Refuge Pics...

Squaw Creek Nat'l Wildlife Refuge

This was my first trip to a wildlife refuge and I've noticed I've been outdoors more and more lately - brings to mind growing up and taking family road trips in the RV. 11 people in an RV is an interesting experiment of group dynamics. But, this time I was flying solo on a trip to the Squaw Creek Nat'l Wildlife Refuge which is located a little over an hour from my hotel.

When I arrived at the refuge I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but what I found was a great venue playing host to the preservation of thousands of acres of land home to various birds, reptiles, and all manner of flora and fauna. I was compelled to find out if there were any poisonous snakes in MO and to my chagrin there are 5 types of poisonous snakes, 3 of which are rattlesnakes - yay. Note, I absolutely hate snakes. My goals for this random day trip - (1) to see a bald eagle and/or eagles nest and (2) to avoid snakes at all costs.

The refuge has a auto-tour which allows people to drive to 15 designated spots throughout the property or you can do a hybrid auto-tour/hike. The hiking sites were closed so I had to do the auto-tour only. However, since the speed limit is 25 mph and there were only 4 cars on the tour when I was there, I was able to get out and snap photos, check out various observation towers and try to see if I still had a little enviro-geek in me capable of identifying the various species I saw. Yup, I was in an environmental group in HS which participated in a little thing called the Envirothon...what, what. Yea, my crew went to parks and identified plants and animals by their Latin names...it was pretty bad ass. :)

All that aside, the refuge was wonderful, the weather was perfect and the various types of landscape lent themselves to a really great afternoon where there were unexpected sites at every turn - I saw a beaver for the first time ever and they are adorable. I tried to help a turtle cross the road and it snapped at me (apparently it didn't recognize a friend) and I was able to see a bald eagles nest...and two snakes (ugh). The refuge looks like a postcard and I'll definitely go back if I'm able to later in the fall when I was assured that eagles would be coming to nest.

City Market Continued...

The Italian Deli at the City Market had amazing barrels full of olives and seafood salad and octopus and other things that made me want to roll one out of there and over to my place!

Spices!!!!! Love, Love, LOVE spices…every market should have them, just like this – reminds me of the Middle East, except in the M.E., they do it right!

My first taste of KC BBQ – short ribs with Winslow’s Original BBQ sauce and a Fat Tire beer = yummy!!!

Week 1: City Market!!!

Ok, so a gem of KC so far is the city market. This is a 24/7 year round indoor/outdoor market place bustling – and I mean bustling – with diverse treats and people. From the musicians playing everything from cover classics to bluegrass, or the tweens busting out Glee inspired hits on guitar accompanied by an enthusiastic drummer. You’ll find everything that is entertaining, homegrown and down home here. I instantly fell in love and wanted to stay there all day. I love Farmer’s Markets, it’s the inner farmer/former 4-H girl in me – yes people, I used to wake up at 5 a.m. to milk goats before getting ready to go to school – there’s something wonderfully wholesome and independent about people growing something from their homes and allowing the masses to come, poke, prod, and taste before bringing home to enjoy at their tables.

We’re having a Labor Day BBQ tomorrow at our hotel and I know the corn, homemade (just this morning) apple pie, ribs and watermelon we bought today at the market will make everyone feel a little closer to home – bringing all of us “strangers” together. Apparently, this marketplace is a centerpiece for entertainment and we happened to stumble across an amazing coffeehouse there – try the latte – navigate the winding/narrow staircase to the top floor seating area at your own pace and definitely take a stroll over to the Italian Deli – fresh mozzarella = yum – on your way out with your coffee. If I could take something from here and bring it home with me – this place would be it. I’ve included some pictures – taken with my iPhone so I apologize for the quality – of the market. I will definitely be going back, it is especially nice to note that the artists and farmers are willing to take special orders, as one enterprising artist, of custom stepping stones and license plate signs/designs, told me “let me know by Wednesday what you’d like…I’ll have it ready by Saturday”…how great is that?! :)

The entrance to the City Market downtown!

Week 1: Part 1

"In-processing", a word that will live forever in the archive of my life as the most tedious and boring activity known to man. This was the way I spent my week. Going through in-processing with my classes of 26 volunteers who have all signed on to train for deployment overseas. That either makes us bad ass or bat-shit crazy, I like to think of myself as a hybrid (I'm an environmentalist dontchaknow!). So, here I am. Week 1 went down without any catastrophes or lapses in judgment on my part. It was quite interesting to note that there are 3 hard-line ways we can be sent home and numerous other ways in which we can fuck up and be out of a job. If there's anything to be said about the military, at least they are straight shooters. Coming from the civilian world, even though I'm still officially a civilian and will be throughout my training/deployment, to find myself working directly with active military is a trip. I have no clue what half the things they say are – it's like they are speaking a foreign language made for people who don't have the time to spell anything out or enunciate. I've become a mini-black-female version of every John Wayne film character I've ever seen portrayed on film.

Every time anyone says anything to me all I can think in my head to motivate myself are the oft-repeated words spoken by the Duke or other actors alongside him, the first thing "get it done Johnny Reb" and the second, "don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness". That's right, I've become a rebel soldier and someone with a million questions and no apologies offered for asking them – and that's for the Duke. I'm thoroughly confused by the meaning of 'hu-ah' and probably spelling it incorrectly, can anyone explain? I've been told not to say it and I don't intend to because I think it makes me sound like an idiot or a castoff from a bad sorority inspired reality TV show. Either way, I'll leave it to the soldiers; I'd just like to know what it means. To continue the theme of the Duke, is 'hu-ah' a modern-day take on the 'forward yo' attitude of Calvary soldiers? Or is it merely a means of saying "roger that" minus the radio? Color me confused but it's something I'd like to have explained to me – similar to the question 'what is a hoya?' (I know what a hoya is but once upon a time the question was asked by me to another – in a job interview no less – after I made fun of the man's alma mater – I did get the job though, nothing like chutzpah to impress someone).

All that aside, the first week has been good. I'm overwhelmed, still nervous/excited, but meeting people has helped. My on-base 'battle buddy' looks like a thinner version of Zach Galifianakis – no joke – and is equally as funny. He's retired Army and classic. I've been told I'm courageous by another retired officer and that makes me feel proud about the decision I've made to be here. Courageous is a much better characteristic then 'bat-shit crazy' any day of the week, so I'll take it. The traditions on base are kind of cool as well. Every day, at 5 pm, when they retire the colors if you're driving on base you stop wherever you are, get out of your car and stand at attention saluting the flag if you're a soldier or simply stopping to honor it if you're not. I like that sense of patriotism, remembrance and national pride.

It's a whole new world here…and I've just begun to scratch the surface.

Goodbye DC, Hello KC

So, my last day in the district was absolutely ridiculous. What else can one expect when they are required to pack up their life in 14 days! Without the help of some amazing friends, namely SF, I wouldn't have made it with my sanity intact. Granted, I barely made it with my sanity intact. Besides spending the entire morning packing and moving and then going back to my apartment after handing off the keys to my lessor to do some more packing and moving, my father decided it would be a brilliant idea to start an argument. Then my mother chimed in and started an argument with me as well. Upon reflection of this, not so appropriate behavior on their part, I realized that each time I'm about to travel my parents and other family members take it upon themselves to start arguing with me. Slightly ridiculous to be sure but that's the way it goes.

My impression of BWI was equally ridiculous, after checking-in on my iPhone I arrived (40 minutes before my flight) only to be told I was too late for US Airways to print my boarding pass. This was shocking to me since I was in fact 10 minutes earlier than their required time for boarding – so after spending those precious minutes explaining to the rude representative that I was in fact checked-in and only needed my boarding pass to get through security she printed my pass and left me with these sage words of advice "you'd better hurry". After getting in line behind a family of foreigners, who were adorable but very slow in putting their belongings through to be checked, I managed to jog/speed-walk/hobble - thanks to the sandals I didn't have time to close – down to my gate. It was just my luck the gate was at the end of the earth – note to everyone traveling through BWI, gate D24 is AT THE END OF THE EARTH! I arrived and my new best friend was calling my name to board, I was the last one on a less than packed flight from BWI to Charlotte (the airport with rocking chairs) – he even offered to check my bag after the flight attendants offered to stow it with them because while I'd checked a bag when I checked-in online, I was so late the mean counter rep wouldn't take it, so I had too many bags with me. After realizing 'consolidating' my stuff wasn't going to happen there was a tug-o-war to see who would assist me in stowing it. That sucker was checked and I was on my way.

After 5 hours of travel, I arrived in Kansas City, Missouri. There were three initial impressions which came to mind, (1) Christmas lights, (2) 'City of Fountains' and (3) Mr. Miyagi. Downtown Kansas City looks like an intricate web of Christmas lights. Now it could've just been my exhaustion but I swear I saw a man riding a horse, and a titan coming out of the water – Poseidon anyone. Now, in the interest of full disclosure when I become too exhausted I see things in inanimate shapes – like the numerous exhaustion driven road trips between North Carolina and Maryland in undergrad, once I saw a velociraptor running next to my car on I-95 (no lie) and another time, a cloud formation of Marilyn Monroe was spotted – and she winked at me. All of that aside, the Christmas light city was the real deal – a really cool way to see where I was going to be hanging my hat for a while on the ride down to the ground.

Kansas City, MO – in case you didn't know – is dubbed the 'City of Fountains'. Yet it took me a week to see 1 fountain in this city, according to a new colleague all the fountains are downtown. Well my friends, I was downtown today and all I saw was one fountain – a fountain of a cherub and a frog except instead of the cherub shooting water out of his little wee-wee, it was the frog shooting water at the cherubs wee-wee (and yes, I recognize I'm a grown ass woman saying 'wee-wee'). Who says the mid-west doesn't have a sense of humor?!

Finally, Mr. Miyagi was my cab driver from the airport to my hotel upon my arrival. At least, a Mr. Miyagi look and act-a-like. It would've been ignorant of me but I wanted to ask him to teach me karate…all that aside, he was a pretty cool guy who had no clue where we were going (even though my hotel is 3 miles away from the airport) he had to call the hotel and then call his supervisor to ask for directions. But, he was too cute and I was too tired to really care. Between the lights, fountains and Mr. Miyagi – I found my way…

So, all in all it was Goodbye DC…Hello Kansas City….Tasha's in the house!

Skype Me…

So, this one is simple and sweet…my new Skype name is Coco.Nata. To explain the username. Once upon a time, I was writing frantic emails back and forth between my two close friends Em and Rhi. In the midst of a Monster Energy Drink all night festivus to stay up and write a paper for graduate school. Instead of putting 'xoxo' I started writing 'coco'. When Em and Rhi caught on to it and asked me what the heck 'coco' meant, I told them what the mix-up was and it kind of stuck as our thing. And Nata…well that's just the first two syllables of my name…apparently three syllables tend to be a mouthful to people (so I've seriously been told). So, Coco Nata is my way of signing in and off – spreading the love (made popular well before Gossip Girl).

Skype me! J

p.s. Since this blog is all about seeking out new favorites and experiences, etc.…here's my new favorite cover of a Kings of Leon song, probably good to expect such links scattered randomly throughout my posts from here on out…check it out!