LeahAndMark.com

I really like flying back to Phoenix. I like visiting this city a lot. While I would probably never choose to live here again, visiting this city and seeing my friends and family again is always a welcomed treat. When you add any feelings of nostalgia, and all of the time I spent growing up here - it turns out to be a really good time for me. Just driving around the loop, seeing the open sky and open desert stretching to the end of horizon - the difference from Georgia is night and day.

And then there’s the heat. Dry when it hits your face, it’s like stepping into an oven where you can see the heat bending light as it moves across the concrete.

After landing and picking up rental car, I met up with my friend Kristen for lunch. She’s a dance instructor here in Phoenix (hip hop, jazz, and nearly everything else except ballet and tap) teaching at studios and schools and now she’s even got her own dance studio starting up. So things are going really well for her. This summer she’s also the director of two high-end dance camps in Colorado and then Lake Tahoe.

I remember how just a few years ago we were both out of work and basically really poor. Around the same time period, on one of our monthly dinners at Five & Diner, I was maxed out on credit cards with no cash, and she didn’t have enough to cover my half of the meal either. SO. She left me there and went and got money from her dad at his place - mind you, we were already in our early 20’s at this time so it’s not like we were jobless high school kids. So yeah. It’s been a nice change to see both of us keep making progress as far as jobs/money/career. And I’m really happy to see that her dance/instructor/owner career is starting to gain momentum. - For classes and information about lessons - Click Here - SixStepDanceCompany.

  Mark is in Phoenix right now and I miss him bunches!  I would’ve gone, but I’ll be in Baltimore next weekend for my BFF Lauren’s graduation.  She is getting her Master’s in Social Work and I’m soooo proud of her!  So many graduations are on Fridays, and Mark and I are already missing work the Friday after next for my brother’s graduation… so, I had to forfeit the trip to Phoenix because it wasn’t in the budget or in the time-off-from-work plan.  It’s hard to ask for more time off when you’ve just been in China for a month!

Actually, I feel like we’ve been so busy since being back here that I haven’t really processed everything we experienced in China.  I’m going to make some time this weekend to at least privately write down my thoughts.  People keep asking us, “So, tell us about China!”  And we both sort of falter…because we haven’t had the time to put the stories together, to pick and choose from the many that never made it on the website, and to find the right words to accurately convey what China is like.

I think a part of it, though, is that our life is so fantastically awesome right now that we’re more in the moment than ever before.   We had a wonderful time in China, but we’re having a great time here, too, so there isn’t the need to look back and go over all of last month.  Because then we’d miss out on enjoying all of this month!

Tonight I’m meeting up with some Yelpers for a Chinese Feast at Frank Ma’s in Chamblee.  It’s a large-ish restaurant in this big Chinese shopping center area and the owner, Frank, is always zipping around the restaurant greeting and talking to all of his guests.  Mark is bummed to miss out, but he gets his mom’s amazing cooking, so it’s sort of a wash.