The end of my last blog vaguely alluded to Kansas City. I now live in Kansas City. You may be asking yourself, why Kansas City? I'll tell you.
I moved here to be with Jewels, my partner in crime and so many other things.
Before a few days ago, the only things I could have told you about Kansas City would have been that it's mostly in Missouri and that the Missouri River flowed through it. A few months ago, I thought Kansas City was a city in Kansas.
When I told other Overland leaders that I was moving to Kansas City, many of them asked if I had a job lined up, or if I was going to school here.
No and no, not yet at least.
I've done some brief job searching in the two days that I've been here, but haven't submitted anything yet. And it may be difficult to find something considering that the only person I know personally for something like a thousand-mile radius is Jewels.
And I friggin' love it.
I mean, it's only been two days and my love for delicious free time may dwindle, but probably not for a while. I have so much I want to do that I haven't had the time for since I graduated college, which feels like an eternity ago. Like play basketball for a five-hour stretch. And write something longer than two thousand words. And read a book in a day. And just sit and think about what I should do next. Should it be something with writing? With kids? Should I go back to school? Should I go abroad to teach English? Those all sound so appealing, but I want to pick the best thing for me. Because, you know, I want my life to be at least mildly neat.
But I know I want to be with Jewels, that part is the only bit of certainty I've felt in the last few days. I also know that I find living with her to be hugely satisfying. I think we've communicated some deep worries and concerns more openly in the past two days than we did all through our year together in Hartford. Something about living with her has heightened things between us, solidifying something that we always knew was there but can now feel. At the same time, I think it's made us more cautious, because the thing that we both feel feels so great that we don't want it to head for an exit.
Now enough of that and on to what it's like in Kansas City itself. There is currently a tornado en route to our apartment. I don't know if I should be excited or horrified. I know Dorothy went through a pretty rough patch due to a tornado in Kansas, and I know that I'm so close to Kansas that my new home city straddles the border separating me from that state. So that's something to think about tonight.
Other than the weather, based on the two days and about twelve people I've interacted with since I've been here, Missourians are to New Englanders what cattle are to cougars–they're just a whole lot friendlier. In a grocery store, a woman looked me in the eye, smiled, and asked me how I'm doing. She did that while smiling, revealing a degree of sincerity that people in New England are much too busy and important for.
Maybe I'm being unfair. There were nice people in Hartford. They just usually weren't white.
I went to the real estate agency to sign my lease today. The woman who helped me, Ericka (or maybe Erica), had a penchant for saying cool beans.
So, you know, I love this city.
I'm probably going to join a gym to recruit some friends. I might even work out there too.
My apartment is a mere Tiger Woodsian drive from the Missouri River, which is a behemoth of a thing. When I first saw it I immediately had the urge to swim across it, to show it how strong I am. But as I got closer to it, I realized its width is not to be taken lightly. A calf cramp in the middle of that thing would spell trouble for anyone. If that did happen, I'd just have to relax as best I could and let the current take me away, which wouldn't be so bad as I'd eventually get to see and swim the Mississippi River. (I had to look up if the Missouri flows into the Mississippi. It does.)
When I went to the grocery store, I was momentarily befuddled by the shopping cart system. All of the carts were chained together via this contraption on each handle. I noticed a sign that said something about inserting a quarter. So I looked more closely at the contraption and noticed a slot to insert a quarter. By wild luck I had a quarter, so I stuck it in. By remarkable engineering, that quarter caused the chain to break and the cart to be free of its cart brethren. After I shopped, I hooked my cart back up to the chain thing and the contraption spat my quarter back out at me, making it even more remarkable than I originally thought, although I've yet to stop wondering, How will I shop if I don't have a quarter?
I've been riding Jewels's bike around. The streets are wide and not as potholed as Hartford. I bought a bike from Overland and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I'll have my second friend when it gets here.
The tornado hasn't hit yet. I'm beginning to question its existence. If it is coming, I'd like it to hurry up and do its thing so that by the time I go to bed I won't have to worry about it hitting while I'm asleep.
My big goal, besides befriending someone who likes basketball, is to get a short story published. So if you have any good ones, send it my way and I'll try to get it published. Just kidding, I want to write it myself.
Okay I gotta go. It's my shift for tornado watch. Jewels has been at the post for two hours and hasn't seen anything. Plus somebody is talking outside my window in a measured way reminiscent of Wilford Brimley, that man on those diabetes commercials. His voice is too distracting/comforting to write with.
I moved here to be with Jewels, my partner in crime and so many other things.
Before a few days ago, the only things I could have told you about Kansas City would have been that it's mostly in Missouri and that the Missouri River flowed through it. A few months ago, I thought Kansas City was a city in Kansas.
When I told other Overland leaders that I was moving to Kansas City, many of them asked if I had a job lined up, or if I was going to school here.
No and no, not yet at least.
I've done some brief job searching in the two days that I've been here, but haven't submitted anything yet. And it may be difficult to find something considering that the only person I know personally for something like a thousand-mile radius is Jewels.
And I friggin' love it.
I mean, it's only been two days and my love for delicious free time may dwindle, but probably not for a while. I have so much I want to do that I haven't had the time for since I graduated college, which feels like an eternity ago. Like play basketball for a five-hour stretch. And write something longer than two thousand words. And read a book in a day. And just sit and think about what I should do next. Should it be something with writing? With kids? Should I go back to school? Should I go abroad to teach English? Those all sound so appealing, but I want to pick the best thing for me. Because, you know, I want my life to be at least mildly neat.
But I know I want to be with Jewels, that part is the only bit of certainty I've felt in the last few days. I also know that I find living with her to be hugely satisfying. I think we've communicated some deep worries and concerns more openly in the past two days than we did all through our year together in Hartford. Something about living with her has heightened things between us, solidifying something that we always knew was there but can now feel. At the same time, I think it's made us more cautious, because the thing that we both feel feels so great that we don't want it to head for an exit.
Now enough of that and on to what it's like in Kansas City itself. There is currently a tornado en route to our apartment. I don't know if I should be excited or horrified. I know Dorothy went through a pretty rough patch due to a tornado in Kansas, and I know that I'm so close to Kansas that my new home city straddles the border separating me from that state. So that's something to think about tonight.
Other than the weather, based on the two days and about twelve people I've interacted with since I've been here, Missourians are to New Englanders what cattle are to cougars–they're just a whole lot friendlier. In a grocery store, a woman looked me in the eye, smiled, and asked me how I'm doing. She did that while smiling, revealing a degree of sincerity that people in New England are much too busy and important for.
Maybe I'm being unfair. There were nice people in Hartford. They just usually weren't white.
I went to the real estate agency to sign my lease today. The woman who helped me, Ericka (or maybe Erica), had a penchant for saying cool beans.
So, you know, I love this city.
I'm probably going to join a gym to recruit some friends. I might even work out there too.
My apartment is a mere Tiger Woodsian drive from the Missouri River, which is a behemoth of a thing. When I first saw it I immediately had the urge to swim across it, to show it how strong I am. But as I got closer to it, I realized its width is not to be taken lightly. A calf cramp in the middle of that thing would spell trouble for anyone. If that did happen, I'd just have to relax as best I could and let the current take me away, which wouldn't be so bad as I'd eventually get to see and swim the Mississippi River. (I had to look up if the Missouri flows into the Mississippi. It does.)
When I went to the grocery store, I was momentarily befuddled by the shopping cart system. All of the carts were chained together via this contraption on each handle. I noticed a sign that said something about inserting a quarter. So I looked more closely at the contraption and noticed a slot to insert a quarter. By wild luck I had a quarter, so I stuck it in. By remarkable engineering, that quarter caused the chain to break and the cart to be free of its cart brethren. After I shopped, I hooked my cart back up to the chain thing and the contraption spat my quarter back out at me, making it even more remarkable than I originally thought, although I've yet to stop wondering, How will I shop if I don't have a quarter?
I've been riding Jewels's bike around. The streets are wide and not as potholed as Hartford. I bought a bike from Overland and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I'll have my second friend when it gets here.
The tornado hasn't hit yet. I'm beginning to question its existence. If it is coming, I'd like it to hurry up and do its thing so that by the time I go to bed I won't have to worry about it hitting while I'm asleep.
My big goal, besides befriending someone who likes basketball, is to get a short story published. So if you have any good ones, send it my way and I'll try to get it published. Just kidding, I want to write it myself.
Okay I gotta go. It's my shift for tornado watch. Jewels has been at the post for two hours and hasn't seen anything. Plus somebody is talking outside my window in a measured way reminiscent of Wilford Brimley, that man on those diabetes commercials. His voice is too distracting/comforting to write with.