-- how important is eating really?

Right now I'm sitting here in a hotel room listening to the soft rythmic sounds of springs creaking on one side, dogs bugling in misery on the other and trying to digest all the apartments we've seen today. Yes, the Drury Inn is pet-friendly. And yes, it sounds eerily like "The Dreary Inn" -- I made endless jokes about it until we arrived and I saw how swank it was. If you visit Flagstaff, you MUST stay here.

Here's an apartment we liked. But of course we love it. It's CLEAN. And decorated by someone with a huge wad of cash and no requirement to actually taylor the furnishings to its inhabitants. No computer desk, no tv, no cd tower, no drying dishes.

apartment hunting

How come apartment models are never decorated to suit the way people actually live?

Small rattan tables flanked the bed; barely sufficient surfaces to set down your tea, let alone store vibrators*, heel exfoliating cream and toenail clippers. (*of course the back massaging kind.) And not a single bookshelf. If you live there, you must not read. Ever.

The woman showing us around was beautiful, sweet and impenetrable. A cross between a nursery school teacher and a tobacco company spokesperson, her words were slow and deliberate, carefully rehearsed and eloquently enunciated, the way you might address a scared 4-year old (only we were scared 40 year olds). Not a single expression passed over her face, her pleasant manner a cloak concealing any hint of an actual personality. She was our apartment avatar. But she did her job.

Ok so I've been mentioning agonizing decisions facing us. Here's a snapshot of the last few days.

We flew out Thursday from Maryland and landed in Phoenix where I saw this piece of art in the airport. It wins my award for Longest Most Obscure Title Ever award.

Longest Most Obscure Title Ever: Paris Journal (Linking and Fusing) No.5 "7 avril 1993, mercredi, Palais Royal (Daniel Buren's sculpture, daffodils, quiche and steamed endive)." By Linda Foss Asakawa.

I swear I am not kidding. See?

Proof of longest most obscure title ever

I am adding this to my "This is Art??" web collection.

Then we drove from Phoenix to Flagstaff, elevation 7,000 feet. This is not the hot Arizona most people know. Winters are cold and summers beautiful, not sweltering.

About to get off at the exit.

Ate dinner at a great Thai place where everything on the menu sounded like it should be in my spam folder. You know those spam emails that aim to thwart filters by including random non sequiturs? "Goong Tod Lard Prik," "Goong Pad Num Prik Pao" is perfect. It could almost sound like my 7th grade nemesis muttering sweet nothings under his breath before throwing all my books off my desk in one final act of love.

I got hot & sour soup which I spent 5 minutes ordering like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. "Does it have any veggies besides mushrooms? Can I add veggies? How about more mushrooms? And shrimp, but no chicken or pork please. And can you make it not that spicy?" (YES I know I am a spice wimp.) It arrived, flaming, in this fancy bowl:
We explored downtown Flagstaff a bit. I was envious that there was so much art & culture in a town with roughly the same population as my own bland city back home.

Dan, soon to be hammered with life-altering decisions.

We explored Flagstaff some more, but not nearly as much as we'd like. This week we will have to decide what to do. Stay or go? There's that whole money thing that we have to figure out, mundane things like how will we eat and stuff. I just can't seem to cut bodily needs out of the budget like I wish!