Challenging the Hodgepodge

1. Have you ever been to and/or lived near the desert? Yes, I've been to the desert in New Mexico and Arizona.  I only visited, but I have camped out for a week both times I was there.  That's kind of living in the desert.  The only city I was in longer than to pass through was Gallup.

What did you think?  I loved it!  It is beautiful!

Travel and Leisure lists the 'coolest' American desert towns as-

Palm Springs CA, Virgina City NE, Bend OR, Winslow AZ, Marfa TX, Grand Junction CO, Silver City NM, Moab UT, Taos NM, Yakima WA, Borrego Springs CA, Terlingua TX, and St. George UT, and Tubac AZ

Have you been to any of these? No, I haven't been to any of those.

Would you like to visit a desert town?  Oh yes, I'd go back to Gallup or anywhere out there, really, in a heartbeat! 

Which on the list would you most like to see?  That's easy!  Winslow, AZ....just so I could say I'd been standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.

2. What's a plan or project you've deserted in the past year?  Well, I didn't want to, but I guess it's been the yard.  My husband tore out the pool back in May when he had some vacation time.  He also tore out the fence and shrubs along the street in front of the house.  So pretty much the whole yard got dug up. Then he went back to work.  Then he got burned at work.  Then it rained and rained.  Then it got miserably hot and humid.  Now he's not feeling well.  I am beginning to think that we will have a yard of ruts and weeds forever.

3. Desert-dessert? Share two or three words you find yourself having to think twice about when it comes to spelling.  Superintendent, calendar, occasion.  

4. High and dry, like watching paint dry, dry run, dry as dust, not a dry eye in the house...which phrase can you relate to currently?  High and dry.  Explain. That's how hubby's truck has left us in financial terms.

5. How often do you frequent the dry cleaners?  Once in a great blue moon. Neither of us dresses in clothing that requires it any longer. Starch or no starch? Irrelevant.  

6. What's a food or beverage you enjoy that's named for a place?  New England clam chowder.

7. Do you need solitude? Yes.  I'm an introvert and I do enjoy my solitude.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.  I've been doing a 30-day challenge and I have limited time for playing on the computer these days so I am going to share today's challenge post here.

Day 10: Discuss your first love and first kiss.

I may have been a bit of a late bloomer.  My husband is my first love.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I had crushes on plenty of guys and some mild infatuations, but I never fell head over heals until he came along.  The man swept me off my feet! I was 19 to his 23 on our first date.  He took me to a very posh restaurant...the kind with champagne chilling in a silver bucket beside the table, waiters pulling out my chair and carring towels on their arms, and little chocolate cups of some kind of liquor between courses.  We talked and talked and talked.  The next day he sent me a dozen pink and white roses.

I was a little quicker on the first kiss.  When I was in second grade, the school I attended showed movies every Friday afternoon in the gym/cafeteria.  There was a real player in my class by the name of Joey Bradshaw.  He'd spend some time getting cozy with a girl then ask if he could kiss her.  As soon as he did, he was on to the next girl.  It was only memorable because it was the first and because it's so funny.