Valley of the Sun

I made it! I flew by myself, rented a car by myself and and slept in a hotel alone.....all FIRSTS! So strike up 3 points for me in the WIN column....3 more firsts for this widow!
Phoenix is beautiful. It's sunny and warm and I am thoroughly having a good time hanging out with friends that "get it." Its nice to not have to preface every word you say or explain every remark you make. My friends here just know what I mean. As has been the case frequently....I am the "earliest" one here. Funny how we all measure ourselves by how far we've come. Me at five and a half months, Kurt at 10 months, Lynn at 20 months and Tina at 3.9 years. There are others here too that fall somewhere in those lines. I guess you never do forget how long its been. The pain of it all just gets less intense.
First things first. I met up with my widow friend, Kurt, and we hit the grocery/liquor store on the way to the resort. After a quick wine choice and some cheese and crackers, we were off to the San Marcos Resort in Chandler. It's quite a beautiful place. The pool is fabulous, the room is clean and big and the service has been impeccable.
Dinner last night was fabulous. We ate at the Kokopelli Winery. I could have smashed grapes for my wine, but typically me, I settled for iced tea instead. The food was great. Of course after having not eaten all day, I might have been able to say that about any food. I chose the garlic chicken and smashed potatoes. YUMMY!
I hit the sack early last night, welllll......early for West Coast time, 11:30. For me it was really 2:30am!! Waaayyyyy past my bedtime for sure! I was up at 5:30 this morning and ready to get on the move! After a nice breakfast with friends, Kurt and I made a quick jaunt to Best Buy so that he could buy a GPS for the afternoon adventure, Geocaching !He found one of the caches that he had fun sharing with all of us. What a neat hobby! Thanks Kurt. Now you have half a dozen widows scrambling to the nearest Best Buy for the hand held GPS systems! After a quick trip to see the cache, Nancy and I made our way downtown and had a very nice lunch followed by a chat with a "fortune teller." That was very interesting....VERY. I'll divulge the reading when I see if she was a hoax or not. I have to wait just a bit to see how the "chips may fall." I'll just say if what she proclaimed is true in anyway...I have NO worries!!! Hmmmmmm.
Tonight was a wonderful dinner at a local Mexican restaraunt here in Chandler. The food was wonderful and the music was a perfect compliment to a fun evening with 24 of the best people I have ever met. After dinner most of us retreated to the hot tub and pool area for some wine and some more commeraderie. WOW! Twenty four people who had never met before in most cases talking and having fun as if we had known each other forever. What an awesome sight. The weekend was a blur, very much like the funeral. Seems like it came and went just as fast and the withdrawals are horrendous already. If every Bago is this way.....I might not be able to take too many of these emotionally.
So from Chandler, Arizona, I say good bye to friends that I may not see for a very long time but who mean the world to me in more ways than I can ever explain. Ever.
~~ Rayne~~