Like Mother like Daughter

#15

Okay, I do actually apologize profusely for the lack of blog posts. Like Dice mentioned in her post a couple back, I am behind and I am deeply ashamed. Dice shakes her head at me as I wail about my lack of posts, that I'm keeping my loyal readers on the edge, probably to the point of their deaths by the lack of information I've been supplying. So sorry. As I explained to Dice, it's because of my demanding life. She scoffs and asks me to humour her as to exactly why my life is so demanding, but it is. I'm a traveler, wanderer, nomadic vague gal, I have to blog, journal and keep on top of communicative business from home, across America and Europe whilst planning the next few months on the road and it gets exhausting. Up every morning early, to make the most of the day and explore a wonderful new place, the strenous act of trying different local cuisines until you're stuffed full, the sheer trauma of meeting new and interesting people and the exhaustion with keeping up to date of blogs. It's usually because I'd rather nap, honestly, I alwasy ask Dice to 'wake me up' after a little while, but then she (in her defense) does try, but I say rather stoutly; "no Dice, I want to NAP". She's now given up and refuses to be subect to the abuse of trying to wake this sleeping beauty from her restful slumber from her demanding life. 

Merry Christmas

Cacti country

Tooooo the Red Car

Dat right, a cactus as tall as a telephone pole

LOVE. THIS. PLACE.

So it's that festive time (a couple days back it was) and Christmas was upon us beofre we knew it. Tbh it hadn't really been feeling like Christmas until that actual morning...it was just sort of there. Dice and I didn't do presents or anything, but sat down with a couple of other hostel guests for breakfast, before adjusting the santa hats and piling into the Minx Mobile for a day trip.

A really fantastic drive. Well, I didn't kill us, so that's always a positive.

Time for a pit stop cowboy

#classicarizona #ghosttown

The Alpache trail was alright aye. So scenic, so country, so cactus, so Feenix. It was glorious. We really felt we were in the Wild West. It was a drive out of the city, so we embraced the carols and the sunshine and sang Santa Wear Your Shorts all the way up the moutain. The houses out there are run down and quaint. I tried to imagine what it would be like to live in a place so deserted, and so...blah. that's it really, the countyside is blah. Desert stretches for miles and miles and the cactuses are so big, some are bigger than telephone poles. Poor Dice had to succumb to takign a bazillion photos of catuses, mostly me saying 'Dice take a photo, Dice take a photo of that cactus, Dice take a photo of this' and repeat. Until she informed me NO CATY THAT'S ENOUGH that we had enough photos.

She walks a lonely road

There's not much to say folks, Christmas was what it was. The day spent singing in the car, watching the Harleys overtake us on the trail, enjoying the cacti-country we were in and eating delicious things like cactus candy (yes, that's a thing!) We paused and stopped fro routine scenic views, lakes, cacti and when Dice needed to pittle. The first time she came back to the car from a desert-pit stop, she was silent for a minute, before stating simply that catctuses tend to be rather spikey.

Merry Christmas from the kid herself

Also, side note; the plural of cactus can be either cactuses OR cacti. I didn't know that. Did you?

We met these cowboys at a pit stop for lunch. I don't even know where to start with these two. Drinking steadily through a crate, we had delightful conversions with these guys in the middle of the wild west, and one decided to tell us about how he drove his wife away, growing up and livin the life in the Wild West, driving beat up trucks and catching rattlesnakes for dinner (NO JOKE). These fellas were hilarious. They couldn't believe we had come all the way from Australia just to see Arizona. We didn't have the heart to tell them we didn't actually intend on being here, we just ended up here by accident. But seriously - rattlesnakes. They catch up, they cook em, they eat em and then use their bones and tails for stuff. This was the perfect afternoon in the Southwest with EXACTLY the kind of cowboys we'd hope we come across 'yall.

And obviously it was just us and them. People in Arizona? Please. 

I's best get to explaining the blog title. The one up there ^^ on the left *deep breath* I can't believe I'm actually about to say this...ahhh

THOUGHT I WAS DICE'S MOTHER.

NO THAT IS NOT A JOKE.

LITERALLY.

HE THOUGH I WAS HER MOTHER.

HER MOTHER?!?!?!

I'M 20 YEARS OLD. 

It made us laugh, he though I was her mom and she was like, 14 years old or something. Horrenous. I havne't been this offended at a mistaken identity since I was working at an indoor play centre in Melbourne, running children's birthday parties and I had a five old ask me, very loudly in front of all his friends;

"Are youa boy or a girrrrrrrrlllllll?"
*cue giggling*
 
And what's worse, ALL the kids AND parents at the party leaned in to find out the answer. My hair was short ok. That doesn't render immediate masculinity. 

I made sure that kid got the shittest piece of cake after that. Unfortunately I didn't have birthday cake to use as a form of revenge for these guys. And besides, it's Christmas.

Seriously, a dream.

Love from America to all our friends and families. xx

We were 'those people' again.

A proud mother too, apparently. 

Our hostel had decently sized Christmas dinner celebrations that night. It was utterly 100% fantastic. It felt so homey, all the hostel guests, staff, friends of staff and random people who had no where else to go were welcome. The hostel opened itself up to lost souls who needed company on Christmas night, because nobody should spend that alone. And it was marvelous. It was so festive, and really lovely to chat and be amongst people singing carols, eating turkey, drinking wine and stuffing ourselves with pumpkin pie. We met some genuinely, lovely, wholesome people.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn't feeling a little homesick that day. I skyped my family which was the highlight, and on Chirstmas I wished I could be transported to my grandparents house in country Victoria to spend it with my family. But having said that, Cristmas day surprised me. We spent it wearing hats, singing carols, being offended by cowboys and then the evening with kind and generous people who took us in and treated us like a family. When I think back to it it almost brings a tear to me eye - they regarded us like daughters, sisters, friends, and grandchildren and their pure presence in the room made any doubt or sadness disappear.

When we were little my siblings and I used to draw all across the pavement, and decking, letters to Santa and Christmas pictures, with chalk. It's one of the most fondest memories that I have as a child. It was always warm in Australia at Christmas, so we'd spend hours making colourful, festive montages across the ground. That night, through the help of a young Spanish girl who came to the hostel for dinner - I got to do it again. She taught me about her culture and I showed her (as best I could) mine. For me Christmas will always represent childhood, where you believe in the magic and it's the most joyful time of the year. Christmas without kids is odd, and hence why my Christmas in Feenix was complete as I spent a good part of the evening in quiet solstice with this young girl.

Merry Christmas.