hot country nights

woo hoo! the annual birthday trip -- i mean, work trip -- to kansas city was hot for a number of reasons, and the mid 90's temps and high humidity were just the start.

arriving early always gives me a little extra potential time to spend with my friend melissa, and this year she mentioned that craig morgan would be playing a free concert at the power & light district.  since booth setup was going smoothly, i was able to join her and her husband.

after a quick bite at chipotle, a recap of my east coast trip, and a little girl talk about my relatively new work crush (i thought she'd be shocked at my confession. she wasn't.) who i expected to see during the trip, we headed over to p&l.

since we were early, we decided to hang back a bit where we could sit for the next couple of hours--which turned out to be a great choice.  not only did we manage to remain mostly sweat and foot-pain free, but when craig finally took the stage, we stood on some platform benches and had a perfect view.

and it got better when a few songs in, i noticed a flurry of activity about 10 feet in front of me. took me a second to realize that craig had come out to perform a song in the audience.  and he had just happened to wind up where we were hanging out.

when i relayed the story to my boss after the fact, his response was 'of course he did.'  i guess i've developed a reputation for having good (mostly random) things happen to me, and the truth in that makes me continually grateful.

after he finished singing from his audience stool, melissa, nick, and i decided it wouldn't get better than that and made our exit.

since melissa isn't traveling as much these days, i have to take advantage of every opportunity to spend time with her, so we said our farewells for the evening, and confirmed plans to see each other again in the next couple of days.

the following morning booth setup continued, mostly, smoothly. there was one new piece (a rotating hanging sign) that wasn't working (not rotating) and while it was a great disappointment, it wasn't the end of the world. (meaning, it WILL be fixed for the next show).  what was most surprising though, is that unlike previous years wheen we had been finishing up at midnight or 1am, we were actually done by 2pm.

i almost didn't know what to do with myself, but since i was on day 3 of a rotten summer cold, i headed back to the hotel room for a nap and a shower before meeting the rest of the gang for team-building bowling.

the most interesting new team member was my friend shannon's 3 month old baby, marcus.  i confirmed that he had not yet had a self-portrait, so i got to be the first once again!

while the rest of the team bowled, i opted to play it low(er) key and enjoyed some dinner and conversation with the non-bowlers. and, after a couple of games the group dispersed.

Julie, chris, mike and i decided to head to one of our favorite joints-- howl-at-the-moon, the dueling piano bar chain--where we sang along and judged the crowd.

at midnight i turned into a pumpkin and headed back to the hotel to be ready for the exhibit hall opening the following day.and  little did i know, things were just starting to heat up.