Desert Weekend

My friend Christi has been laid up with a bum hip in Phoenix for over a year now. She's fighting the migraine headache that is United Airlines workmen's comp. She, and many other numbers of my friends, have been injured in the line of duty and the company fights them tooth and nail to get their injuries fixed. Yet again, another reason not to become a flight attendant. So Christi has been asking me to come down for a while now and I had a few days off from work, so I headed south to my former hood Phoenix on Saturday. (I lived in Phoenix for a year in 2004.)

Southwest got me into Phoenix a few minutes late, but quite cheaply. (Try FREE!) There really is something to the idea that with no expectations, the flight can't be too bad. It's still such a novelty, after working for the airlines for 10 years, to have a confirmed seat and know I'm going to get on the flight for sure. On top of that, I get to wear whatever the hell I want. Life is truly about the little things.

The weather in Phoenix was gorgeous, between 75 and 90 degrees during the day and not too hot. The first night, we hit Macayo's and had some good Mexican food and margaritas. We headed back to curiosities and watched most of season 1 of Sex and the City. Sunday, we hung close to home. I slept in late, went running, we watched more Sex and a movie. We also got some decent pizza from Nello's.

Monday, we headed over to Christi's mom's apartment and I carried up a new Gazelle exercise machine that had been waiting at Christi's since Mother's Day. Between the 3 of us mechanically challenged souls, we set up the machine in a reasonable amount of time. I am completely uncoordinated on the elliptical machines. I proved to be slightly more coordinated on the Gazelle, but not really. At least I didn't fall over. We headed back to Christi's and made preparations to head out. Unfortunately, Christi's hip was acting up and she had to bow out of the evening's festivities.

My friend Katrina picked me up around 5 and we were off. On Monday nights in Phoenix, there is a gay Martini bar (Amsterdam) that hosts Martinis and Manicures. All martinis are $5 and they bring in nail techs to give you a mini manicure for $5. It's a great promotion and it used to be the place to be in Phoenix. The after work crowd would come in early and then throughout the night, they would be replaced by queens who needed to freshen up before hitting the town. Currently Central Avenue is all torn up with light rail construction, so the after work crowd never quite materialized. However, sitting at the bar was an old acquaintance from Northwest Airlines in Memphis many a year ago, my friend James. He, Kat, and I quickly tore into some martinis and gabbed about our respective lives and airline gossip. Once an airline employee, always an airline employee.

As the evening progressed, we were joined by my friends Rich and Justin. I have known them for years since we all met in San Francisco in 2002. Rich and Justin discovered the circuit this year and have hit the gym hard. Between the two of them, they have lost a total of 160 pounds this year! I almost didn't recognize them. It was great to see them, as always, and to see them so happy and reenergized. A guy named Mike joined our posse and we put some liquor down! After leaving Amsterdam, we headed over to 5 and Diner to grab some food. Our waiter was named Spinner and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Rich and Justin have not turned into queens that don't eat. (My pet peeve. I don't care if you've got some meat on your bones, but it is a cardinal sin to not eat with me. Breaking bread has been a tradition since the dawn of time.) After eating, we headed over to Charlie's and rounded out the evening dancing. It was a really fun night with good friends, a generous amount of alcohol, and a lot of laughter. I wish Rich, Justin, Kat, and Christi all lived closer, but in reality, with all of us leading such busy lives, we would likely not see as much of each other as we would like. The year I lived in Phoenix, I was so busy commuting with my airline job that I saw very little of any of my friends.


I crashed at Kat's house that night and then she dropped me back at Christi's on Tuesday, just in time for me to pack and get to the airport for my flight home. Southwest left on time and arrived a bit early back into Oakland. All in all, I had a great few days away and it's always nice to come home and sleep in your own bed. My new apartment is quite close to Oakland airport, so it's great to have everything so close and convenient.

I am back to work today and feeling pretty good.

Cuidate a todo.

(I apologize to everyone who is not in photos. I was trying to add more photos, but blogger is not loving me tonight. I promise I will get you guys in the future.)