After cruising through Canada (Edmonton, Yellowknife, and Calgary), I returned to KC for Christmas. I had the privilege of visiting my brother and his family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Double holidays, double family, double pumpkin pie. This might become a yearly tradition! I was well-hosted on both occasions, and the opportunities to spend time with my nieces, Caroline and Olivia, and nephew William were very appreciated, along with my mother and step-father. My mother’s birthday is on Christmas, and Olivia helped me find a good birthday present for her, a Stanley mug. Apparently, they are very trendy amongst middle school girls, so I was assured my septuagenarian mother would love it. My mother, in turn, gifted me a funny little man made of felt (see photo, below), which might be an artistic representation of yours truly in a few more years. I would be so happy to have a sweater like he has — it looks very comfortable and warm. Thanks, everyone (especially my brother John), for having me and for your patience in enduring the sprawl of my belongings across the living room, dining room, and stairway as I integrated Amazon deliveries and new gear into […]
Read More
I spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City, Missouri, visiting my brother, his family, and my mother and stepfather. It’s my favorite holiday of the year—partly because it features dishes I rarely eat outside this one meal. I went in with high expectations for pumpkin pie, and, as always, my brother delivered. He also organized a game of Dungeons & Dragons so I could join him and his friends. (For the record, I play a level 3 satyr bard named Lyrican Shadowstrum—a wandering urchin with trust issues and a staff that magically grows flowers.) I’m not great at the quick arithmetic of ability scores, but I love the storytelling, and Lyrican’s floral staff is hard not to like. After Thanksgiving, I hosted Marce for a few days. She’s vegetarian, so she skipped the turkey dinner, but she enjoyed exploring Kansas City—a place most visitors to the U.S. tend to overlook. Autumn made it even cozier, and it was a treat to share it with her and the family. Sadly, my beloved Fujifilm X100T camera—my constant travel companion since 2015—died just before I arrived. I’ve taken over 50,000 photos with it, many of which are on this site. That camera fit my right […]
Read More
I returned to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Kansas City. I stayed at my brother’s house and spent time with my nieces and nephew, Mom and step father. The food was great and so was having the opportunity to see everyone for my favorite holiday. I didn’t get quite enough pumpkin pie despite my attempts to relay expectations, but other than that it was an immensely fun time. Some highlights include my brother arranged two Dungeons and Dragons games for us to play along with some of his friends, me eating my favorite Kansas City foods (Winsteads Hamburgers and Minsky’s pizza), visiting Top Golf, and learning to use my Meta Ray Ban Sunglasses. These sunglasses can record videos and take photos while you wear them in addition to playing music just like headphones. I also loved going to the gym with my nephew William to workout and introduce my niece Caroline to Virtual Reality dance video games. I even accompanied my niece Olivia to school lunch where I met some of her friends and even ate for free. I should eat lunch with Olivia every day. I dropped by my close friends the Martins for a cup of afternoon […]
Read More
I lived in Kansas City for twelve formative years of young adult life. In retrospect I can attribute base attributes of my personality to that Midwestern culture within which I was raised: kindness, consideration for others, love of barbeque beef along with the desire to eat more food than is prudent. My mother and stepfather still live in Kansas City and my brother and his family do as well. I made a quick three day trip to visit, eat and see some of my old grade school friends after living internationally for 15 months. I’ve been dreading experiences the comforts and accordance of state-sidelife back in the states. How can I return to 2nd and 3rd world adventures after driving to Whole Foods, eating home style comfort food and speaking English? Some initial reactions upon USA re-entry: air conditioning is uncomfortable. Kansas City is charming and completely underrated (especially by me). Americans aren’t so bad out here. I think I should look at the real estate market downtown these lofts look really cool. If I lived here I would be obese. I remember the sounds of the cicadas from when I was a kid. I visited the Central Library, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, The Blue […]
Read More
