Oddball Update

I’m coming to you from Kansas City (Kansas, not Missouri) where I’ve embarked upon my first business trip. The company I work for is headquartered in Kansas, and I was the last employee who had never visited the office here, so I found a block of time in my schedule and booked a weeklong trip.

Apple decided to come along with me, for which I am grateful, because otherwise I’m sure we both would have been exceedingly lonely. I’m not sure what I would be doing by myself during this long weekend, but I probably would not be sitting here at the Legends Mall in Kansas City, enjoying the warm weather (and it’s lack of humidity), listening to stock cars circling the track at the nearby Kansas Speedway.

We arrived here on Wednesday after two pleasant and uneventful flights, and have had a pretty good time since. Our hotel — booked and paid for by the company — is an Econolodge, definitely bottom rung accomodations, but adequate. Except for the neighbors. On Thursday night, a large family with rambunctious children checked into the room upstairs quite late, woke us both up and stomped around continuously until 1 a.m. Then they resumed stomping at 6:00 a.m. and woke us up again.

So Friday morning was spent changing rooms to a new location on the second floor, which has proved to be a huge improvement in every way, down to the cleaner carpet (the old room smelled of piss) and newer bathroom fixtures. And best of all, no more noise. But next time I think I’ll try to negotiate my own choice of hotel.

Our rental car for the trip is a maroon Mercury Grand Marquis, which would be laughable except that I got it for the price of a compact and it rides like a Barcalounger, which is great on a long trip (it takes a hour to get from Kansas City to Lawrence, where we’re staying). We brought our Garmin GPS, so we’ve had no trouble finding anything. And it’s a pleasure to drive on the myriad, sloping roads of Kansas, much like it is in Michigan, and is not in Florida. I’m beginning to think that the horrible driving experience of the Sunshine State is the exception rather than the norm.

We’ve had mixed experiences with food since we’ve been in Kansas. So far we’ve made a point of eating at local establishments, but haven’t had a lot of success. Our first meal was at Yokohama, a local Japanese restaurant & sushi bar. The sushi was very good, the prices were very affordable, but the udon wasn’t that impressive — nor was the décor. Friday’s lunch at a famous organic bakery and sandwich shop in downtown Lawrence was completely bland and uninspired. And while I enjoyed last night’s dinner at Paisano’s Italian restaurant, Apple’s pasta dish was again devoid of flavor. Maybe they like bland food in Kansas?

We’re probably going to eat at Stix, an Asian noodle shop, in a short while — hopefully it will offer something tastier. And admittedly, while it was only a snack, Sheridan’s frozen custard (chocolate with crumbled Oreos) was delicious.

That’s all for now — I’m typing this on my iPhone, so I need a break. More later.

Tagged as Kansas, Life, Randomness + Categorized as Life, Randomness