Kansas

Last week I spent the week in Kansas visiting my dad, stepmom, and two brothers. It was actually a great trip, very relaxing, and fun.

Pre-trip (Tuesday):

The day before I left was my mom’s birthday and we spent the day in Seattle. It was so much fun! On our way to Seattle we got pedicures in Olympia, which was much needed. Then we went to ikea to get some goodies for my dorm room. I pretty much have everything I need now and I am super stoked to move! Anyway, we met my sister and niece and nephew at ikea and we had a sweet time. We proceeded to go to Nordstrom where I got some awesome new threads. We spent a massive amount of time at both stores so by the time we were done it was like 8:00 and we decided we were hungry and ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner was awesome, as it usually is at the Cheesecake Factory, but it was super busy so we had to sit really close to the people around us. Ignoring the negative of being so close to everyone, it was awesome because we could listen to other people’s conversations. The people to the right of us were very funny because they were high school kids on a date and it was ironic because the girl ordered some sort of pasta and the boy ordered a salad. It made me laugh. After dinner we went to our hotel and we got there pretty late so there wasn’t a lot of parking so we parked on the side and when we went in the receptionist person informed us that there was a thief in the parking lot and if we had any valuables we should bring them inside and we were like oh its cool we put all of our stuff in the trunk. She then informed us that these theives take out the locks on the trunks and that is where they get most of their loot. So we had to bring everything that we purchased up to our room, which took a while. On our last trip up to our room there was this guy a few doors down from us and we had seen him at the Cheesecake Factory. I said to him, “hey we saw you at the cheesecake factory.” He laughed and said, “oh are you stalking me? It’s ok, you can stalk me.” I was officially creeped out. So we went into our room and watched The L Word (my favorite show) and then went to bed. I fell asleep and around 1:00 and we had to wake up at 3:45.

Day One (Wednesday):

So after getting less than 3 hours of sleep I had to wake up and get myself ready and we headed to the airport. Our car was not broken into, as far as we know. My plane was supposed to leave at 6:15 but we didn’t leave until about 7:00 because there was some sort of latch on one of the compartments in the back that was broken. I only had a 45 minute layover when I got to Denver. I was so worried that I was going to miss my flight. It all turned out ok, I just had to run to my flight and then we left right away. I arrived in Kansas around 2:00 and was greeted by my two brothers and my stepmom. We went home and I took a 2 1/2 hour nap. It was amazing. That night we just hung out when my dad got home from work and it was a nice relaxing day.

Day Two (Thursday):

I woke up Thursday morning and we all went to the pool. It was about 95 degrees out and the pool felt so amazing. We stayed there for a couple of hours and when we got home I took my 7 year old brother to see GI Joe. It was actually a pretty good movie, not to mention that Channing Tatum is rather good looking and not to hard to look at for two hours. While we were waiting for the movie to start, these two guys came in and sat a couple of rows in front of us. I couldn’t help but laugh when they sat with a seat in between them…oh men. The rest of that day was relaxing yet again and I played a lot of sudoku.

Day Three (Friday):

My Aunt Dana came to visit. I was so happy because I have not seen my Aunt Dana in about 5 or 6 years. She is amazing and I used to spend a week with her every summer so it had been far too long. She wanted to go to a movie so just she and I went to see the Time Traveler’s Wife (which was amazing!) and then came home and chatted with my dad and stepmom before we went to bed.

Day Four (Saturday):

We woke up early and went out to breakfast and then we went to the city market. It was really fun to walk around but it was so hot and humid, it was almost unbearable. While at the marketplace, we went to the Steamboat Arabia Museum. If you are ever in Kansas City, I strongly recommend seeing it. The Steamboat Arabia is a Steamboat that sunk in the Missouri River in 1856. The boat had several passengers as well as a couple of tons of cargo making its way from Kansas City to St. Louis. It didn’t make it very far before it sunk. All of the passengers survived but most of their belongings and the cargo did not. Several years after the boat sunk, there were rumors of a lot of alcohol aboard. Many people tried to dig up the boat but with little luck and the alcohol was never found. I believe it was 20 years ago that a father, his two sons, and a family friend wanted to dig up this boat and try to find some treasure. To make a long story short, they found so many artifacts and opened this museum to show what they had found. It was pretty amazing. Here are some pictures.

After the museum my aunt went home and the rest of the day was more relaxing and sudoku.

Day Five (Sunday):

Sunday was by far the most relaxing day of the week. We all slept in and laid in our pajamas for most of the day. My stepmom recorded the last season of Hell’s Kitchen, it is one of the best shows ever. My dad and I watched the last 9 episodes of the show and I am now in love with it. That night, we went to dinner at Power Play, which is like a fancy chuckie cheese. The food is way better and it has more games for older people. After we got home, I was so tired from doing nothing all day that I went to bed.

Day Six (Monday):

This was my last full day in Kansas. Brady, my brother, wanted to see yet another movie, so we went to see Aliens in the Attic. It was not a bad movie. I think that most little kids would enjoy it. Other than that, I played a lot of sudoku and watched some lifetime movies with my stepmom.

Day Seven and Post-trip (Tuesday):

This was the day I was going home. I woke up early (6:30) and got ready to go. The day was boring, just flying and then I got home around 2:00. The lovely boyfriend picked me up from the airport, we went to lunch at Red Robin, and then he took me home.

The trip was fun. There were a couple of thunder storms with thunder so loud and so close to the house it felt like an earthquake sometimes. My brothers love the wiggles and after being home for a day now, I still have this stuck in my head.

 

I guess it just was not my day.

After I got out of class on a fine Wednesday afternoon, I was driving to my aunt’s house to hang out until I had to work. I took a right turn toward her house. The speed limit was 25 MPH and I had just turned so I was going a safe 20 MPH with my hands at 10 and 2. I was about to pass a gas station when a RV pulled out in front of me. The driver was cutting it a little close as he was pulling out. I had to brake a little bit but it was no big deal. Right after the RV pulled out, a middle aged man driving a mustang did not stop at the stop sign and pulled out right in front of me (middle aged men in sports cars are almost worse than old people in sports cars). I had to slam on my brakes and I was really close to hitting him. I was a little shaken up but I was in one piece and so was my car so it was okay.

Later that day. I was at work and had to go to the store. After picking up what I needed, I was walking to my car when a woman was driving toward me in the parking lot, but she was far enough away that I figured she would stop and let me cross the street. Any normal person would stop for a pedestrian, if they were paying attention. Appearantly, she was not.  She was going a little faster than a person who is not paying attention should be going and she nearly hit me. I had to run across the road and she finally stopped when she noticed a pedestrian in the parking lot (who knew?).  I made it to my car without being hit and everyone lived. Thank goodness.