For the ailing heart

My love recently moved back to Arizona and I have to say that I am so selfishly excited, exuberant, wetting myself in joy, bouncing happy to have my sister home again! I know she is happy to be around her family again, but I know her poor heart cries for the South. My sister should have been born in the deep South with the Confederate flag and all I swear!

For one, I named my sister. I named her after my best friend from Sunday school and her name was Brittany. So because I loved my best friend so much I thought what a fitting name for the person who was destined to be my best friend! So my sister was born and she has been a feather in the wind floating around to everyone and everywhere. From a very young age my sister would spastically wave to everyone…..and I mean everyone! I remember she would talk endlessly to the bakery staff at Bashas’ market, partly because we got free cookies, but my sister was friendly to everyone. If we moved, she had friends that day. If we went on vacation, she had friends to come with, new ones she would meet along the way, and she was by NO means shy. My sister was dainty without tact. By that I mean she was very lady like in she would wear a sweet night gown and put her hair in curlers, but then proceed to do kart wheels in the front yard….WITH NO PANTIES!

Yes….my sister was born to be a Southern Belle.

So to ail her poor aching heart for her southern pleasures in the dismal desert we call Arizona I have found some “Southern Comforts” replacements or close seconds:

Apple Ice Cream – The best I could find, which is right down the road from her house is The Apple Dumpling Cafe and they serve everything under the sun apple…including her ice cream.

Crickets – We got crickets. And later this summer she will her the never ending chirp, hum, hoop, and purr of the Arizona locusts, or as we call them “secadas” (suh-kA-duhs).

After the Rain – In Arizona she will get to see rivers flowing….literally, so no more crying your own as the Almighty will provide you with flash flood rivers through the neighborhoods and dry river beds, quite a sight!

The Deer – In Arizona, we don’t have the axis deer frolicking through the wood of the south, but we have PIG! Javelina will wander through your yard, maybe even a stray skunk, foraging for food. On a good day, maybe some coyotes, jackrabbits the size of a Bulldog, and your occasional Gila (thats HEE-LAH for you Yanks) Monster.

Wildflowers and blue bonnets – Those will be replaced by dandelions, sunflowers, Mesquite blossoms, tumbleweeds, Bouganvilla (BOO-gun-vee-yah), and the Fishhook Cactus blossoms.

Lightning bugs – We don’t have the glowy butt bugs that I miss too from a childhood spent in the midwest, but we have some SPECTACULAR lightning to be seen and FELT here during the Monsoon. We also have grasshoppers and locusts that fly in droves in early June through August that look like a dust storm. Only here too can you see a dust devil as high as a house.

So while I know your heart yearns for the dirt road, where everyone knows your name, and the pace that is just barely faster than a snail……..the desert and all her beauty are your South-Western home. And we are glad you are back and love to be able to spend so much time with you and your family.