We're back from a long weekend in Las Vegas. Being there reminded me of all the things I love and miss about the desert.

• It's not humid! Now, I try not to be one of those people who goes around saying "it's not the heat, it's the humidity," but having lived in the northern reaches of both the Chihuahua and the Everglades, I actually know the difference. And if I'm going to be perfectly honest, a lot of these points boil down to this one.
  
  
• There's something about a dry climate that teaches people how to actually make decent salsa. Also, the tortillas don't stick together and only taste a little bit like glue. (Hey, there's only so much you can ask from a place that isn't New Mexico.)
  
  
• Antiperspirant? Yeah, it actually works.
  
  
• Pool towels? We don't need no stinkin' pool towels! Just lie there for about five minutes, and you'll blow-dry.
  
  
• Maybe this one's what I miss about the West in general, but seeing the purple mountains rising above the red soil touched my heart in a way I didn't know landscapes could do.
  
  
• When I was younger, I screwed up my knees (which is a topic for another post), and the humidity in Florida really bothers them. I didn't actually notice this until I climbed the stairs to my office this morning, bearing the twinge behind my right kneecap -- and realized that in five days of stairs and pool ladders and running the wrong way up escalators, they hadn't bugged me once.
  
  
• I can sit up for hours with my friends drinking beers and talking about nothing and enjoying their company. No, hang on, that's "things I miss because I live two thousand miles from nearly everyone I love."