I return.
There are about 20 things I should be doing instead of blogging, but here I am.

Let's start with the end. Many years ago, I swore to myself never to fly America West ever again. Every time I fly them, I ended up sleeping in the Las Vegas airport or with lost luggage or at least 2 hours late. Unfortunately, America West codeshares with one of my favorite airlines, Continental. I used my Continental frequent flyer miles to get my fat ass to Tucson, which resulted in a few legs of my travels on America West. Well, my flight from Houston to Boston was delayed twice for a total of two hours. And then when I got to Boston, my bag was nowhere to be found. It turns out that it was sent to Phoenix instead of Houston from Tucson.

The inauspicious end aside, my trip was fantastic.

When I first arrived in Tucson, the heat was stifling. Dry, but 90s. The heat broke on Saturday around noon, with some thundershowers, which put a serious damper on our plans to go rock climbing. But the rain stopped and while we never did find those rock climbers, either b/c we literally couldn't find them or b/c they had gone home, we did take a short and lovely hike. At about 8500 feet. Huff, puff.

Sunday I went rock climbing with a guide from Rocks and Ropes, a climbing gym in Tucson. We were out for about 4 to 5 hours and did six climbs. I could gush on and on about how lovely it was, but suffice it to say, climbing outdoors is a completely different experience than climbing indoors. And I'm excited to bring my newfound enthusiasm and confidence to our climbing wall at school. Besides that, it would have been a perfectly pleasant morning even if we weren't climbing. The breeze was perfect, and we were in this shady gully with actual running water. (Tucson IS a desert, and the mountains aren't much wetter.) Then, after a nap, one friend and I went to see my other Tucsonian friend play in a roller derby scrimmage. It was so hot and I want to play so badly. But if I have the time to dedicate to that, I would have the time for taekwondo, so no roller derby for me.

I went out Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Some nights were more raucous than others (read: there was more alcohol). But nothing too crazy. It was just great to visit with friends, be in a place where I made myself not think about homework, and just have fun. With cheap drinks. And great Mexican food. Real, authentic, beans-with-lard Mexican food. Now I have to lose those 10 pounds I put on. And catch up on all that work I didn't do. Moot Court. Etc. Bah.

But it was so worth it.