So anyway I've noticed that I reflect a lot on what I'm doing back in Phoenix. In case you don't know, I grew up here, did the Coast Guard thing for five years and came back to Phoenix. I moved to the Bay Area in 2000 and moved back here this past fall. But while I was in the Bay Area I made a lot of friends and had a lot of good experiences. I wouldn't mind ending up back there someday.

I look at the Phoenix area, and indeed Arizona, and I wonder where the place of my childhood went. Deep desert where I used to run when I was on the high school cross country team is now an endless sea of ugly and almost undifferentiated suburban houses. Sedona, once my favorite Arizona place is now a mass of New Agey tourists and ill-fitting suburbs spilling out of Oak Creek Canyon onto the floor of the Verde Valley like an overflowing toilet.

The Superstition Mountains, once isolated from suburbia, now touch the edge of it.

Arizona politics are a joke. Joe Arpaio is a joke (but not a very funny one) (notice the prominence of his photo on the MCSO Web site and indeed the general function of the MCSO as his own personal omnipresent reelection campaign). ASU is, largely, a joke.

So why? Because it's home, I suppose. I love a lot of the people. I love the attitude, or rather the lack of attitude, especially in contrast to Northern California. I like that there's a rich history here but bothered that most people ignore it. I like the sunrises, the sunsets. I am moved more than I would almost ever admit by the sight (yellow, blue, brown, peach, purple, green, gold, red, then gray and finally black as the wind whips up and the rains pour down) of a monsoon-season thunderstorm rolling into town ... a regular display of the power of nature. It's humbling and empowering to know that you're so tiny and powerless next to that, but also to know that you're a part of it.

I like that I have family here that will cushion any fall, tell me when I'm totally wrong, support me when I'm right and eventually set me back on my feet again.

I love San Francisco and the Bay Area. I'll probably end up there again one day, but I feel like you have to earn your welcome there. Phoenix makes me feel like I'm always welcome.