Proceed with Caution

Remember in my last post when I mentioned that I live in a city in the middle of the desert? Well, if you live in the desert, too—or if you’ve ever travelled to the desert—you’ll know that as a general rule, you are supposed to have at least one or two desert-dwelling plants in your yard. You know—just in case we all forget that we live in the middle of the Sonoran desert, we can look out our windows, see our cactus or aloe plants and remember where we are. So it would be wise, when taking photos for your blog in your backyard, to keep in mind that cactus have sharp needles, and to therefore steer clear of them. But I am apparently not wise.

We have a giant cactus in our back yard that, in the 12 years that my family has lived in Phoenix, has grown to a good 10 feet or so. Considering that it originally sprouted from one of those tiny potted cactuses (Cacti? Cactus? I am, apparently, a bad linguistics student) that you buy in the airport as a tacky souvenir, that’s a pretty amazing feat. So I thought it would make a nice backdrop for my photo. I hooked my camera up to my trusty little tripod, set up the shot, turned on the 10-second delay, and hurried into the frame. And then I lost my footing. Cue one giant, pointy cactus needle poking me in the arm.

That would explain the distant, upset look and half-smile on my face in this shot! Luckily there was no serious damage—to my sweater, of course. I’m not worried about my arm.

I bought this dress about a year ago for a trip to Las Vegas with my sister and a few friends of ours. It’s comfortable and lightweight—perfect for warm-weather days. In fact, I wore it all day long yesterday even though I spent most of the day at home, and then I paired it with leggings and a cardigan in the evening to go to my knitting group at Starbucks.

Dress and leggings: Target. Cardigan: Old Navy

 
Shoes: Target. Cat: Lucky

I have two cats, Lucky and Domino, and Lucky is definitely the more…special of the two. He has a penchant for running into things, falling off of things, and being frightened by virtually everything. Poor guy had just been through a traumatic experience, though—he hopped into my sister’s car as she was leaving, so she took him for a drive around the block. Do you see the terror in his eyes?!