A few sporadic posts ago, I wrote you all from Phoenix, saying that I was finding the state to be surprisingly pleasant. I never followed up on that...
So the day after I wrote that post, Travis had his interview, and I basically just hung out in the hotel all day. I remember sitting and looking out the window at the landscape thinking 'Wow. This really is beautiful. And I really do love it...too bad Travis doesn't want to be here.'
Funny story - Travis was apparently thinking the same thing as he toured the facilities at Midwestern. It took us a while to both admit that we were a bit smitten with Arizona.
Once we did though, we spent several hours on the car ride back home discussing what this meant - we had pretty much been planning on going to Iowa for med school.
Long story short, we decided on Phoenix. And ever since that decision was made, we've been pining for the beautiful desert that is Arizona.
Two weeks ago - my heavens, has it been that long? - we made a trip back down there to familiarize ourselves with the area and check out some apartments. I cannot tell you how happy I was as we drove south from Provo and eventually started seeing red rock. I was going home.
By the time we got to Phoenix (or Glendale, to be precise), I was elated - and the 65 degree weather didn't hurt either.
We saw about a dozen apartments while we were there, all of which were a thousand times nicer than our current abode (sorry BYU), but we really lucked out in our future home. An absolutely gorgeous apartment complex having a ridiculous leasing sale jumped out at us - and we've snatched it up. We are so excited. And we can paint. Paint! Anyone who knows me knows my phobia of white walls. Ah, heaven.
We drove around (let me remind you, this was over Valentine's weekend) the city with our windows down, staring out at the gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous surroundings. I never expected myself to fall in love with a place that wasn't green and didn't get rain. But I have. And I miss it. So much. We're both just aching to go back.
We've been saying that we just plan on being there for the four years of medical school - then moving on to the Pacific northwest. And we may very well do that. But, hey, we didn't ever think we'd end up in Arizona to start with, so who knows?
All I'm saying is that, should we decide that Arizona's the place to be long-term, you won't hear me complaining. And you can all come and visit us in the winter.
And that's how it is.
