dress shoes and top five guacamole

I have a beautiful pair of black dress shoes. They’re glossy, elegant, Cole-Haan, and currently located about two thousand miles from where I need them to be on the wedding day. So today mom and I made a run to the banks and then to Ross Dress for Less. I found a pair of shoes that worked from Florsheim, and then we walked over to Nordstrom Rack to compare it with their selection. Everything at the Rack was at least double what I wanted to pay. So Ross it was.

Ross has a subtle smell to it that reminds me of working there for the summer after freshman year of college. Retail is not a good fit for me, and North Scottsdale shoppers can be real bitches. It was a great experience in the way that burning your hand on the stove as a kid is a great experience: this is really not what I want to do. I did make some money, and the entire time I was working there, I fantasized about the trip I was going to go on with the money. I did actually end up using all of the money (and then some) on a backpacking trip through Europe the following year. I am aware that most people usually spend their summer earnings on surviving the subsequent year of college, but then I’ve never made great financial decisions when travel is concerned.

Anyway, after I got home, I Skyped Saori for about an hour, catching up on her adventures in Germany and giving her the lowdown on my adventures since Oklahoma. It was good to see her again, and we chatted while she ironed her clothes. She was also kind of sad to hear I’d sold the prius.

Meanwhile, the rest of the household was starving and researching the late lunch/early dinner options. They waited very patiently for my skype call, but eventually reminded me that no one had eaten for six hours, and mom had only had a few nuts for breakfast.

So we ended up heading out to Pollo Blanco, a Mexican restaurant in the Clarendon hotel. The Clarendon was an old hotel from the 1960s or so, probably a best western or something like that with a big pool in the center courtyard. Right before I moved out of Phoenix, the hotel reopened as a boutique hotel playing up its 1960’s vibe and installing a highly commended restaurant/bar in the ground floor. My old coworkers from DWL actually took me here back right before I left, so I remembered the place
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We split two pitchers of margaritas which were pretty good I thought, and a bunch of tacos and chips and guacamole. Mom thought it was is the best guacamole she’s ever had. I hedged a bit- stating that I’d had better guacamole but I couldn’t remember when, and Tay agreed it was in his “top five” best guacamole. The tacos were good too.

On the way back, we drove by the office mom’s going to be working in downtown. It’s a tower, bland, but at least with some windows.

One of my favorite things about Phoenix is the abundance of mid-century modern architecture. It’s dated, sure, but its not a glass box or tudor fantasy. There’s something about the minimalism and the stripped-down nature of mid-century architecture that seems to echo the native desert dwellings. I also just like it from purely aesthetic reasons.

Back at the house, we watched Seven Psychopaths which was very enjoyable and interesting, and the cinematography and lighting was gorgeous. Much too beautiful of a movie for the campiness it was aiming for. A lot of really dramatic colored lighting and wide angle desert shots.