B E B E R E

Lileks on other places he could call home:

"The desert speaks to me. And it says: I will stick you and make you bleed. If I’m in a good mood. Or I might strike you down and bake you brown, a canapé for carrion-feeders. So watch it.

I like the colors of Arizona. Both of them. I like the mountains, which seem more approachable than the grand titans of the Northwest. I like the climate, and I like the architecture. It’s everything I didn’t grow up with, which may explain it. I just know that I like it. I’ve been saying I’d move here in five minutes if I could.

They all think I’m joking."

I'm a pale, pale, dead-fish-white girl with blue-veiny legs and lots of freckles I have to keep an eye on (lest one turns a strange color from too much sun). I pride myself on my fortitude when it comes to the New England climate: Autumn, brutal Winter, a few days of Spring, several weeks of Mud, a Summer that's a Sauna with Bugs. I've been to the desert three times in my life, and have come to the same determination as he has: it would think nothing of killing me and grilling me if I don't keep on my toes. There's something about it that really appeals to me, though. As I continue to get fed up with the weather, the crowding, the filth and the expense of where I live, the desert calls out to me a bit more strongly. It's either Back Home or there, I think.