Where in the world is Sarah Blue? Yeah, usually in airports, if this week is any indication. Phoenix, Chicago, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Calgary, Toronto, Columbus this week. I’m over the Foursquare Jet Setter badge and am wondering if there’s a might-be-homeless-and-just-lives-in-airports badge. Let me know if this already exists. Here’s what’s the haps over the past week (it’s a little airport focused):

5. I am clearly a sucker for punishment. I know United is horrible and yet, I keep flying with them. Seriously, I no longer blame United, I blame me. I should know better.

4. $20 is too much to pay for a crappy burger. Especially when you don’t even eat the bun. Food should never be expensive and disgusting, yet airport food is always both. Airplane food? Fine, I’ll eat whatever, I still think it’s a miracle we’ve figured out how to fly, let alone being able to serve hot food up there. I do not feel this way about airports. There’s a huge opportunity there for delicious food. Someone needs to make this happen. The tired and hungry masses will thank you.

3. The only language I type in is Internet speak.

2. I worry that I shove so much into my carry-on suitcase that one day I will be rolling it through the airport and it will pop open like a jack-in-the-box. I have visions of my undergarments all over the airport. I always chuckle a little when I get the “can we look through your suitcase” at security. It’s a skill-test. If you cannot zip this suitcase back up, you are not smart enough to be working security.

1. Italian family weddings are good for the self-esteem. Everyone is happy, everyone tells you how pretty you are and everyone wants to feed you. Does life get any better? No. The second part of this is that there is nothing more important than family. Now, I might be lucky because I come from a really big family with people doing all kinds of amazing things. However, if you don’t think family is important, I really think you’re doing it wrong.

Well, this wraps up my tour de Phoenix (that's French for tour of Phoenix). I'm off bright and early tomorrow to go to my cousins wedding! I'm the co-emcee with my brother. I hope there's plenty of opportunity for stories, because I've been banking adorable stories on her for years. Anyway, this week

5. I really looking forward to cooking at home again. Living in a tiny hotel room for a month wasn’t bad, but limiting as far as cooking food is concerned. Million dollar idea: A restaurant that works more like my mom’s kitchen. So you could go in and just be like, “Hey, I really just feel like a bowl of cereal for dinner tonight.” Do these exist? I’d be all over that.

4. Not understanding Fahrenheit means not really knowing what the weather is outside. Really, I have no idea. My new version of knowing the weather is “it’s hot” “it’s really hot” and “it’s hot but a little windy, so not bad” Temperatures are so last year.

3. Every once and a while, we all need to be a little sappy. For me, that’s right now. Ingredients for a perfect day: sleep in, phenomenal espresso, a drive through the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, a splash down some natural (for real!) waterslides at Slide Rock National Park, some shopping in Flagstaff, fish tacos, earl grey truffles and a black jelly bean for dinner. Yep, I’ll remember that one for a while.

2. It is amazing how quickly you can get drunk if you haven’t really been drinking for a while.

1. Phoenix is apparently a test market for the Trenta. That’s 30 ounces of some type of coffee from Starbucks. I’m guessing it needs to be about 8 shots of espresso in one drink. I have one question for Starbucks: Why?

I'm in Toronto on Monday and was hoping to meet up with some great Toronto people for lunch!

If you're around, I've made a reservation at Milagro on Mercer for noon, please email me at sarahblueis at gmail (or comment below) to let me know if you can make it. This will avoid one of those embarrassing situations like me reserving a huge table and sitting there all by myself (hello, 19th birthday all over again). 

Here's directions to the place on Yelp. The reviews are kind of meh, but who can eff up a burrito? Seriously. 

While @louderthan10 seems to disagree with my feelings of Phoenix-is-so-rad, I continue to find this place…rad. I’ve been here before and felt the same way he did. Last time, I spent a considerable amount of time in Scottsdale, this time? I haven’t even been close. I now fully equate Scottsdale with plastic – people, money, lawns…someone let me know if I’m wrong. Anyway, here’s what’s up this week:

5. There are almost no surprises with the weather here in Phoenix. I’ve almost accepted that I don’t need to tote a cardy around with me all the time. I say almost because I still carry a cardy as the grocery stores here are so over-air conditioned, you basically need a parka if you are inside for more than two minutes. Also, I experienced my first dust storm! It was mostly underwhelming, but the change in pressure was so drastic that I was sitting inside and the bottle of water I had on the counter collapsed. Crazy!

4. When the sun goes down, the crickets come out. They are everywhere! I’m confused how people go about their evenings so casually with all of the crickets around (I sit there with my legs sticking straight out so my feet don’t touch the ground). I don’t really know if they are even crickets, I’m not sure what else they could be. The first evening out here, I worried we’d encountered the first sign of the apocalypse. Apparently, I have the bug tolerance of a seven-year-old girl.

3. Americans love cheap food. Seriously, if you tell someone you are new in town, they will tell you all about where you can get incredibly underpriced food every night of the week. If you are a restaurant and aren’t serving up some type of $1 meal one evening a week, you are missing out one heck of a huge word-of-mouth opportunity.

2. Going up Camelback mountain, mid-August, midday is not a good idea for Canadians. I completely underestimated Camelback and took being-a-big-baby to an epic level. Dr Cuddles decided to do pushups every time I stopped to either have a mild freak out about the height (things look easy to fall off of when there’s no trees anywhere) or to complain about the heat. Two lessons learned: If I ever get lost in the desert, I will be vulture-dinner.  When you go up a mountain in the desert, there is no mountain lake to jump in at the top. (1. Dr Cuddles made me crop his nipple out of the photo, which I think is kind of a bummer. 2. This is the only photo where you can't see the fear written all over my face.)

1. If you are homeless in Phoenix and get too hot, consider riding the Metro Light Rail system all day. Everyone else is doing it, usually while drunk. I suppose it is a sad commentary on our times, but I can’t help but laugh at how entertaining the drunk crazies on the train are. They say some pretty awesome stuff.

If you're anything like me, when you think of Phoenix, you think of old people. Fair enough, my parents like visiting here as well. However, I'm here to dispel that myth and tell you that from what I can tell, Phoenix is pretty gosh darn lovely. Full stop. 

5. Phoenix is a hot minx in cougar's clothing. I think the people that live here want everyone else to think it's only old people and plastic blonds to discourage everyone else from also living here (scary Arizona immigration laws aside). Truth is, I haven't seen much of either. Maybe it's the area we are staying, but most people here seem to be well adjusted, young business professionals. 

4. There are so many great little restaurants, coffee shops and lounges here. The supply of coffee shop offices is seemingly endless and all of them come with a unique flavour. Most of these places have outdoor patios, which is great because while Phoenix is hot, IT'S A DRY HEAT so it's totally bearable. If you are used to the frigid temperatures of Canada, most patios here have misters. Great for cooling off, bad for curly hair. It's basically one giant frizz-o-fyer. I recommend a good anti-humectant. 

3. I may need to start dressing like a grown up. 

2. Everyone here is happy. For real. People say hello to each other and generally walk around with smiles on their faces. In discussing this at lunch, Brandon Franklin* said that it's hard to be glum when the sun is shining. I believe it. If you want moody angst, go somewhere it rains all the time. This place is not for you.  Speaking of sun, it's practically impossible to not be athletic here. How can you not want to get out and do stuff when the sky is so blue? it's pretty inspiring. If I start walking around spouting hippy-I-love-the-planet bull, someone slap me. 

1. I am a master of public transportation. Ok, this is a slight exaggeration. Google Latitude is a master of public transportation and I am a master of Google Latitude. However, I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to get all over without too much trouble. Of course, when you don't need to be anywhere at a scheduled time, public transportation is a lot less annoying. Whatever. I'm doing it. I'm getting from one place to another. Very economically. Probably pretty environmentally friendly too. Mother Nature, you're welcome. 

*note: I met Sean Tierney and Brandon Franklin, two old school Cambrian House community members, for lunch the other day. I now hold the honour of being the online friend that Brandon knew for the longest time before meeting in person.

When I was taking my pantyhose out of their egg this evening
I thought: I'm going to find that man that is the right shade of bottle tan
A man that smells like cocoa butter and cash

So these are pretty much the best lyrics I've ever heard. Pure Magic. Kylie joined The Scissor Sisters on stage a Glastonbury this year and this video gives me something else to write down on the ol' to-do list. I must master jumping about in thigh-high stiletto boots. It is an important life skill.

Also: considering singing this to Dr Cuddles when he gets home. Unless he reads this on the way home and walks in prepared (and by prepared, I mean ear plugs already in). The Shears are The Shizzle.

I'm headed back to Calgary in two days! While July has been awesome, I'm really looking forward to hanging out with my friends and spending a little quality time with my mom. Ohio, you've been good to me...and here's what I've noticed over the past week:

5. Hugging. So. Much. Hugging. I am slowly coming to terms with this. Americans like to hug. I’m not a hugger. I like to save my hugs for people I really like. At first, hugging of people I’d just met, or had only interacted with on a few occasions made me quite uncomfortable. My current policy is to just awkwardly ask, “Is this a hugging moment?” because the surprise hug is the worst. That’s how you accidentally end up kissing someone on the lips instead of cheek-to-cheek.

4. I have eaten ribs from a stand. The Jazz and Ribs Festival hits Columbus for one weekend at the end of July. Rib aficionados from all over bring their medals, trophies and sauce mops (they have mini mops that they use for smothering the ribs in sauce while they cook). IT IS A VERY INTERESTING CROWD. Truly, it was a good experience, although I can’t help but wonder how anyone gets into the rib competition circuit. It seems like a tough way to spend your summer. Highlight: the girl in short-shorts that took our order was stumped at having to add the price of 2 of the same meals together. They were whole numbers.

3. Canada is light years ahead on granola bars.

2. America only uses the Imperial system. I can respect that, because my people waver back and forth. Kilometres for distance, inches for height…stop sitting on the fence Canada! I feel it should be noted though that when America dumped all that tea out in the Boston harbor, they should have gone metric. It should also be noted that I can’t figure out how to order deli meat in pounds. It makes no sense.

1. I have entered the creepy subterranean storage space! Yes, it’s true. I’m not a fan of the dark. It’s not the dark so much as the possibility of the paranormal. I’m pretty tough about things until I think a ghost with bad hair is going to crawl out of my television. Anyway, I had to put the bikes in the storage space before going back to Calgary and I figured broad daylight was the best time to do it. I made it out alive, but I can see why people think spaces like that are totally legit to hide dead bodies. No one has been in there for years. Gross!

How many times does the word “hug” appear in this post? Answer correctly and you’ll get a free hug!

Waking up to the wrong song is the morning equivalent to getting rained on after a crummy day at the office. Growing up, I kept my trusty alarm clock tuned into CBC just to avoid the chance of waking up to Celine Dion. My alarm currently goes off at 4:40am. Beeping, buzzing and ringing tones don't improve my mood. In hopes of making waking up in the middle of the night slightly more pleasant, here are my top 5 songs to wake up to:

5. Van Halen - Jump

I get up...and nothing gets me down...

The splits, overhead jazz hands and a hair toss is generally my morning routine, so I really feel I connect with David Lee Roth on this one. 

4. Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine 

I'm walking on sunshine, whoa-oh...and don't it feel good!

Positive reinforcement people. You tell yourself it feels good until it does. Works every time.

Check out the vid here. Also: I like her dancing. It is how I dance. I prefer to think of it as an expression of joy...not so much a slave to the beat. 

3. James Brown - Get up offa that thing

Get up offa that thing and dance 'til you feel better.

If the shriek at the beginning doesn't scare you out of bed, the man TELLS YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO.

2. Jay-Z vs The Verve - Bittersweet Dirt Off your Shoulder

You gotta get that dirt off your shoulder.

With this as the soundtrack to your morning, your day will be a sweeping slow-motion epic. Go win something. 

1. Dolly Parton

I tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition

Dolly, you're a day-maker.

5. Let’s cut to the chase. Three weeks in and I’ve finally made it to a state-run liquor store. Hello, gin. My first trip involved a mild cash-only crisis, but DC stepped in and valiantly offered up a Hamilton to ensure gin-fueled productivity this weekend. He’s a baller, there’s no doubt.

4. Have a mentioned I’m a bit of a loner? My mother worries about me not knowing anyone here. “Are you lonely?” she says when she calls. I almost feel guilty when I tell her I love working by myself all day.

3. I have an uncomfortable obsession with finger toes. Toes that can act like fingers. Mine cant. My second and third toe are stuck together like glue and I have deformed baby toes (I presume because I was born with extra toes). I want my toes to be able to do great things, to achieve great heights. I’m working on a work out regime.  

2. Columbus is the birthplace of the junior bacon cheeseburger.

1. Doctors work long hours. If you thought different, I’m here to set you straight. They start work at 5:30am. Which is mother truckin’ early. However, I’m pretty sure if things get desperate and I need to write a book titled, “How to land your very own Doctor” I’ve got some ideas. They mostly revolve around standing around the hospital at 5:20am with fresh coffee and homemade muffins. Key to the heart ladies, key to the heart.

The rest is as you’d expect. I’ve booked a ridiculous number of flights this week and hope to see you all when I hit your town. Huggles.

Would anyone be interested in a GirlGeekLunch at noon on Wednesday Aug. 4th?

I've been wanting to get GirlGeekDinners going for quite a while now, without much success. Too much travel!

However, I will be in town the first week of August and thought it would be a great opportunity to connect with some of the great women we have in the #yyc community. 

We can make it pretty casual - just come and eat. Together. Preferably on a patio. If anyone is interested in taking on organizing GirlGeekDinners, I'd give them some more information. I'm also happy to talk about anything else, whether it's something you're excited about, or something you need help with.

Let me know 1) if you'd be interested, 2) how we can squeeze the most into a lunch hour so it's valuable to you and 3) where you think we should eat.