Day 32: Mesa

I wake up to the sound of pigeons on the roof. Not a bad way to wake up but I would have been kind of concerned by the strange sounds if Hanna had not warned me the night before. She had explained that her neighborhood had no problems with scorpions or cockroaches because the pigeons ate them. I am glad for the lack of bugs for sure.  I don't mind pigeons at all. It is 10:30 at this point.  Arizona does not observe daylight savings time so I have changed time zones again. I still feel like it's 9:30. And I was up pretty late updating my blog last night.  Anyway, I shower. When I am done, I check my phone.  I have a text from Hanna, "I got out of class early, want to get lunch?"  Yes, yes I do!

I go downstairs and get some coffee.  It is really good for some reason.  I turn on my computer and try to connect to the internet.  I have a phone interview with the State of Alaska later today.  They had sent me some of the interview questions and I wanted to review them before the interview.  I fail to get a good connection for some reason.  I end up looking at questions on my phone.  I am about half way through when Hanna shows up.  I still have plenty of time so I stop (It's not very fun really) and head to lunch. Lunch is Thai.  I order pineapple chicken curry, medium spicy.  Medium proves to be a bit much for me.  My eyes are pretty watery by they time I am done.  At some point, I ask Hanna if she has glass cleaner.  T Rex is filthy and really needs to be cleaned. She does not but needs some so we head to the 99 cent store right across from the Thai place.

This is not like the dollar store that says things are a dollar but they are really 5.  Everything here is actually 99 cents or less. I am impressed. We find glass cleaner and I remember that I need toothpaste. Since she is studying to be a dentist, I ask her which brand she recommends since every single toothpaste ad I see or hear says "9 out of 10" or "4 out of 5" dentists recommend whatever.  She says they are all the same and to just pick some. That was anticlimactic. We head back and I resume my interview preparation. I usually don't prepare for such things so much.  However, when I am given the questions before hand, I figure it is stupid to not have an idea what I am going to say.

A little before 3 (1 Alaska time), I am feeling pretty ready.  Hanna decides to take a nap.  On the couch right next to the table I am sitting at. I would think my talking would be distracting. Especially since I have had a fair bit of caffeine (coffee and Thai iced tea) and am talking faster than usual. I guess not. Craig, one of my interviewers and potential boss, calls about 15 minutes early to make sure everything is working ok and such.  Oh good, I had been wondering if I needed to call them or if they would call me. He and the other two interviewers call me back at 3 (1). The first part of the interview I spend discussing my road trip. Craig's daughter is wanting to take a road trip so he is quite curious about all the details of my trip. We then proceed with the interview questions. Most of them are pretty technical and detailed about geology work. I incorporate my construction experience into my answers since I only know the basics of geology work. It seems to go very well. My interviewers seem to like my construction viewpoints. 50 minutes later, I am done.

That was not so bad. I am much more comfortable talking to people in person than on the phone so I had been a little concerned. The lack of facial expressions and body language bothers me. I don't even like talking to family or close friends on the phone really. Now that I have access to glass cleaner and time,  it is time to clean up T Rex.  He really needs it. The inside of my windshield is gross. It also has some artwork left by one of my friends when he was drunk that has needed to go for a long time. I spend some time polishing all of the glass and cleaning out all of the dust from the dash area. He is looking mighty fine!!

I head inside and spend some time planning my time in Arizona. I research all of the places that I want to see and find out driving distances and times. There are tons of national parks and monuments around.  There is also some skiing. It might have the biggest mountains ever, but skiing in Arizona would just be novel. I make a really nice list. I then check out my national parks guidebook. I ordered it in November but it did not show up to my house until after I left.  I asked my current roommate, Theresa, to mail it to Hanna.  It would have been really nice to have last week. It has maps of all of the western national parks in it.  A map would have been really nice in Death Valley. Oh well, I made it through just fine. There are a lot of parks in the 4 corners area that I am planning to check out later in my trip. 

While I am reading, I do some laundry. Normally, this would not be worthy of noting but the washer and dryer play songs when the cycle is done and make really cool beeping sounds. They don't have a start button. They have a play button. Woah. Oh!! The dryer just finished as I type. It is playing a funny little monotone song.  It reminds me of the early cell phone ring tones a little!  I am currently trying not to distract Hanna from studying since she has a test tomorrow.  I really do not miss school.  At all. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  There will be some sweet ones coming!  There just has not been too much to photograph yet!