Tombolo Trail Fleetings

The place that John and I, and our dogs, Dakota and Gingee will be leaving to chase our California dream is Arizona’s only backyard wildlife habitat community. Five years at Sweetwater in the Foothills has been, well, sweet. Good neighbors living in relative concert with one another, the coyotes, havalina, hawks and rattlesnakes (and without streetlights).

The highlight of my time at Sweetwater has without a doubt been the bookclub to which less than a dozen neighborhood women have belonged. The no-name bookclub has gathered the first Tuesday night of the month for years at one of our homes. Our democrat/republican/independent mix has had lively and sometimes sharp discussions through the second Bush term and the start of the Iraq War, to the 2008 republican and democratic national conventions and the historic Obama inauguration. At the same time, together we cherished, praised and related to such books as Charity Girl by Michael Lowenthal,Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brook, The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell, The Glass Castle: a Memoir by Jeannette Walls and Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.

One of my favorite memories with this group of women was a night gathered around JoAnn’s table. The conversation went something like this.

“I’m out of my bra the minute I walk in the door!” I volunteered.
“What? I never take my bra off.” One of the other women quickly added.
“Never? What do you mean never?”
“I wear it all the time. I sleep in it.”
“My God! You don’t sleep in it?”
“I do. I do.”

As everyone weighed in on the issue of “bra-wearing comfort levels,” I was amazed that just as there is so much range in so many things in life among people, bra wearing behavior is just as diverse. In fifty-four years of living, it never occurred to me that some women are comfortable in their bras. I have learned so much with the no-name bookclub women.

In spite of occasional ruffled feathers, because of the varied ideologies and diverse personalities, and because of the fun we have had, I am going to miss these women deeply. Debbie, Linda, Pat, Ellen, Kristen, Kathie and JoAnn comforted me through three job changes, consorted on marital frustrations and embraced my kooky but serious case of puppy love after bringing Gingee home from a vacation in Sebastopal, California. Having good friends is one of my major pleasures in life!

Maintaining relationships with the good friends I’ve made over the past fifteen years in Tucson, plus the friends I made before Tucson, and the ones I hope to make in the years to come is the major reason to start this blog. I want to stay connected. I want to share about this exciting odyssey before me in hopes of further congealing my friendships.