The first test

I have a cold.

In Phoenix.

The irony is not lost on me.

It's 103 degrees at 10:45 at night, and I'm all sniffles. I sound like a 40-year-old man; my voice is all deep and raspy. I could give Chad Kroeger a run for his money — lord knows I could write better lyrics at least.

Anywho, today was largely a lazy Sunday. We still had the last remnants of crap to go through in the bathroom, but me, Krystle and Becky tackled that task pretty early in the day.

But around noon we came to the sudden and harsh realization that there was no food in the house. So we finally had to bite the bullet and go shopping for the first time. Mind you, we've been hearing horror stories all week long from former Jesuit Volunteers (aka- FJVs) about their first outings to the grocery store with their new casa mates. The biggest problem is that each of us is only given $90 per month for groceries, not enough for us to sustain ourselves independently. So we have to pool all of our money together for the month... and we must come to mutual decisions on which items we want to buy on our $450. It might not sound that challenging, but you'd be surprised how nasty a fight over white or wheat bread can become — and don't even get me started on the milk debate (whole? 2%? 1%? skim). Needless to say, none of us were looking forward to the experience.

It went surprisingly well, actually. We came to an easy agreement on wheat bread and skim milk. And as none of us are vegetarians, that was also another debate we easily avoided (Thank God! because Greg made this killer salad for dinner, featuring Jamaican jerk chicken).

We hit up the Fry's down the street, which had a minimal selection, since it's closing down forever in a couple of weeks. Then we drove home those groceries before heading back out to Costco. God forbid we leave the groceries in the car in this heat... It's the small things you miss about Colorado.

But Phoenix does have it perks.

I'm not sure what it is about Phoenix, but there were the shortest lines I've ever seen at a Costco checkout counter. Seriously, we were cashed out in under 5 minutes and the teller started a conversation with me about Captain EO, since I was wearing my t-shirt today. Pretty rad. Everybody in the house was more than thrilled to hear that I had a Costco card, although not everybody was a Costco aficionado. So it was funny seeing Eddie stop at all the sample carts and push the cart right past the lady who checks the receipts. She wasn't happy.

At the end of the day, we went slightly over budget. But this "simple living" is going to take some getting used to. And we bought a lot of items that will last for several weeks. So... if all goes according to plan, we should even out the budget next week.

Tomorrow is the first day of work at Central Arizona Shelter Service (CASS). I'm going to be working as a Case Manager at the Vista Colina campus, which provides emergency housing for homeless families with children. This is the company line I've been giving to anybody who's asked me what I'm doing. So... this should finally answer the question for all of you as to why I am in this sweltering city. But I'll let you in on a secret — I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing in my position.

But no worries, I'm totally going to rock this... uh... case managing.

Sharp rocks at the bottom?
Bring it on.