I did it. I successfully went to visit my cousin in Arizona during Oregon's ugliest part of the year. This is something I started a year ago and my goal is to do this from now until infinity. Who would spend a few hundred dollars to fly somewhere to see a family member SOLELY for the purpose to hangout with them? That's right, ME. The only plan I had was spending time with my cousin so we can laugh, play, and bond.
Last year was the first year I embarked on my journey to the Southwest and it was fantastic. This year I went at the end of March instead of February, because I'm in school and spring break was the only option I had before summer. Thinking about it now, I have never really done anything special during a spring break of years past which supports the common theme for my life lately: “times are a changing”.
I started my vacation at the end of winter term. I spent the day recovering from school and getting myself in vacation mode on what was a decent spring day in the Pacific Northwest. No matter how hard Oregon tried to keep me with this weather it was far too late. At this point I’m sooooo done with winter and so ready for spring. Especially because the week before I left to go to Arizona, the weather was cold and nasty. Winter was definitely getting its last bit of nasty weather out before switching to spring. By march I'm ready for more sun and warmth. Arizona seemed the best place to get that and hopefully, I would somehow capture this warmer weather from Arizona and bring it back with me on my return. One could only hope right? So off I went.
The flight did have a bit of turbulence on take off and landing but was pleasant nonetheless. Something that I realized about myself on this plane ride, was I don't feel comfortable until the decent of the plane. I think that I have mentioned before that I’m not the biggest fan of flying, but I have gotten better. Especially because it usually means that I’m going somewhere awesome. Kudos to the pilot because when landing in Phoenix, they put the plane down on the runway silky smooth. I have to give credit where credit is due and that landing was one of the best I have experienced.
Also, on the flight there was a bit of a medical emergency. Two doctors and a nurse helped a woman, which from what I heard, this woman had low blood sugar and she seemed to get better as the flight went on. I bring this up for two reasons; one being that it fascinated me because I always wondered what happens on a plane when there is a medical emergency. Secondly, because this situation brought out the worst in the passenger sitting next to me on the plane. The two people who sat next to me on the plan was a mother and her autistic child, who I think was in their late teens or early twenties. Most of the flight was fine and I wasn't really bothered by either of them. Until the woman had the blood sugar issue that caused all the flight attendants to focused their energy on her instead of passing out our in flight drinks and snacks. The flight attendants had been taking orders just before this woman starting having issues. Now, because they were trying to get things under control with the woman, they stopped focusing on getting the food and drinks. Which is absolutely the right thing to do and would expect the same kind of focus on me, if I was the one having a medical emergency on a plane flight. Well, I have found that not everyone in this world is that caring. The mother sitting with her son made a comment that really made me sad. After her son kept asking about snacks she said to him and I quote, "Well, because some woman needs help we don't get our snacks or drinks." REALLY? Wow… Have some compassion for a woman having a medical issue at an altitude of 30,000 feet. You think a woman with an autistic son would have more patients or compassion. Nope, guess not. It gets better too because the mother finally gets up, goes through her carry on luggage and pulls out a big bag of fruit snacks for her son. If you had something to eat in the first place then why the hell are you complaining? The drink and SMALL bag of crackers or peanuts really isn’t enough to feed anyone. There are many things in life that just make me sad and this was one of them. Anyway, I shall move on.
I landed in Arizona (remember that silky smooth landing from the pilot) and Jason met me on my way to get my baggage. I’m always so happy to see him and that has been the case all through my life. I won't go through the minute by minute of what happened from here, but just know that when we hugged my vacation truly started. Jason has and will always be one of those people in my life that no matter what is going on we always have fun. For the rest of that day and the other 4 days, nothing but good times were had.
One thing I wanted to do while visiting Jason was make a playlist of songs that remind me of him. That way we could listen to it on our 45 minute drive from the airport to his house. Well, after going through all my music I realized it would be hard to keep the playlist to 45 minutes. After I had gone through all my music I had a playlist of over 8 hours. So a 45 minute playlist was a no go, and figured I would try 120 minutes. Which is a standard amount of time on a regular CD these days. Nope, still a no go. This was just music that I had on CD or on my computer. I knew that even with all the music I collected for this challenge, I was still missing many, many songs. I managed to get a playlist to under 100 songs by the time I left to see him. Even though the playlist was much bigger than I first set out to build, I think I did a very good job at picking songs that really represented our history with each other. Boy was it tough though, but a fun little challenge I set up for myself. Music plays a huge part in both of our lives and so you can image that there would be lots of music that connects us. All this music is connected to our long history as cousins and friends. As you can imagine we didn’t finish the playlist during our trip back from the airport, but we continued playing songs off of it at his house and whenever we went out. As we went through each song I had a story and a memory to go with each. It helped us both go back in time and relive some of the great times in our lives. The music that we listened to was sprinkled throughout my trip and created a great soundtrack for the vacation. The beauty of this is that the playlist is still on going because Jason and I talk about music even to this day. His influence in music that I listen to is so strong that I would say out of the 400+ CDs, Jason has probably been a part of 50% of my collection. He still does to this days as well.
My trip to see Jason is basically a gamer weekend to the next level. My cousins place in Arizona is a gamers paradise. From actual arcade machines in his living room to all his electronic toys, there is definitely no shortage of things to do. It’s always hard trying to decide what exactly we should do. Last year I went through his collection of video games and picked out many that I hadn’t played for different consoles. We ended up making huge stacks of games that we played through. This year I told him to pic out some gems from whatever consoles he felt he wanted to play. He definitely picked out some awesome games. There are many ways to play games with people across the inter-webs these days and Jason and I play frequently online together. You know what though? I still prefer sitting next to the person I’m playing with and just enjoying a game with them. That is exactly how Jason and I gamed for years before online gaming really took off. I use to bring my actual desktop PC out to his house every weekend for many years. Yes, even my big monitor was buckled into the backseat of my Acura Legend on every trip I took out to his house. If that doesn’t give you a better idea of my dedication to gaming then I don’t know what would. So, being there at Jay’s place with nothing but us and video games is exactly where we feel right at home. The four days of my trip is definitely not enough time to play everything, but we made the best of the time we had that is a guarantee.
Even with all the gaming we did with each other, we actually managed to leave the house a few times. Also I did take a shower everyday while I was in Arizona, I wasn't plugged in all the time. The weather was a perfect mid 80 degrees. This was far different from the weather that was going on in Oregon. Every time we left the house we chose to drive in Jay’s lovely Spa yellow 2002 Honda S 2000 convertible. Man what a fun and perfect car for cruising. Jason was nice enough to lend me a pair of sunglasses that actually looked pretty damn sweet on me if I do say so (see picture below). Cruising around listening to music was another thing that we did a a lot when Jason lived in Oregon. Arizona is no exception, lots of sunshine and music was enjoyed as we drove around.
Why on earth did we even leave Jason’s video game palace? Well, to hunt for more games of course! One of the great things about Arizona is they have a chain of stores called Bookmans. At these stores there is a collection of used books, CDs, records, music equipment, and so much more. My favorite section in Bookman’s is the used video games and consoles section. Last year was my first time in one of these stores and my mind was blown to say the least. Their collection of used video games is the best I have seen and the prices for the most part are fair. Last year I spent around $150 dollars between the two Bookman’s that Jay took me too. This year I was trying to be a little more picky about what I bought and how much I spent on games. I didn’t get any super rare finds, or any of the games I always check for, but overall I got some real classic games to add to my collection. Looking over the collection of NES games I have now I really feel I have some of the best NES games. Which really got me back into that console. So, after visiting two stores I ended up spending a little over $100. Hunting for games is one of the many things I love doing with Jason. We both really like digging through the games to find the deals and gems.
While we were out and about we stopped and had one of my other favorite things that I only get in Arizona. That of course is In and Out Burger. Now for those of you that have never been to an In and Out, you should definitely give it a try if you ever get the opportunity to do so. They are only located in California and Arizona I believe. Every time I’m in either of those states I try to make a stop. Now for those of you reading this that haven’t experienced In and Out Burger let me just say this; In and Out is not the greatest burger place on the planet, however, In and Out Burger is definitely one of the best fast food burger joints I have ever eaten. The thing about In and Out is that they keep things simple and consistent. What I like most about them is that they are the only ones that do a lettuce wrap burger so its easy to eat. Every other fast food place (Burgerville included) just throws the patty and lettuce in a box with the condiments. Not at In and Out, they do it right and for that I appreciate the extra effort. They use quality product too which is the main reason that they say they won’t expand outside of Arizona or California, because they want to be able to use products that are local to that region. When reading the book titled Fast Food Nation, In and Out Burger was the only fast food chain that was somewhat praised in the book. Anyway, it was good to let loose and allow myself to have a treat. Before going to my cousins I had been very strict about what I was eating. I have to remember that one meal isn’t going to turn me back into the 350 pound plus Derrick of the past. It’s making sure it does not become a habit is the key for me. While I was there we had In and Out twice. It gave us an excuse to drive around in Jason’s S 2000 and soak up some sun.
While I’m on the topic of food one of my many challenges with how I eat is being able to continue my healthy eating while traveling. Every time I travel I find it an exciting challenge to keep myself on track as far as staying close to what I’m supposed to eat. This year I asked Jason what kind of cooking supplies he had in his kitchen to help myself plan ahead for how I was going to stay on track with my diet. Last year I did all right, but I lived off too many carbs during my stay. This year I thought to myself, well I’m staying in a house not a hotel room so why shouldn’t I be able to cook? Chef Heine hit the road and I have to say that I did very well. Jason took me to many stores and I stocked up on all the things I eat at home. It worked out very well and boy did that make my trip even better. Eating well is such a big part of who I am that I get bogged down when I eat poorly. Being at my cousins was no time to be bogged down. Being at his house is a place to have fun. I made most of my meals and had plenty of healthy snacks to eat. That was such a relief and I was glad to see myself getting better at planning and making it easier to stay on track. We did have some of our classic gamer food too, like chicken nuggets (gluten free) and tots (both sweet potato and regular potato) as a few of our meals. I did however eat some kale with them to add some balance. One night we even cooked some wonderful steaks accompanied by stir fried green beans and some more tots. I also made a huge beautiful salad to go with this as well. Yum! Even got Jay eating some green beans and he even asked for more! This is not to say he doesn’t eat vegetables because he does, I was just excited to cook for someone else. Love it. Just so wonderful to take this part of my life on the road and even share it with who I’m visiting with.
So, really that was what we did while I was in Arizona. This is basically the same thing we have done for so many years. Just spending quality time with each other. We are the old school gamers these days. Going through all the music I picked out brought up great memories we have shared. We both realized that there really is just so much music between us and even more than that, so much history that we share. See what most people don’t understand is how important we have been for each other. I was telling him after I got back, that being around him over the years has helped me so much. I pointed out that there was so many times over the years that I would come over to his house while dealing with life’s struggles. This helped me take a step away from things or just take some time away from something, so I could work my way through it. Our time hanging out was a great break away from my day to day and escape from the problems of the world.
While I was at his place, I had many self realizations and it was a great time to check in with myself. One of the things I really noticed when I was there is just how I’m really fitting into the person I am. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was in Arizona which is so flat you can see things clearly for miles, but I definitely feel that way with my self these days. I may not have all the answers of where I maybe heading, but I am very happy with where I am with myself right now. I continue to sort things out as they come to me. What I know for sure is that I’m really understanding myself and who I want to be in this world. That alone is just amazing.
Lastly, I wanted to leave you with one of the greatest memories I had while I was visiting Jason. Every time we drove back to Jason’s house we went down this road that went by an orange orchard. The first time that we drove down that road Jason turned down the music and told me to take a deep breath. Wow. What a great smell. I can’t really describe the smell exactly, but it kind of reminded me of smelling earl grey tea. What a wonderful smell it was and a perfect thing to add to driving with the top down, sun shining, and music playing. I just leaned my head back and soaked up the sun and the fragrance of the orange orchard. Till next time I await the chance to do more of that and whatever else may present itself next time around.
Thank you for reading. I encourage anyone to get out and explore this world of ours. It doesn’t even have to be a huge trip, but get out and play.
As always I bring this to you with so much love and Pure D-lite. =)
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