Its Raining in Phoenix!

I turned off my AC and am sitting at the kitchen table with my porch door wide open. (Yes, it is still hot here - 97 the last time I checked). The "rainstorms" here are nothing like back east in terms of volume of water - a heavy sprinkle perhaps - but the storm part is incredible. I was driving home from the library when it started in earnest and several times I had to slow down because clouds of sand and leaves were browning-out my view of the road. Its the desert equivalent of a snow storm. The sky is a deep purple, and the air is hazy with ozone, and when the lightning strikes it is not just one long beam, but a network of jagged white lines covering the whole sky.

Red Rock Country - Visit One

This is going to sound very new-agey, but since living in Phoenix I feel disconnected to nature and to the earth. My relationship with the envirnoment is usually through a car window, and my experience of being outside is usually not a good one - the highs are still above 110 on a regular basis and the traffic is terrible. I can see that if one grew up in a suburban environment like this one, and didn't visit other places, one would be pretty apathetic about causes like recycling, reducing pollution and saving endangered species. Its hard to see the value in nature if you've never gotten anything from it.

But enough soap boxing. To renew my environmentalist soul I went up to Sedona for the day on Saturday. Sedona is about 2 hours north of Phoenix, in the heart of red rock country. It is so incredibly beautiful up there; having that experience a few hours away totally makes up for living in a concrete city.

I started my day by hiking the Brins Mesa Trail, which is a 6 mi round trip hike up the east side of a mesa, and then down through the wooded area on the west side. Below is mitten rock, which I high-fived on my hike. (I was alone on my adventure, which was probably a good thing because I was doing weired Ithaca stunts like hugging big outcroppings of rock and talking to trees). (I still don't have a camera, so these are stolen pictures.)



The colors are even more amazing in real life - red and white striated rock, green trees, purple prickly pears.

After my hike I visted the chapel of the holy cross, which is built into the side of a mesa and is open to the public. The chapel is small - two rows of maybe 10 pews each, but looks out over the Sedona valley (Sam, you would love it! Next time you visit...)



Sedona was quite touristy (or at least the part I was in), so I spent just enough time there to look into a few art galleries. And I stopped in the Three Dog Bakery, a bakery that only sells products for dogs, including flavored dog treats in bulk (1/2 lb minimum).

Instead I sat at the Blue Moon Cafe in Oak Creek, a tiny town between Sedona and Rt. 17 (the major north-south rt, between Flagstaff and Phoenix. It was there that I ran into my first real, live tumbleweeds crossing the road. The Blue Moon was great because they let me sit on their patio for almost two hours, nursing my $2.75 iced tea, using their wireless internet and reading my arizona travel books. Their bathroom was wall papered with kitchy redneck signs, one of which read "Yer family tree is a bush", which I found inordinately funny.

I have a long weekend next weekend (labor day), and I fully expect to go back for a longer hike, and to hunt down bookstores in the area. I hear there is one called the Well Red Coyote.

Music

Hey, remember this band? I remember turning this on at that awkward party of the straw fame.

I thought I'd post some of the good music I've been listening to because (a) I thought you might enjoy it! And (b) I hope that the god of music karma will repay me by introducing me to some great new bands because I am sick of everything I've been listening to. For example, I am listening to Country 102.5 as I type. There needs to be an intervention.

Take Me to the Riot - Stars
I've Got Friends - Manchester Orchestra
Wolves at Night - Manchester Orchestra
Hang Me Up to Dry - Cold War Kids
N.B. The cold war kids song was popular during winter break/early spring semester of our sophomore year...when we first started hanging out like whoa.

Also have you heard this song by babybash?! Its my new terrible fav.

Tolerable Amounts of Eggplant

Here is the eggplant dish I was telling you about. I think it is called tourlu if you want to look up variations.

Ingredients
2 eggplant
1 large onion, chopped
4 cups chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
5 lg cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
any other veggies you want, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Cut each eggplant in half length-wise and lay on a cookie sheet skin facing up. Brush the skin with olive oil and stick under the broiler for 5-10 minutes, until the skin blisters. Take the eggplants out of the oven and put them all together in a plastic bag for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile put all the chopped veggies in a casserole dish, add maybe 4 tbsps olive oil and salt and pepper.
3. After curing in the plastic bag, chop the eggplant and mix into the casserole dish.
4. Cook at 350, covered, for 1-1.5 hours, or until you think it is done.

I made a dressing to go on top that had:
1 part tahini
1 part water
chopped garlic
splash lemon juice
salt and pepper

A Mediterranean feast!

Deep down I'm a nice person. I swear.

Ok Miami, you inspired me to post again.

When I used to TA at Wes we had a book called The Book of Shame, where we would put hilarious or noteworthy student answers. Sometimes it would be really bad grammar, or something like calling a "volitile" gas "hostile", or drawing a carbon atom with five bonds (you're going to have to trust me on the last one). We never put the student's name in the book, but searching for these gems passed the time when we were grading sixty problem sets.

As a middle school/high school teacher I naturally have to be more sensitive to the failings of my students, which means I can only relate their failings to people who don't know them. Like you. Plus, this will give you an idea of my hilarious life as a teacher.

To start off I have a very smart seventh grader who likes to ask questions that are jsut far enough off topic to be annoying. For example we were talking about specialized cells on Friday (blood, muscle, etc.) and she raises her hand to ask "Do you think human cells are flamable?" (This is the same student who tries to bring up some sort of famous murder daily in class, and then gets indignant when I don;t know what she is talking about.)

One of my chem students wrote on his exam that density is an introspective property. He meant intensive, meaning the property does not change with a change in the amount of matter. Or possibly he meant that density is exceptionally self reflective for a ratio of two quantities.

And I had another seventh grader ask, "Don't only women have hormones?" In repsonse I treated the students to an unsolicited lesson on how testosterone actuallu comes from estrogen and NO WOMEN ARE NOT CONTROLLED BY HOROMONES. I spend a lot of time laughing with myself, which, really, is not any different from any earlier period in my life.

Also...

I am in one of those great coffeeshops we like, and I just had a perfect opportunity to make a TP steal. I refrained though, only because I didn't have my purse with me. DRAT!

There has been a dearth of posts...

This is mostly because Batman & Robin were up to their old tricks including fun times and hard work. By this I mean, I was staying with bananz in Chandler, AZ and then both of us started our NEW JOBS!

Anna's Batcave is pretty sweet. There is plenty of space and at least one instance of eclectic wall decor. I arrived there Friday night on July 31 and left Saturday morning on August 8th. 

(Eclectic wall decor, not to be confused with the walls of eclectic)

We visited several used bookstore and public libraries (as is our way!) I also saw Anna's classroom, where she will mold young minds in a chemical nature. There are itty bitty beakers and plenty of stir rods, but also important safety posters.

One of the strangest things Anna and I have ever done together is eat pizza with my old mailroom compatriot Shannon (from colgate?!?) while being serenaded by a giant pipe organ and several animatronic instruments. In doing this strange thing, we also began to reminisce about some of the more strange, daring, silly, unexpected, etc. things that we have done together. Despite my initial disbelief, by reminiscing about our many capers, we both acknowledged our true responsible-daredevil nature. We are the proteins after all. Below are a couple photos illustrating this latest strange escapade.

(Organ Stop Pizza and Organ close up stolen from website)

We also made time for an educational field trip to The Heard Museum, an American Indian museum. The AMST major in me was internally debating the politics of making museums that focus on people and cultures that are still alive and thriving/struggling today. There's something about museums that tends to locate all subjects in the past. The displays themselves did much work to counter this tendency, however I didn't think our tour guide did the same. Either way, there was beautiful artwork, particularly ceramics, all around. 

I did some experiential learning: 

I found out that sitting on a metal statue in 115 degree heat is very uncomfortable and not recommended. 

Then we struck our traditional poses and touched a cactus together. 

(Anna's pointer finger followed by my squishy hand.)

In addition to these things, there were some good times to be had by a big bunch of us when we went to a dueling piano bar. Of course, this was only after I remembered to bring my passport out with me because I only have my expired drivers' license right now. Yes, I play the part of international woman of mystery quite well.

From L to R: Shannon (from Colgate!), Batman, Robin, & Kara 

(mentor science teacher and master fun-time haver)

Samantha & Anna circa August 2009

I miss you!

Love, S