Why Monument Valley?

I have always loved photos of Monument Valley. When I was a child, it was because these images brought to mind a place that, to me, was paradise. That place was Arizona--the only physical place on the planet that remained a constant part of my life. Not only was it a physical place that I knew I would always be going back to visit, as my immediate family moved from one state to another every few years, but it was a place in my heart--HOME--because it is where my extended family was--both my Dad and my Mom's families. I told my mom once, after returning from a visit to Arizona, that I was homesick. She said, "How can you be homesick for Arizona? You've never even lived there!" It didn't matter, I was still homesick. My roots were in Arizona. When your ancestors go to a barren desert to homestead and make a place for themselves, the ties to that place get in your gene pool somehow.

Monument Valley has taken on a new significance for me lately. I had always thought that the famous Mitten Buttes were in Arizona. Then I saw a calendar that featured photos of various places in Utah. Lo and behold, one month featured a photo of the Mittens Buttes in Monument Valley. "I can't believe the people that made this calendar made such a big mistake!" I thought. So I decided to do a little research to find out for sure where the Mittens were located--in Arizona or in Utah. Well, this research has turned out to be a little more complicated than I thought. (I may need to go visit the place myself to settle this question once and for all :) ) Some websites seem to indicate that the Mittens are in Utah, others that they are in Arizona. Since Monument Valley straddles the Arizona-Utah border, they could easily be in either one--maybe they are in both.

At any rate, our family can identify with the Mittens Buttes. It is a perfect symbol for our life right now. We aren't sure if we are in Utah or in Arizona. First we were moving to Utah, then we weren't, then we were again. We still (unfortunately) own a small piece of real estate in Arizona and my husband is working for an Arizona company, BUT in their Salt Lake City office. BUT, ironically, at present, the only two contracts the company may be awarded that he would work on are in Arizona. From last May to November most of us were living in Arizona but our medical insurance was Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah. Now we are all living in Utah, but our medical insurance is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. So who knows where we are?

Turns out, the Arizona Department of Revenue and the Utah State Tax Commission are equally confused about where we are. Their conflicting rules mean that my husband was a full-year resident of Arizona but a part-year resident of Utah. Trouble is, if that is true, than according to their conflicting rules, we owe both states income tax on all of our income for the entire year and both of them think that the other state should give us the credit for the tax paid to the other state. Now I know why I got a degree in Accounting. It was for just this moment in our life. [That the lowest grade I ever received in college--a "C"--was in my tax accounting class, doesn't worry me. That was just because the professor discovered that someone had stolen and distributed to some of the students a copy of the final exam (no, I was NOT involved in this!) and he was angry. So he rewrote the final exam and as far as most of us could tell, it had nothing to do with the material we had covered in class.]