Back in the USA!
It was a grueling day of travel yesterday: up at 3 am (my ride to the Juan Santamaria Airport was provided by Goodness Dental and he was there 10 minutes early, even at this ungodly hour, and the roads were quite empty!) for a 6:00 flight which left on time; 4 hour layover in Miami which turned into 6 hours; 2 hours late into Phoenix and Jim was there to pick me up and drive almost 2 hours to Sedona (construction slowdowns). The flight from Miami to Phoenix seemed interminable: 7 hours on the plane! My seatmates were fine but it felt like I was in the middle of a sea of men. There were 10 men on their way from Florida to Scottsdale for a bachelor party! First on their agenda was golfing. The man sitting next to me didn't even know about the solar eclipse.
We arrived about 10:00 to a nice 2 bedroom condo in the town of Oak Creek, just south of Sedona.
The woman who owns this apartment loves those silly signs made in China. The only one I think is funny is this one in the bathroom.
At least the bedrooms are sign free.
How do the people in China making these signs feel about them? Do they wonder why Americans need so many signs to tell them how to feel?
Even worse, they seem to all be purchased from Hobby Lobby, that awful anti-choice corporation. "A corporation with deep religious convictions, Hobby Lobby has actively channeled its resources to advance the agenda of conservative Christian causes." *
How would a person learning English feel about these signs? Or someone with dementia?
And the place is full of pretty plants but they are all fake. Is it that hard to have REAL plants which are good for the air? And they are probably all made in China.
Still, it's nice 1) to have cell phone service again since my 30 days international ran out 4 days ago, 2) to put toilet paper into the toilet again though it feels somehow wrong, 3) to be traveling in a car again. And it is COLD here at night! 56 degrees and I don't even have a jacket except my rain jacket.
I have mixed feelings about hearing English again all over. I miss hearing and speaking Spanish already although, of course, there was a lot in the Phoenix Airport and it was the second language in the Miami airport.
https://youtu.be/WFna3VCbyE0?si=eNcSPPh7-mupjJuE
*https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/06/what-you-need-to-know-about-hobby-lobby-the-christian-craft-store-funding-the-duggars-bill-gothard-and-iblp.html
The signs remind me of a part of Gabrielle, Garcia Marquez’s book 100 years of solitude. In a particular village people come down with a sleeping sickness that causes them to forget the names of everything. And so they have to put labels on everything in their house: bed table, chair, mirror, etc.
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