And then camel camel just laid down

Last week my parents got tired of me moping around the house and decided to send me to Phoenix with to see my brother. Essentially my dad said "Hey, do you want to go to Phoenix and stay in a luxury resort?" and I said "Yeah, I'm not busy".

So here I am, at the Camelback Inn. Yesterday I spent the whole day at the pool, gazing up at the mountain and being waited on by incessantly cheerful and tan young men. They seemed so eager to do something that I took to asking them whatever I happened to be thinking about at the time - things like "where can I get some Fritos" (tragically: no where) and "how onion-heavy is the salsa, on a scale of one to ten". They seemed REALLY happy to find answers for me. Like house elfs. (I've been reading Harry Potter again). Today I'm going to meet my brother's fiance's parents and then we're going to work on a new recipe for homebrewing.

Arizona creeps me out. Everything that's not brown is a slightly lighter shade of brown. There's no trees, and no water. Phoenix is very flat, and then there are big jagged mountains encircling it, but the mountains don't have any trees or shrubs. I do, however, like the cacti. I really like them. I keep stopping to examine different ones and physically restraining myself from touching them. I can't believe there are so many kinds. In my mind, cacti only exist as joke props for Wiley Coyote to land on, so seeing them just casually hanging out next to the sidewalk, as if they were some sort of normal plant, is really surprising. I also like Camelback Mountain itself, because it also looks unnatural.




What you can see in this picture (taken from my porch) is his hump and the back of his head. For a long time I thought he had two humps and a big rock at the front was his head, but it turns out he's a dromedary camel and the hump on the right is his giant head. It's like he just laid down to take a nap and turned into stone. I like looking at the Camelback at random times during the day to see if it's changed. It's best at sunset because it turns all red.

So anyway. While I do enjoy the lap of luxury (seriously, they make the beds while you're not looking and then come back and turn them down and then come back and make them), I'll be glad to get back to trees and river and especially the baby Phineas. Walking in the front door and not being greeted is not as much fun.

Time to go check on the mountain and do some high-quality reading of crime novels. Until next time, loyal readers.