kansas city: day 3

it's my birthday....it's my birthday...it's my birthday.

and it was no secret that i wasn't uber-excited about celebrating it in kansas city. on a work trip.  but life has a way of surprising you - especially when you take the proverbial bull by the horns.  and after my first couple of days in kc, i decided to stop being a baby and make the most of it.

i had selected the location for my birthday dinner over a month before and invited a few of my favorite co-workers.  but on birthday morning, i decided that that was just the first step, and i added 'find birthday crown' to my to-do list for the day.

my co-worker, diana, mused that she wasn't sure i was 'that kind of person.'  my response was that i wasn't, and that that was exactly why i was going to do it!  what the heck, right?!

our mission was a success, and in addition to the 'birthday princess' tiara, i also found a birthday princess sash, a set of birthday princess plates and napkins, and picked up a few mini-tiaras for the girls joining us at dinner. diana also bought me a cake, and we were ready to roll!

i and a couple others headed to the airport to make a pick-up before meeting with the rest of the group at oklahoma joe's, the evening's restaurant choice.

now, this choice was made very carefully, with the single goal of finding good barbecue in kansas city.

despite the cities reputation for great bbq, i'd been consistently thwarted on my previous trip, and i was determined to remedy the situation.  the fact that oklahoma joe's is a bbq restaurant inside a gas station, and that i would be wearing a tiara to said restaurant, as you might imagine, appealed immensely to my sense of irony.  the fact that it was also listed on anthony bourdain's 'top 13 places to eat before you die' list was just icing on the cake. no pun intended.

as expected, there was a line.  but the half-hour wait time gave me plenty of opportunity to catch up with co-workers who had just arrived in town, and whom i hadn't seen in some time.  it also gave me an opportunity to receive a slew of birthday well-wishes from strangers, and one came in the unique form of a 'tip' from an employee, about an off-menu item that was a staff favorite.

i'm no dummy. i took the recommendation, and am happy to report that my mission to find good bbq in kansas city was a resounding success!

after we enjoyed our bbq - and the entire group agreed that it was delicious - we enjoyed yummy cake on our birthday princess plates before calling it a night.

ultimately, what i expected to be a downer of a birthday resulted in one of the more interesting and fun experiences i've had in a long time!