Reminiscing about arizona.

Today one of the partners at my firm and I headed down south to Tacoma to meet a client that we work with. Tacoma is about 30-45 minutes south of Seattle without traffic. I'm not really sure who decided that it was a great idea to meet at 4:30 in Tacoma on a week day. This is likely one of the worst decisions that person has ever made (and no, it actually wasn't me). Additionally, it doesn't make much sense since Jenn (the partner) and I were each coming from the Seattle area and the client works 20 minutes north of Tacoma. But regardless, the decision was made.

TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE. It took us 1.5 hours to get to Tacoma. I texted Jenn at one point when I was going 70mph (I was slightly ahead of her) and 2 minutes later we were dead stopped. So the text I got from her 10 minutes later was, "...and stopped." Yup.

I was immediately transported back to 2005 when I made the 1-1.5 hour commute every day to work in Phoenix when it should have taken 30 minutes without traffic max. One day it was 2 hours because old faithful decided to blow on one of the side streets (also known as a water main break). Granted, it was my decision to live where I did and to accept my job where I did and I dealt with it. And at the time I would have told you that I enjoyed being able to listen to music on the way to/from work and to enjoy tea in the mornings, make phone calls in the afternoons.

IT WAS ALL A LIE.

I was totally lying to myself and everyone else. How in the HELL could I have ever enjoyed traffic like that? I was hit by a huge baseball in the nose kind of reminder that driving for an hour and a half when it should only take 30-45 minutes is just pure torture.

We finally made it to Tacoma, however, and met up with our client. She (sadly) is my favorite client. She moved up to Seattle several years ago for a guy (does everyone do this? I swear, I have met so many people who have done this) but she came here from Scottsdale. Crazy! She has been my absolute favorite client up here for the past 3 years not only because she totally has her company running completely seamlessly but also because we do have quite a bit in common and can just talk forever- about our pasts in Arizona and whatever else we might be involved with in the present. The reason we were meeting her today is because she's moving back to Arizona at the end of the summer. So we talked all about her move back, where she's going, where she'll be working and I was totally, totally back there with her in thought. We talked about all of the places she should hit up once she's back, what to do about the 120 degree days, how awesome it will be in December to not have snow/rain/freezing issues. I guess that the plus side is that she will be back in Seattle every summer (can you blame her? Summers here are awesome!) and it's just another friend to have in Phoenix.

I was also reminded of Phoenix due to the place that we met for happy hour (other than the fact that it looked out over the Puget sound). This place was CRAWLING with people that you would see in North Scottsdale. Older ladies trying to look 25 (read: fake everything), younger ladies trying to snag an older guy with money, and money bags old men all over just trying to decide who to pursue (mostly it involved the younger ladies- including us at one point, although we obviously weren't there to snag a man- but the younger ladies getting attention elicited dirty looks from all of the older generation). It was totally cracking me up. It reminded me of many north Scottsdale experiences that I had.

Needless to say, I left happy hour feeling rather nostalgic for that hot, dry city that I loved so much for several years. I miss it. I miss the people, I miss the sun, I miss the places I went, things I did, I even miss the dryness. I don't know that I'd trade it for what I have now up here in the beautiful pacific northwest but, there will always be a very special place in my heart for that desert city...even the traffic, though the memories of that are memories that I am glad I don't have to visit often.