Monday, May 21, 2007

my desert




Me and AZ. Together for nine years. It's weird to go back there, but going back as a vacationer feels so different. Living there felt a little bit like a kind of sentence, mainly because I was pretty poor back then (can you believe it...a single mother, making a living on 6.50 an hour?) But visiting feels like.......vacation!!! We went last year in May, as the photo proves, and we took Noah with us. He had the best time, just being the only little child. We're going again in about a week. This time, it will be a whole-family (of 6!) vacation, and the first time Emma and Cole have been back since they were babies. HELLO, JACKRABBIT POOL!!!

The day we leave is actually Hannah's 18th birthday. 18. This can't be happening! My little blue-eyed-turned green-eyed baby girl, 18 years old already. It seems just yesterday I was taking her to the store where I worked, showing her off to all my friends, and her coming up with funny little sayings, like, "I got shoes", and "Are you nice?" That store was in its final stages of closing up shop when we visited last year. Jon and I met there. We even joked about having our wedding there, with me, coming down the escalator in my little wedding gown.....(we opted for an old fashioned country pioneer church in Oregon instead). It was surreal to walk through the emptiness of a place so filled with memories. Strange to see everything, even the shiny fixtures that held all that merchandise, reduced down to the lowest possible price. But even I can't resist a good sale. I got myself some new bras, and one of the purdiest cross necklaces I've seen most anywhere. I guess it turns out you just might be able to squeeze blood out of a turnip, and life goes on even when the shop's closed down.


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