Cry Me a River

Stepping outside in Phoenix right now is like walking straight into an oven. Arriving at the airport and stepping onto black tarmac wearing a sweater because it was only 54 degrees out when I left Seattle is downright spontaneous combustion-worthy. The heat literally knocked the wind out of me. It made me claustrophobic with its weight, so that I was pulling my sweater off before I even got to the first curb outside baggage claim. It made me want to hop right back on that airplane until the end of October when daytime highs here will finally dip below 100 again.

Cry me a river, right? (Just please make it a cold river I could plunge into and feel refreshed.)

I just got back from two of the most stunning days in Seattle. Days where it seems everyone is outside, shit-eating grins on their faces simply for the fact that the sun is shining and what more reason do you need? (I swear, that city was showing off for me, from the minute my plane landed and Mt. Rainier greeted me in the distance to the pinkish purple sunset over the skyline and Elliot Bay my last night there.) So I understand if it's hard to feel sorry for me when I say living in Phoenix is like sticking a hot blow dryer in your face and turning the turbo switch on. I've been lucky enough to escape the heat a lot more than usual this summer, and I do appreciate it.

I'm lucky to have a husband who recognizes when I need a mental health break from here, who let me leave with only three days' notice so that I could spend time getting my toes painted and taking a canning class with my oldest and best friend and her friend, Jenny. (Yes, canning.) So that I could sip cool rosé on a rooftop deck while eating the most delectable peaches covered with salty crumbled cheese and think Life doesn't get much better than this. So that I could recharge my batteries before I stepped back into the chemo ring again this morning.

I'm so lucky for that.

learning to can

I'm also lucky to have a friend who knows me so well we might as well be sisters, a friend who can make me laugh until my face hurts, then turn around and get teary-eyed with me because life has thrown us a metric shit ton of curve balls the past couple of years. But none of that seems like too heavy a burden when you're surrounded by good food and sunshine and love. God, Seattle turned me into a total hippie. Worth it.