Phoenix Weekend

Since there is little exciting going on in my life at the moment (besides serious procrastination in writing this damn Islamic Law paper), I thought I would quickly share a few photos from my trip to Phoenix two weekends ago.

Without being obnoxiously redundant, I stayed with my mom's 72-year old cousin, Ardy, who is just the coolest older woman in the world (besides my own mother, that is). She's intelligent, fit, youthful, and very nice too. We just hung out at her cute little bungalow house having dinner on Friday night, but then she drove me all around Phoenix on Saturday so I could get a feel for the city. It's really a lot like Tucson except richer, greener, and prettier, and much bigger too. One of the highlights of the afternoon was a drive around the very wealthy neighborhood surrounding the Biltmore Arizona Hotel, which is apparently the neighborhood where Nancy Reagan's parents lived in their old age. I guess her dad was a wealthy doctor in Phoenix. Here is a picture I took of one of the rather ostentatious homes:



Speaking of Nancy Reagan (and her parents), I saw a whole lot of old people waltzing around this area of Phoenix (that "good weather and lots of money" combo seems to get the rich old birds crawling out of the woodwork). Doesn't it suck that by the time you can afford to live in a neighborhood as nice as this you are likely also suffering from arthritis, corns, incontinence, colonitis, and cataracts? I took this picture out of the front windshield as proof:




But back to money. I have a theory that money doesn't buy class. Look at what these people have done to the front of their beautiful home:

What's up with the bronze horses? Are we living in ancient Greece?

And on a final note, while we're on the topic of gorgeous homes and ancient civilizations, I also visited my former co-worker, who lives in a suburb of Phoenix with his wife and their 2-year old son. Their swimming pool area also reminded me a bit of the ancient Mediterranean:

I'm liking the dispensing of chlorinated water by the large urns.

And last but not least, here is mi amigo and his familia:


End of procrastination. Start of productivity.
Ciao.