Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Godfather, Part 1

Yesterday I arrived in Chandler, AZ a suburb on the far extent of the Phoenix sprawl. I don't particularly like Phoenix; Arizona in general is beautiful, but the sprawl here is just a little too much.

My reason for stopping here is to visit my godparents, Zhou and Tan, who I haven't seen in over 20 years. More accurately, they haven't seen me in 20 years. I have no memories of them whatsoever, since they moved away from where I grew up before I was  able to form lasting memories.

My stay has been fairly uneventful, but I've gotten a chance to catch up with them, show them pictures of me and my family, discuss their lives, and of course, eat their Chinese cooking.

Zhou is The Godfather. He's a software engineer at a company that makes chips for Blackberries. He's an audiophile - Tan chides him for the number of high end speaker sets he owns - and introduced me to the Japanese new age artist Kitaro

Tan is a kind woman with a kick-ass chile pepper oil recipe. I had homemade Chinese food smothered in it; very hot, very good.

This afternoon I make the drive to Los Angeles to visit the Badger. I'll have a couple hours to burn somewhere between here and there, as I try to time my arrival to miss LA's rush hour traffic. Joshua Tree is tempting, or I could go on a quest to find a T-shirt for Buddy. Cal-State Bakersfield, Long Beach State, and Loyola Marymount are all on the list.
Me, Zhou and Tan by their pool

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