Peoria, Arizona & Arizona State University
Thursday, August 4th: Woke up, repacked and headed to Denny's for breakfast all by my lonesome. Got on the road for my first real time alone since I left. My need for control fulfilled in speed of my car, the frequency of my pit stops, the exact nature of my iPod playlists. The drive was better than I had expected. Hundreds of windmills lining the landscape, California's version of desert beating down on my car. Flat, hot and rugged. Beat Coop home from work. We had some vodka drinks in his beautiful, grown up apartment. So proud of him, of both of us--to think that six years ago I was in a shitty, deadend relationship and Coop was struggling with academics. By comparison, Coop just did what I'm about to--pick up and move across the country and start over. Got some dinner, met his work friends for a drink and made it an early night.
Friday, August 5th: 90 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. Fucking-A! Coop had to work. Worked on my journal, watched some TV and did laundry. Went grocery shopping. Set the table and made rigatonis with meat sauce and salad. I sorely miss meals with Coop. Somehow found the post-pasta energy required to go rent a movie. Ended up with Season 3 of The Family Guy. Just Coop and I on the couch, just like the old days...
Saturday, August 6th: Coop's day off and we slept in a bit. Drank coffee and had a great bleary-eyed, messy hair morning talk--one of those everything and nothing conversations. Zoned out, watched cartoons and Coop made breakfast. Finally showered for the day and decided to go outside in the oppressively hot weather. Went to a real spiffy car wash. Quality! The arcade was packed, so we ended up at Dairy Queen. Went to see Wedding Crashers. Hilarious! Back at Coop's for cartoons, a phone call from Joe, and more words to exchange. Our pizza took forever to be delivered by a confused, stuttering boy. Went to bed early. Coop has the real world tomorrow.
Sunday, August 7th: More laundry. Errands--post office and Best Buy. Back at the apartment, I compiled a commemorative road trip CD; sort of a start-to-finish record of our travels. Burned copies for the kids. Hand wrote the liner notes for all four copies. When I listened to it, I got goosebumps and weepy-eyed. It was like doing the trip all over again; the sign of a good mix tape, sounds like the trip felt. The summer of singer/songwriters is coming to an end. After Coop got home from work, we went to dinner at his favorite bar/restaurant called Blue Moon. It's going to tear my heart out to leave Coop. It was hard enough when he left me. Such a beautiful soul, so far away.
Monday, August 8th: Last morning without Coop. No errands left to do. Really, really missing Dante. Decided to skip University of Arizona. Have heard nothing good about it from local folks. Spent all day coalescing the scenarios I've come up with on these lazy days:
(1) Get into an MFA program. Get a house and a dog.
(2) Find a teaching position or grant writing job. Move West.
(3) Live in Pittsburgh, maybe do some subbing--save money.
(4) Take up the New York job offer. Live in a broom closet. Go into debt.
Round and round and round I go...
...where my anal, future planning, neurosis stops, nobody knows.
Tuesday, August 9th: Coop's day off. Drank a whole bunch of coffee. We were going to check out Arizona State University anyway, so I found a tattoo parlour in Tempe. Went straight there, picked an artist, discussed my sketch and made an appointment for an hour later. Went to breakfast at Chompy's. Had an avacado omelette. Trying to cram in all the fresh produce I can before I get back to Ohio. Had some time before the tattoo appointment. Drove down Mill Street. Here's an analogy: Tempe is to Phoenix as Bowling Green is to Toledo. Although, Arizona is beautiful and the Tempe/Phoenix area is ripe with good food, venues and manageable cost of living. Back to Club Tattoo where Trini finishes my tatt in less than an hour. Hell yea! Went to ASU where they had some ridiculously complicated, self-guided GPS tour that was broken anyway. Convinced one of the tour chicks to just show me a few buildings. We power-walked campus, trying to outrun an approaching rainstorm. Apparently it's monsoon season. I think I'm 100% on ASU, but the school is definitely my number three choice so far (below U of Montana and San Diego SU). Anyway, Coop and I headed back to Peoria, picked up a couple of In & Out Burgers, rented a movie and chilled out. Repacked and went to bed early. I would do anything to not have to say goodbye to Coop tomorrow...
Friday, August 5th: 90 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. Fucking-A! Coop had to work. Worked on my journal, watched some TV and did laundry. Went grocery shopping. Set the table and made rigatonis with meat sauce and salad. I sorely miss meals with Coop. Somehow found the post-pasta energy required to go rent a movie. Ended up with Season 3 of The Family Guy. Just Coop and I on the couch, just like the old days...
Saturday, August 6th: Coop's day off and we slept in a bit. Drank coffee and had a great bleary-eyed, messy hair morning talk--one of those everything and nothing conversations. Zoned out, watched cartoons and Coop made breakfast. Finally showered for the day and decided to go outside in the oppressively hot weather. Went to a real spiffy car wash. Quality! The arcade was packed, so we ended up at Dairy Queen. Went to see Wedding Crashers. Hilarious! Back at Coop's for cartoons, a phone call from Joe, and more words to exchange. Our pizza took forever to be delivered by a confused, stuttering boy. Went to bed early. Coop has the real world tomorrow.
Sunday, August 7th: More laundry. Errands--post office and Best Buy. Back at the apartment, I compiled a commemorative road trip CD; sort of a start-to-finish record of our travels. Burned copies for the kids. Hand wrote the liner notes for all four copies. When I listened to it, I got goosebumps and weepy-eyed. It was like doing the trip all over again; the sign of a good mix tape, sounds like the trip felt. The summer of singer/songwriters is coming to an end. After Coop got home from work, we went to dinner at his favorite bar/restaurant called Blue Moon. It's going to tear my heart out to leave Coop. It was hard enough when he left me. Such a beautiful soul, so far away.
Monday, August 8th: Last morning without Coop. No errands left to do. Really, really missing Dante. Decided to skip University of Arizona. Have heard nothing good about it from local folks. Spent all day coalescing the scenarios I've come up with on these lazy days:
(1) Get into an MFA program. Get a house and a dog.
(2) Find a teaching position or grant writing job. Move West.
(3) Live in Pittsburgh, maybe do some subbing--save money.
(4) Take up the New York job offer. Live in a broom closet. Go into debt.
Round and round and round I go...
...where my anal, future planning, neurosis stops, nobody knows.
Tuesday, August 9th: Coop's day off. Drank a whole bunch of coffee. We were going to check out Arizona State University anyway, so I found a tattoo parlour in Tempe. Went straight there, picked an artist, discussed my sketch and made an appointment for an hour later. Went to breakfast at Chompy's. Had an avacado omelette. Trying to cram in all the fresh produce I can before I get back to Ohio. Had some time before the tattoo appointment. Drove down Mill Street. Here's an analogy: Tempe is to Phoenix as Bowling Green is to Toledo. Although, Arizona is beautiful and the Tempe/Phoenix area is ripe with good food, venues and manageable cost of living. Back to Club Tattoo where Trini finishes my tatt in less than an hour. Hell yea! Went to ASU where they had some ridiculously complicated, self-guided GPS tour that was broken anyway. Convinced one of the tour chicks to just show me a few buildings. We power-walked campus, trying to outrun an approaching rainstorm. Apparently it's monsoon season. I think I'm 100% on ASU, but the school is definitely my number three choice so far (below U of Montana and San Diego SU). Anyway, Coop and I headed back to Peoria, picked up a couple of In & Out Burgers, rented a movie and chilled out. Repacked and went to bed early. I would do anything to not have to say goodbye to Coop tomorrow...
posted by Chelsea at 6:46 PM
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