ground and the sunrise before we landed in Minneapolis.

I love seeing the way snow cover looks from plane.  Right now, I’m on the second flight, headed to Phoenix and we are flying over the snow-covered Rockies.  It’s beautiful.  Not that I’m not excited to get to some milder temperatures, but it feels a lot more like December now.

The flight is pretty full, but somehow I was placed in a row with three seats and only two people.  This means I have sprawled my belongings out onto the middle seat.  The older gentleman sitting on the aisle also has his Diet Coke resting on the vacant tray.  I spent much of this flight reading a book of my advisor’s called Troubling the Angels.  It’s about women living with HIV/AIDS and it’s written in an interesting dual page format with the women’s words on the top of each page and my advisor and her co-researcher’s thoughts on the bottom.  There are also factoid boxes throughout the pages with facts about HIV/AIDS and even some poetry by the women.  The book has gotten much acclaim and has been used by lots of different departments as a study of alternative formats for “doing research” with people rather than on people.  I noticed the man sitting a seat away checking out what I was reading.  Though the title Troubling the Angels, the book’s subtitle is Women Living with HIV/AIDS.  It made me wonder if he thought I might be a woman living with HIV/AIDS.  I wasn’t bothered too much by this, but I also wondered if he, on the other hand, might have sized me up and not for one second thought I was a woman living with HIV/AIDS.  The women in the book talk about the stigma associated with the disease and how, for example, if you have something like cancer, you can tell people and people understand and are sympathetic, but if you have AIDS, people seem to take one step back and wonder what you did.  It’s a difficult negotiation and the book is a good step in helping others understand what that might be like (among other things).

It’s funny the way we do that though, size each other up, make assumptions and then judgments.  In fact, I was also sizing up my neighbor.  He’s an older white man with glasses.  He’s wearing dress pants and a sweater over top of a tailored button down shirt.  At the beginning of the flight he was looking at some paperwork that had something to do with politics and taking notes.  Then, he moved on to a crossword puzzle, then, a sudoku.  I wondered if he was a professor preparing for a conference, or perhaps some sort of politician preparing for a meeting.  I wonder also how my judgements might change if he was a different race, age, were dressed differently, etc.  I wonder why we do this so automatically.  We’re funny creatures, aren’t we?

If you knew my dad at all, you knew that every winter he wore this ridiculous 20-year-old Kent State stocking cap, with a large, even more ridiculous fuzzy ball on top.  He wore it to all of my games and field trips in school.  He wore it to church.  He wore it everywhere, all winter.  “It’s warm,” he said.  For the race, since I was dedicating it to my dad, I wanted to wear this hat.  Alas, the hat is missing, lost in the shuffle.  So, I decided to get my own version.

Ridiculous Ohio State Hat

This hat was nice and warm, but after about a mile it was a little too warm.  I kept it on the whole race though, and I liked it.  I thought I might get a few “Go Bucks!”, but I fear I was far from Buckeye country.  I only got one “O-H!” and that was at mile 5.  I thought Buckeye fans were everywhere.

Dan and I got downtown around 7, about an hour before race time.  We snuck into to the Holiday Inn’s lobby to stay warm.  At about 7:45, we headed out to line up.  It was in the low 30s and sunny, very nice weather for a winter marathon.  The race started in waves, so as each corral left, I slowly walked forward, waving goodbye to Dan.  We headed out downhill and by mile 2, the Mississippi River was in full view.  It’s pretty huge and there were even steamboats out!  I think I might have spotted Huck Finn!  Then, we headed back uphill toward Beale Street where there are a bunch of Blues cafes and a statue of Elvis (the whole area also smelled like fried food!).  Mile 3 brought us back close to the start and I got to wave to Dan one more time before we headed away from downtown.  At mile 5, we reached St. Jude.  There was a big balloon archway, kids and families everywhere and signs that said “Thank you!”  I fought back tears.  Eventually I just had to keep my eyes on the asphalt.  It was too overwhelming.  I felt my dad with me then, so proud.  He always wanted to go visit the hospital and here I was, having raised well over my $500 goal, running a marathon right through the hospital grounds.  He would have loved to have been right there with me. He was in a way, but I also wished he could have really been there.  He would have been bawling like a baby.  That was my dad.  He had a big heart.  After St. Jude, we headed out through a nice neighborhood to a nice park and then back downtown.  I felt really good and I finished with a PR (personal record)!  My fastest half marathon before this was a 2:12 and today I ran in 1:56!  I even felt like I could have kept going!  It was such a great race!

After the race, I peeled off my sweaty hat, and we headed back to the hotel for quick showers.  Then, we needed to get some Memphis Barbecue!  Dan found a place called Corky’s, which claimed that they had the best BBQ in Memphis.  Dan got some good ribs (according to him) and I was very happy with a delicious baked potato, corn on the cob, and a salad.  They also had good rolls that were covered with butter on the outside and served with some more butter on the side.  The south is not the land of the health nut, that’s for sure.

After our yummy lunch, we had plans to visit Graceland.  I don’t know what I expected, but it was way better than I thought.  It was pretty cool to see Elvis’ house preserved perfectly since the 1970s.  I’ve never seen so many mirrors in a house in all my life.  And, since it’s Christmas time, it was all decked out with original decorations (white trees and tinsel and everything!).  Dan got some really good pictures of the estate (and of the marathon) and you can see them if you click on “piictures” above!

After Graceland, we got on the rode and drove halfway home, so we would have a shorter trip tomorrow.  So, here I sit in Elizabethtown, KY.  Dan’s watching some UFC and I’m going to bed.  That PR wiped me out!  What a great day in Memphis!

This morning, Dan and I got up early to head to Memphis for my half marathon.  It was a nine hour trip and Dan drove the whole way.  He let me get some work done revising an article, emailing and finishing Twilight.  We stopped a few times to eat and take bathroom breaks, but we made pretty good time.  The tiger-striped dinosaur in Kentucky was the highlight of the trip.  At some point we also stopped in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee for an emergency bathroom break.  The only two things at this exit were a gas station and a pinball museum.  The pinball museum was a glorified trailer with shoe polish on the windows and the gas station had an outhouse!  An outhouse!  “I can hold it a little longer,” I told Dan.

When we finally  arrived in Memphis, one of the first things we saw was St. Jude’s!  It’s a huge complex of buildings right off of the highway and it made my heart flutter a little to see it.  It made my fund raising a little more real.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

A few exits later, we were downtown parking in a church parking lot and walking over to the expo to pick up my race packet.  I love race expos.  Everyone is all a buzz and excited for the race.  This one seemed especially exciting as it was for such a good cause.  At the expo I bought some St. Jude gloves (I forgot mine) and a mug (I’m a sucker for a souvenir mug).  Then, Dan and I headed back to our hotel to order pizza and relax.  This sounds like a simple task, but if you could have heard Dan try to order pizza, you would have been rolling on the floor laughing.  It was one of the most difficult conversations I have ever heard.  I’m not sure, I think it was Dan’s yankee accent, but the guy must have asked him to repeat himself about toppings SIX times.  I’m not exaggerating.  It was hilarious.  And then his name, his nice, simple name… This is what I heard: “Dan.”  “D-A-N.”  “Yeah, a D.”  “As in delta.”  “Delta.”  “D as in delta, A, N, Dan.”  And can you even imagine what happened with Angelone?!?  Holy cow, it was a nightmare.  A really hilarious nightmare. 

But, I’ve recovered from my laughing fit and am tucked in bed with my Runner’s World and hot herbal tea (free in the lobby!).  Tomorrow’s going to be a great day!

We had some complications getting to the airport in Tokyo and somehow ended up in a first class car (that we had to pay for!) on a train to Narita airport.  Regardless, we made it there and we made it home.  Dan was even able to finagle us an earlier flight from Chicago to Columbus.  Now, I love traveling, but it felt really good to get off of the plane where I am once again a literate citizen that can fully navigate roads and menus with the ease of a, well, literate citizen.  You know what also felt good?  Eating oatmeal, sleeping in my double-padded queen-sized bed, and catching up on so much English-language television (our DVR was busting!) that I thought I might die of happiness (ah, Biggest Loser).  Now, off to do other sweet things… like shower in my own bathroom, buy identifiable items at the grocery store and say something other than arrigato (thank you) and sumimasen (sorry/excuse me) to strangers.  Nothing feels better than expanding your vocabulary from three words (I know konichiwa too!) to thousands, all in a single flight over the Pacific.

Oh, and dear Ohio, this weather is lovely.  Thanks for the nice welcome home.