aaaaaria

Everything you need to know about Aria Resort & Casino can be summed up in three words: heated. toilet. seats.

It was that kind of place. When I woke up the first morning (to the soft clicking sound of the curtains automatically opening at 9:45 am, just as programmed) I had to pinch myself. This was the view from our room.

Ah, Vegas, City of Perpetual Overindulgence. We ate at one buffet a day, and I've completely ruined my appetite. Everything in my refrigerator now tastes bland in comparison. But really what we did the most was lounge at the pool, moving as little as possible except to get in the water because it was 108 degrees. Hot, but heavenly.

why i love john

"Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement bring on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, I don't improve; in further words, once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable."

"When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going." –John Ernst Steinbeck

dangers of nostalgia

I sit down to do a little work. I plan on catching up on emails, writing a few belated thank you cards, paying late bills. One stray thought derails that: Where was I one year ago? What was I doing, what was I hoping for, what was I afraid of?

I was searching for a vintage suitcase. I was mapping our road trip route. I was packing and repacking. I was sweating profusely in a tent. I was worrying that one of my brothers would be one of the three people who fall into the Grand Canyon every year. I was wearing a head net. I was wanting the trip to last forever, and in the next breath I was wishing it was over already. I was scared to move. I was excited to move.

And a year has already passed. How is that possible? It went by so fast I think as I scroll back through iPhoto, my bills unpaid, my thank you cards unwritten.