kansas city: day 1

well, hallelujah!  it seems as though the universe has seen fit to pause the recent craap-storm of bad luck and strange fortune and offered up a most excellent trip to the great state of missouri.

yep, you heard me.  and it took me quite by surprise as well!

i landed in kc on wednesday afternoon, and after picking up the rental car, getting myself and my co-worker diana (aka 'my little helper') checked in at the hotel, and cleaning the plane-ness off me, i headed out for a very special dinner with some very special people.

14 or so years ago, my career in event planning started at the salt palace convention center in salt lake city.  while i was originally hired on as the receptionist, it was only two months before my boss and i both realized i had outgrown the position, and i was offered a different one, serving as the assistant to our director of events.  to this day brett remains one of my all-time favorite bosses (and i've had some good ones). he had high expectations but he also really liked to have fun, and we had a lot of it in the year and a half i worked for him.  he set the tone for the department, and i found that most of the event managers followed his lead.  one of the best examples was kenny, who always had a smile, a thank you, and a 'good job' on his tongue.  i adored them both.

kenny, denise, me, and brett

i've kept in sporadic touch with brett over the years, though mostly in the context of letting him know that he might be getting a reference call when i was on the job hunt.  i knew he had moved to kansas several years ago to serve as general manager for a convention center, but it took me awhile to figure just how close he was, to where i would be.  and it was only recently that i learned that kenny had gone to work for him, so i scheduled a dinner back in june, and i have literally been looking forward to it for months.

they chose a restaurant brett referred to as 'a kansas city institution,' called stroud's.  and as an added bonus, it was also featured on the travel network show man v. food.  in fact, now may be a good time to mention that in addition to my penchant for getting national park stamps during my travels, i've recently begun making an effort to patronize restaurants featured on various food and travel network shows...man v. food, diners, drive-ins, and dives, and anthony bourdain's various and random shows.  much like the national parks, it forces me to explore my surroundings a little more, and i've been pleasantly surprised more than a time or two.

how great for me that i got to check a restaurant off the list while enjoying delicious fried chicken and waffle fries and cinnamon rolls with brett, kenny, and denise (kenny's wife, who i also worked with at the salt palace).  as so much time had passed, we had a LOT to catch up on.  yet, it was also one of those experiences where you settle right back in as if no time has passed at all.  i think it's fair to say that that effortless ease for picking up where you left off is largely what makes my favorite people my favorite people!

but my wonderful dinner with old friends was not nearly close to the end of the evening.  when i got back to the hotel, i hooked up with diana, julie, and vanessa to head over to the power & light district.  the show didn't start until saturday, but we were all in town early for different reasons; diana and i for booth setup, and julie and vanessa for clinic visits.

vanessa, diana, me, and julie
(and random old dude, and nick, jason's friend)

i've mentioned my semi-addiction to dueling piano bars in the past, and power & light (a neighborhood of restaurants, bars, theaters, and other entertainment) has one called howl at the moon.  as it was a wednesday night, things were pretty quiet, and while the place had more empty tables than full ones, both pianos were being utilized and we settled in for a somewhat relaxing evening of entertainment.

but we expected to be a relatively quiet night turned into a quite interesting and quite entertaining one when a totally inappropriate suitor took a liking to the lovely diana and a totally darling suitor took a liking to me.  long story short, i didn't know that my 'suitor', jason, had any interest in me until hours later. initially i thought he was simply trying to be a stand-up guy in helping diana fend off the much too old and far too inebriated man who wouldn't leave her alone.  the 'fending off' involved a ruse that included diana as his sistah (i'll explain THAT in a moment) and me as his wife.

this is sometimes what happens when i introduce someone
to 'the stick'. i end up laughing, they end up pointing or
grabbing their friends. 

the ruse served it's purpose for the most part, and i enjoyed getting to know my new 'husband,' who, it turns out is a bahston boy.  a southie in fact. so if you've seen good will hunting, you'll know what i'm talking about.  you know that movie the departed?  well it's actually the depahted.  and it's kinda retahded.  and it was all super cute.  of course the fact that he had dark hair, blue eyes, and seemed to be a pretty stand up guy didn't hurt, but again, i was completely clueless until the end of the night when he verbally expressed his interest and asked for my number.

see here's the thing:  i'm not that girl.  according to diana, he walked into the place, saw me, and 'picked me.'  he sat down next to me despite the multitude of empty tables, and according to my co-workers, i was somewhat of an idiot not to reacognize his interest from the get-go.  but i'm not that girl!  i'm NEVER the girl who, when a guy walks in a room he thinks; 'that girl. that's the girl i want.'  i'm always the girl they get to know and THEN they think 'that's the girl i want.'  and trust me, i'm so completely okay with this (most of the time anyway).  but the concept of a guy 'seeing me across the room' yada yada yada is so foreign to me that it never occurred to me that he had any interest until it was almost too late.

if i knew then what i knew later, i would
have made him take a 'normal' picture.

the upside is that, as i was completely unaware of his intentions, i was totally natural and me and enjoyed a no-pressure fun evening with a cool guy, and the downside is that none of it really matters anyway.  because, despite the fact that i met a cute boy with whom there was a mutual attraction and who actually attempted to DO something about it, it doesn't really matter because he's a cute boy that isn't mormon.

is it any wonder i spent most of my dating years with non-members?  of course, that may be a contributing factor to my current singlehood, but seriously, non-mormon boys are just so much more NORMAL! buggah.

but, all that being said, it was a pretty phenomenal way to start the trip.  i took it for what it was worth and had a fantastic evening.

stuffing your face makes everything better

so the interesting thing about my salmonella experience is that i never stopped being hungry.  unlike the flu (at least in my case) food still sounded good. it sounded great, in fact. but i knew what the outcome would be, so i abstained, except of course when i'd try saltines and/or sherbet to get a status update from my stomach.

on thursday night, the battle raged on, and by friday morning, i was completely fine. i don't know how to explain it, but when i woke up, it was as if the previous five days had been a figment of my imagination.  and once i could stuff my face again, everything suddenly felt more manageable.

the dog got a bath, laundry was done, grinding brake problem was fixed... and, by the way, if you are someone who is lucky enough to have found an honest mechanic - be grateful. i know i am!!

and the bonus?  the bonus was that my friend lara was in town for the wedding of our mutual friend, danielle.  and for me, there are very few cures better than spending time with my east coast peeps to get me out of a funk.

after my brakes were done and danielle's sealing complete, lara headed to my place to hang out until we both left for the reception.  i haven't had many friends come to visit since i've lived here, and it was really fun for me to share my new life with her.

one of the first things she said to me was 'i totally get why you like living here.' and, as people seem to do, she fell in love with cordy, verbalizing what i have always suspected about this little dog, that, 'you can tell she has a really sweet soul.'

yeah. i had a proud mama moment:)

finally, it was time to head to the reception, and when i learned that it was being held at a 'senior center,' i was a little concerned.  concerned and amused.

it was all for naught though as we headed out to the terrace and were surprised at how beautiful it was.  the location was a bit of a hidden treasure, and selected largely due to the fact that the groom's mexican family would be preparing all of the food for the reception and needed a full kitchen in order to do so.

i have to admit that i was impressed with the decor.  it was the perfect example of how to stage a classy, elegant event, on a budget.  nothing felt under or overdone and the proportions seemed perfectly balanced.  the personal touches were simple and perfect, and the food was, well, it was flippin' authentic mexican food.  good thing i'd said goodbye to mr. salmonella because i was in mexican heaven!

you may remember that i recently mentioned learning that a friend had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  the bride is the friend i referred to, and as such, it made the evening particularly meaningful.

this is a first marriage for both the bride and groom, who are in their 40's, and the cancer is much more aggressive than anyone originally suspected.  in addition to the golf ball size tumor in her breast, she also has multiple tumors throughout her bones, and the prognosis is not optimistic.  and while my heart breaks for what will ultimately be the end of their mortal story together, whenever that time comes, what a wonderful challenge and blessing it is that these two worthy people have found each other and been sealed together for eternity.

while i expect most of the guests had similar thoughts, an outsider would have simply seen a PAR-TAY! there was food and dancing. oh boy, was there dancing! (not for the knee-challenged, but i sure enjoyed watching.) and it was the first bilingual wedding i've attended, where literally every toast and speech was translated in spanish and english.  i feel fortunate to have been included in such a celebration, and i am officially out of the funk.

and if i can avoid near-future intestinal upsets and manage a relatively easy recovery from surgery, i may even STAY out of it! ;)

warning: whine zone

so, i'm 95% sure i have salmonella.  on saturday morning, after a really fun spontaneous trip to joshua tree (about a two hour drive) to watch the perseid meteor shower (where i, for the first time in my life, slept out under the stars) i talked my roommates into making a stop at the cabazon dinosaurs and having breakfast at the wheel inn.

both gained notoriety in 'pee-wee's big adventure' and they have been on my hot list since arriving in california.  and since i don't go out to joshua tree on a regular basis, this was my best opportunity for check-marking that little item.

big mistake.

don't get me wrong. the dinosaurs were fun and kitschy, as expected, but the breakfast was the worst meal i've ever consumed in my life.  in fact we all agreed on that point.

the rest of the day, my stomach felt a little off, but i mostly chalked it up to lack of sleep.  afterall, we had left for joshua tree at 10pm, arrived a little after midnight, watched meteors until 3, then got up at 5am to head out.

eventually i got my stomach under control and my roommates and i joined some others from the ward to go see the last performance of twelfth night in the 'shakespeare by the sea' season.  the play was held outdoors at point fermin park n san pedro, and as heather used to teach in that area, she made sure we took the route winding along the fantastically beautiful coastline.

it's sad to say, but the drive ended up being the highlight, as shortly after the play started,  heather and i realized we had had far too little sleep for shakespeare!  since neither of us had driven though, we were stuck. so we found creative ways to catnap in our camp chairs.

other than still being extremely tired, sunday passed normally, until about 4am, when my stomach decided to go to war with itself.  and four days later, that battle still rages on.  what was initially confusing to me was that other than the inability to keep food down, and the tiredness (which could be attributed to a number of explanations) there were no other symptoms.  and i don't know about you, but when i get the flu, i GET the flu.

i knew it wasn't your standard food poisoning, which onsets almost immediately, but i also felt that this was not a 'normal' sick. it wasn't until i was talking with a co-worker yesterday and he asked me if i thought it could be salmonella that i did a little digging, and all of the 'symptoms', including the timeline are right on.

so now i'm on day 5 (they say recovery between 4-7 days) and i haven't been able to keep anything down since sunday.  i've dropped 8 pounds this week and i'm flippin' HUNGRY.  but i know what will happen if i indulge that hunger, and it ain't pretty or pleasant.  and really, i'm pretty annoyed,  i feel like knee surgery should meet the quota for crappy health stuff in any one month, and now this.  i feel like i'm losing control of the little things and i can tell that my boss is less than enthused about all my recent time off - first for the knee, now for salmonella.  even i have a hard time believing it.

it all feels a little overwhelming at the moment and i'm pretty grumpy about it. cordy is in desperate need of a bath...easy, one might think, but being on my knees is one painful and two will induce vomiting.  i need new brakes, need to research new car insurance, cancel my september work trips (since i'm not allowed on a plane for two weeks post-surgery), clean, attend a wedding this weekend, and get my job responsibilities back to a manageable mess.  needless to say, this is not exactly how i hoped my birthday month would turn out.  i even had to forgo the chocolate spa thanks to the stupid knee. gah!

irony

i just saw a commercial for a new movie starring drew barrymore & justin long about a long distance relationship.  anybody else amused that such a movie would be opening on my birthday?

i think it's the universe's way of wishing me a happy one, but i'm not sure if i should blow out the candles before or after i know what the ending is:)

a perfect southern california weekend

what can i say, i think this whole knee thing isn't so bad as it could be.  don't get me wrong, i'm a little nervous about the surgery...particularly as i have spoken to a couple of people in the last week who've had the same surgery and they were on crutches for 6-8 weeks post-surgery.  as i've since learned, if the meniscus can repaired, i shouldn't have that problem, but only 10% of it can be repaired. if it can't be repaired, it will have to be removed, and if it's removed, i can count on a lot of crutch time.

september is one of my busiest event months.  i'm scheduled to be in four different cities next month, so i'm not sure how that's all gone work, but one step at a time.

in the meantime, i'm feeling more like myself than i have in ages.  thanks to the knee, i've been home for the longest uninterrupted period of time since i started this job.  there's something about being home and having the ability to decide how i spend my time that makes me feel like ME again!

this weekend i exercised my freedom by taking advantage of two great southern california staples.  first up, the orange county fair!

spreading the xshot love. alison wanted to try hers out, but i think i got the better pic.

my friend alison and i have been planning our date for months, and as i don't get to see her very often, i was excited to relive our fair experience from years past.  i also invited my roommates along, and our friend greg joined us after the styx concert.

the only plan for the evening was food.

i starved myself for days in anticipation of this event.  okay..maybe only a couple of hours, but still, there was plenty of room for the old favorites. onion rings, corn, funnel cake, and ice cream.  we added some new twists, including bavarian cream on the funnel cake, and me convincing alison that mayonnaise on corn is YUMMY!  she was a skeptic but acquiesced to a bite or two, and she was hooked.

in between our food stops, of which, there were many, we enjoyed some of the arts and crafts - particularly the photography - and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the ice museum.

the ice museum was inside a freezer, and the walls were made of ice bricks.  among the displays were an ice 'david', and a few other ice sculptures, including 'the thinker.'  we were all grateful for the blankets we were given, as it was a balmy 20 degrees inside the freezer.  and we enjoyed it so much that we made sure to take greg through after he had joined us.

we called it a night after we had stuffed and frozen ourselves silly.  not sure how i lasted so long, but i'm going to chalk it up to the vicodin.

the following morning, after running a few errands, heather and i headed down to the beach.

the ward beach party was being held that evening, but we wanted to spend some daylight enjoying the beautiful southern california weather.  for better or worse, the us open surfing championship, held every year in huntington beach, was also taking place.  it made for a festive environment, but the parking was horrendous.

heather dropped me off close to the ward party location, so i wouldn't have to walk too far, but she ended up having to walk a pretty significant distance after finding a spot for the car.   i found the few ward members saving our location and fire pits pretty easily, and enjoyed the bonding time with a couple of girls in the ward i don't know very well.

i got some reading and relaxing done , and slowly towards the late afternoon, other members of the ward began arriving.  i was sung to by a guy with great abs (photo below) watched and laughed at the semblance of a volleyball game, enjoyed a couple of ears from the saltwater corn roast, got to see a long and got to mingle with my peeps.

i also learned the power of a woman.

i was having a conversation with this guy and commented that a man in a suit is far more handsome than in almost anything else.  today, as i was singing in sacrament meeting, i saw him at the back of the chapel...in a suit.  this may not sound momentous, but i've never seen this guy in a suit before. shirt, tie, slacks, but never a jacket.  and to my point, he looks as good or better in the suit than he does in those abs. ;)