A pretty regular work day with a couple of twists
There really isn't much to report from what was a normal working in the hotel "salon" kind of day but there were two tiny moments worth mentioning.
About mid-morning, one of the group using the next meeting room over dropped by to tell us to quiet down a bit. We were presenting and doing using our best projecting voices and apparently it was distracting to them. Ah well, so it goes in sharing public spaces. Lunch time came around and it was reported that ours was ready out in the hallway. I went out and and always eschewed looking at the food, I just got in line and loaded up my plate. It was traditional southwestern fare - chicken and beef fajitas, red salsa, a nice pineapple mango salsa, sour cream and tortillas. Being in the middle of a re-Atkins-ization, I passed on the tortilla and went for the piece of cheesecake, figuring it was best to use my carb allowance wisely. Food gathered I returned to the room and began stuffing it in my face, only to have my enjoyment disturbed by some grumbling in the hallway. It seems we had chowed down on our neighbors lunch. Ha, that will show them, and as it turned out theirs was far better than ours making my haste worthwhile.
The second thing of the day worth mentioning is the disappearance of the little barrio of Guadalupe. I was first out here in 1982 for a job interview and I spent a free day driving around. I went south of Phoenix, and this being my trip to the area I spent my time pretty much saucer-eyed at the sights. I remember Guadalupe as a dusty little village off to the east of I10, and for me it was all that I could imagine Mexico as being - small squat brown buildings and a dirt main street. For a Northeasterner, it was a cultural catch, exposure to something far beyond anything I had encountered in my narrow terrain.
Today, Guadalupe still exists but now it's hemmed in by a strip of big box stores and a 10 foot block wall shielding it from the traffic on I10. Or perhaps it's the other way around. It's sad to see it become nothing more than a spot tucked away in a sea of anonymous retail, and for me it's something forever lost. I'm glad I saw it when I did.
About mid-morning, one of the group using the next meeting room over dropped by to tell us to quiet down a bit. We were presenting and doing using our best projecting voices and apparently it was distracting to them. Ah well, so it goes in sharing public spaces. Lunch time came around and it was reported that ours was ready out in the hallway. I went out and and always eschewed looking at the food, I just got in line and loaded up my plate. It was traditional southwestern fare - chicken and beef fajitas, red salsa, a nice pineapple mango salsa, sour cream and tortillas. Being in the middle of a re-Atkins-ization, I passed on the tortilla and went for the piece of cheesecake, figuring it was best to use my carb allowance wisely. Food gathered I returned to the room and began stuffing it in my face, only to have my enjoyment disturbed by some grumbling in the hallway. It seems we had chowed down on our neighbors lunch. Ha, that will show them, and as it turned out theirs was far better than ours making my haste worthwhile.
The second thing of the day worth mentioning is the disappearance of the little barrio of Guadalupe. I was first out here in 1982 for a job interview and I spent a free day driving around. I went south of Phoenix, and this being my trip to the area I spent my time pretty much saucer-eyed at the sights. I remember Guadalupe as a dusty little village off to the east of I10, and for me it was all that I could imagine Mexico as being - small squat brown buildings and a dirt main street. For a Northeasterner, it was a cultural catch, exposure to something far beyond anything I had encountered in my narrow terrain.
Today, Guadalupe still exists but now it's hemmed in by a strip of big box stores and a 10 foot block wall shielding it from the traffic on I10. Or perhaps it's the other way around. It's sad to see it become nothing more than a spot tucked away in a sea of anonymous retail, and for me it's something forever lost. I'm glad I saw it when I did.
Comments