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!
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