palo verde trees

[gurdonark]

Phoenix sits mid-desert, ringed by mountains. I ride the elevator in the Hyatt, looking out the glass window at mist across a horizon of houses leading to those mountains. Priceline managed to secure me the room at the Hyatt inexpensively, but when I walked back from the copy shop at dawn, the fellow was putting newspapers outside people's rooms. I didn't get one--maybe only "frequent stayers" get to read.

I sat last night at a Pizzeria Uno in one of those "nice downtown artsy shopping plazas", in which the clientele was outnumbered by the service staff. I looked in a shop full of tourist memorabilia, mostly brightly colored folk art from the southwest and Mexico; it's always chic to knock anything tourist as inauthentic, but I rather liked the sense of being in a sea of colors.

This morning, as I walked in the dawnish air, green palo verde trees, a few still finishing with the last of their yellow blooms, served as havens for choruses of singing birds. It was an Italian movie moment, walking alone, in a wispy half-light, in a desert downtown, while songbirds sang from gnarled trees.

Another day of business today, and then home again. I am eager for the weekend.

Comments

[gvnan.livejournal.com]

living in the area my whole life makes me hate all the 'western' souvioner shops. ive found that people from the east coast (that have never been here) actually think we are all cowboys riding horses and what not.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

yes, that makes sense. I like Phoenix a lot, but it is no cowboy place.