balcony

Our balcony is so comfortable, and the weather is so agreeable for sitting out there. Even when we’re inside, it’s pleasant to look out the window, and we can’t help but notice things.

So far, on the north side of our apartment, we’ve observed the following goings-on:

1. A girl hula-hooping.

2. Two girls sunbathing.

3. A girl stepping out of a car. This was interesting because her dress and the car were the exact same shade of red. Impressive!

4. A barbeque. (Callaghan announced, OH HEY LOOK NOW THERE’S A BBQ JUST SITTING OUT THERE ALL BY ITSELF, HAHA!) And sit there by itself, it did, all day… we never saw anyone come out to use it. It just appeared there, and then it was gone.

At that point, we decided to start taking pictures for the sake of photo-documentation.

Exhibit A: The mysterious barbeque.

Next, we observed…

5. A group of parked cars with an oddly-parked SUV sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb. This had us cracking up. I know. It doesn’t take much.

Exhibit B: Parked Sport Utility Vehicle, pointing outward.

Then one day there appeared…

6. A girl with a cat on a leash.

Exhibit C: Girl with cat on leash

7. And now, there are Christmas lights on the bushes… a cheerful sight to behold.

Exhibit D: Christmas lights (hard to see in the daylight!)

We love our little downtown street.

Toward the end of our busy weekend, it occurred to us that one interpretation of happiness is when the light at the end of the tunnel starts to look more like the bottom of a cardboard box. An empty box is a glorious thing, indeed! Make that many cardboard boxes. Things are starting to look pretty well unpacked around here, and soon, there won’t be a box in sight… a state of affairs we haven’t experienced in almost a year. We’ve literally been surrounded by boxes since January, and that’s a long time. We found that our unpacking-fu is more formidable than we’d thought, or, more likely, it’s just been coiled up in expectation for so long that when we were finally ready to unleash it, it sprang. Produce the magic box-cutter and things practically leap out of the boxes themselves! We’ve been here for one week, and we’re down to one box. One. Soon there will be photographic evidence of how civilized we are, haha!

One of the many pluses of living in a downtown Tempe neighborhood is, well, living in downtown Tempe, and practically having Mill Avenue in our backyard. It’s less than a ten-minute stroll from our front door. Late on Friday night, we spontaneously decided to wander down there. We were browsing around the upstairs of Urban Outfitters when a girl who looked to be about 19 came up to me and asked a question about the stock. When I told her that I didn’t work there, her expression flashed to disbelief and dismay, like there’d been an unexpected shift in her worldview, and it was more than she could bear. She looked at me and said, “You don’t?” And I suddenly felt terrible about not being able to answer her question. Should I be amused by this? I mean, do I really have that person-who-works-at-Urban Outfitters look/vibe? Yes, I think “amused” is the appropriate word.

We’re also enjoying being close to Sun Devil Stadium, because when ASU plays at home, we know when they score due to the convenient, informative fireworks. On Saturday night, for instance, the celebratory explosives told us a) when it was half-time, and b) that we (ASU) were handily kicking ass. A quick look online confirmed it: the half-time score was something like ASU-20, OSU-3. (Final score was 30-17.) Kitties were alarmed at first, but they’re already getting accustomed to all the unusual sounds… the fireworks, the howling crowds, the karaoke and Shouting Preacher Man across the street (last night) and the planes overhead (the airport’s a stone’s throw away, too).

Somehow, at the same time, our neighborhood is quite peaceful.