Phoenix: We're only happy when we're shopping
0 Comments Published by Brian on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:15 PM.
Note: I started this entry on the 15th, finished it on the 16th, but back -dated it to the 15th in keeping with its original intent, and because I felt like it. -Brian
Arizona has a beauty that is different from almost anywhere else on Earth, but beautiful nonetheless. I would call it “enchanted” but I think New Mexico owns the trademark on that word. What Arizona does is show you how life is determined to just go on, however harsh the circumstances, and even flourish for that matter. I should be more like Arizona.
When I’m away I bitch about Arizona a lot, or the Phoenix area at least. It’s too hot. Everything is so spread out. You have to drive for miles and miles to go anywhere interesting, and if you don’t have a car, you’re completely fucked. The area is infested with Republicans. But when I’m here, what can I say? It’s home. Or rather, I feel a connection to this place that I can’t deny.
And yet, it’s not home. I have just one friend who still lives in Arizona. All the others have long since flown to various parts of the country. Spending all my time with my parents gets a little too intense, but I don’t really have anyone else I can go see. So in the daytime there is really only one refuge available to me: Shopping.
Near my parents home there is a mall that is supposed to be an outlet mall, but isn’t really. It’s enormous, and air-conditioned, so I’ve spent a lot of time and money there. It’s ok, because this was intended to be a shopping trip from the outset. But it gets lonely and boring having no one to talk to other than sales clerks. Talking to my parents is kind of a lost cause. I’ll try to explain more about that another time.
So I spend my time in the mall, in coffee shops, and on Phoenix city busses. In the evening, while my parents watch Fox News (which offends me on so many levels) and my mother talks back to the TV screen, I can take their car out and extend my reach a bit further, but I still don’t have anyone to go see, so I end up doing yet more shopping. Last night it was Wal-Mart in Chandler. That’s what I’ve been reduced to.
In theory, I would love to be the kind of person who goes out to hike around Papago Park, or Camelback Mountain, but I’m not that kind of person. Even if I was, it would be next to impossible for me to get to those places. So I guess it’s back to the mall for one more day.
Arizona has a beauty that is different from almost anywhere else on Earth, but beautiful nonetheless. I would call it “enchanted” but I think New Mexico owns the trademark on that word. What Arizona does is show you how life is determined to just go on, however harsh the circumstances, and even flourish for that matter. I should be more like Arizona.
When I’m away I bitch about Arizona a lot, or the Phoenix area at least. It’s too hot. Everything is so spread out. You have to drive for miles and miles to go anywhere interesting, and if you don’t have a car, you’re completely fucked. The area is infested with Republicans. But when I’m here, what can I say? It’s home. Or rather, I feel a connection to this place that I can’t deny.
And yet, it’s not home. I have just one friend who still lives in Arizona. All the others have long since flown to various parts of the country. Spending all my time with my parents gets a little too intense, but I don’t really have anyone else I can go see. So in the daytime there is really only one refuge available to me: Shopping.
Near my parents home there is a mall that is supposed to be an outlet mall, but isn’t really. It’s enormous, and air-conditioned, so I’ve spent a lot of time and money there. It’s ok, because this was intended to be a shopping trip from the outset. But it gets lonely and boring having no one to talk to other than sales clerks. Talking to my parents is kind of a lost cause. I’ll try to explain more about that another time.
So I spend my time in the mall, in coffee shops, and on Phoenix city busses. In the evening, while my parents watch Fox News (which offends me on so many levels) and my mother talks back to the TV screen, I can take their car out and extend my reach a bit further, but I still don’t have anyone to go see, so I end up doing yet more shopping. Last night it was Wal-Mart in Chandler. That’s what I’ve been reduced to.
In theory, I would love to be the kind of person who goes out to hike around Papago Park, or Camelback Mountain, but I’m not that kind of person. Even if I was, it would be next to impossible for me to get to those places. So I guess it’s back to the mall for one more day.
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