Vacation - Travel Tips

3 am on a Thursday morning is evil. It is the bastard spawn of hell, freshly steaming from crawling all the way from the lowest level to settle on my eyelids. I can make a reasonable attempt at coherency at 3am, but it's not me. It's a pale shade of my good twin, twisted beyond recognition.

The shuttle driver was chatty and happy, but really? Expecting any sort of response, much less a coherent one, is pushing it.

Those stories you hear about security at the airports? The ones that say you'll need two hours? Believe them, at least in Seattle. My checked bag got searched (and I'm convinced they took not only my Swiss army knife, but the book I was going to send to my brother, a couple of cds, and the eyeglasses case I was going to give to Mom.) They didn't fall out of the pocket, because it was shut when I got to KC. I actually managed to get through the regular security checkpoint without a hitch (I never carry things in my pockets when I fly), but I was also chosen for a physical search at the gate, and that made me one of the last passengers on the plane.

I flew America West - nothing special, and managed to sleep through the first flight to Phoenix. One of my seatmates was from Canada, and he and his uncle were flying all the way to Texas to buy a used 8-passenger van. Even with the exchange rate and the flight, he'd be saving something on the order of 4-5 thousand dollars (Canadian.) I found all this out during the final approach, after I'd woken up for the fourth or fifth time.

My second flight, Phoenix to Kansas City, was the baby flight. Seriously. Being Phoenix, there were a significant number of senior citizens, and between them and all the people with children, half the plane was filled up before they even started general boarding. I had babies behind me, babies to the side of me, babies in front of me, and old people next to me. Surprisingly, they were all well-behaved, even the old people, and I would have slept had the seats not become a horrible torture rack from the two hours of napping I'd done on the first flight.

So I pulled out Tom Clancy. I'd thought I'd brought Sum of All Fears, which I want to read before I see it on the big screen, but I had Clear and Present Danger instead, and was only just beginning to realize this by page 70 or so. The whole Columbian drug thing when I was expecting Russians and nuclear weapons, was a big hint there. I finally put it down and twiddled my thumbs for twenty minutes until we landed.

Vacation - Shoes and Tacos

KC's a pretty small airport - each set of two or three gates has its own security and baggage claim, so there's no central point for people to pass through. Mom could meet me right at the gate, and seeing her just as I stepped off the plane was just fabulous.

She immediately took me for lunch. Ah. Panzon's. This is my absolute most favoritest Mexican restaurant in the universe. It's not the most authentic place in the world, but I wasn't raised on authentic. I'm American, remember? They've got endless amounts of tortilla chips and a nice mild salsa both of which they make on the premises. I appreciate the mildness of the salsa - just enough kick to bite, but just mild enough I could drink it by the gallon if I weren't consuming it at that rate on top of the chips. Add in awesome chicken tacos, and Andes mints with the check, and I am a Happy Camper. Favoritest Mexican ever.

We detoured briefly into the hardware store parking lot, where they had their plant stuff out, and I puttered along behind while Mom debated over the potted geraniums and other stuff she was going to be using to spruce up the house for sale. I'm afraid I didn't pay much attention beyond nodding and smiling in the appropriate places. What to expect? I was happy, fed, and in the sun.

And then, to complete my vacation before it even got started, Mom took me shoe shopping. There's this largish warehouse-y place in Lenexa that sells shoes at a discount. I more than love it - I heart it. With sparkles. I walked out with six pairs of shoes for $140 or so: running shoes, two pairs of stylish sort-of-sneakers for work, an extremely comfortable pair of heeled red sandals that I proceeded to wear for the next three days, strappy comfy flat sandals for dancing, and low stretchy Bass sandals off the clearance rack. The red sandals surprised me because I hardly ever wear heels, and they were sexy-cool without killing my feet by making me feel like I was walking on hot pokers. Yay! Heels I can actually wear!

That sort of ate up the afternoon, so Mom and I played with the drapes... um... 'window treatment' for the living room until a late dinner and then I was down for the count.

Vacation - Shopping, part deux

Friday, we started into the part where I had to do actual physical labor. Poor me.

Mom's got so many balls in the air, though, trying to get the house ready, I could only get a few things done. A lot of them are minor, though, and part of what I was doing was just playing cheerleader and providing moral support. Dad's still down in Bonaire, finishing up the project there, and he won't be back until June. I would have liked to see him, but making sure Mom was still sane by the time he go back was an admirable goal.

So Friday I cleaned and polished the kitchen cabinets and helped Mom get the new shiny hardware installed. And that's pretty much it, because after lunch, we went Shopping! Again!

We hit the sales racks at Dillards, and I spent less than I did on shoes! Work pants, which were my goal, two ultra-cheap green tops - one a silk turtleneck, the other a forest denim shirt, and this gorgeous cream and tan long sweater. I love it muchly.

Shopping with Mom is fun - we tire out right about the same time - her feet go right as my interest wanes, and she's got mad fashion sense. She's not trendy in the slightest, but she's got a feel for class that I can only hope for. So she picks out classy things, I try them on for comfort and ease of movement (the whole crawling around under desks thing that I do daily) and it's a system that works well for me. We don't do it often, thank god - and I feel like a traitor to my native state. I'm a Californian who'd rather only shop once or twice a year. When it's a rare event, I can handle it better.

We stowed my finds at home, and ran over to Paulo and Bill's for dinner. P&B's is this lovely little Italian-ish restaurant close to my parents' place, where they go often enough to be recognized by just about everyone there. Last year for their anniversary, the restaurant put together this fabulous special dinner for them, and every server dropped by to wish them well. (I think it helps that I've finally gotten Dad into the habit of larger tips. He's so Scotch, usually.) Besides their familiarity, they've got excellent food - fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, wonderful salads, this delicious eggless custard that Mom got the recipe for, and oh yeah, their entrees are pretty good too.

Mom suggested a movie, but I didn't really want to brave the line for Star Wars, and I was beginning to flag. We went home, and Mom beaded while I took over her bathtub (this huge thing upstairs with jacuzzi jets and everything.)

Vacation - The Nitty Gritty

Saturday dawns, and I'm starting to feel the pang of being offline. Mom and Dad's cable connection is out, and they've got the guy coming to look at it that afternoon, so I suck it up and prod Mom into action.

I thought we were going to do some painting, but Mom's got yardwork lined up too, and we head outside before it gets too warm. The heat bothers her more than me, but I still recognize the wisdom of air conditioning.

Rocks. Big-ass slabby rocks. There's a butt-load of sandstone running around that part of Kansas, and quite a few big chunks are still lying around the very back of their yard, right up against the woody greenspace that belongs to the complex. We saw a bachelor herd of deer, still all nubby-headed in their velvet racks. They came out of the woods, trotted hesitantly across the lawn, across the road, and disappeared into the woods beyond the neighbor's yard. There are bunnies too - lots of little fuzzy bunnies with swivelly ears that hop through the yard.

Anyway, didn't have to deal with them, just the rocks - I took a couple from the back, trundled them up to the base of the deck (on a hand-truck - I'm not dumb) and helped Mom set and level them into the walkway she's building out from the deck. Whuff. I also came up close and personal with another wild denizen

The cable guy came, and fixed the cable - it had been disconnected at the street for some dumb reason that I can't even remember now. I didn't, and I'm not quite sure where this silly work ethic of mine sprouted from, get online.

Nope, we just had lunch, and then I managed to perform acrobatics and ladder manipulation and got the edges of the hallway all striped and prepped for rolling. When we moved into the house a few years ago (when I was still living with them,) the house was all piecemeal - yellow in the sunroom, dull grey in the living and dining room, pink in the hallway, some awful tannish wallpaper in one bedroom, other random colors in the others. Back then, we painted my two rooms in green, and then left the rest. Now, Mom's gotten the other bedroom done in green, and has this lovely peach color for the living, dining and hallway. It's gorgeous and warm and so much more inviting than the previous color. I miss my green walls, and now I miss the peach living room too. Pretty.

I conned Mom into another meal at Panzon's, and scarfed down 4 tacos and 3 baskets of chips. I think I was hungry or something. We played cards until bedtime, and I skunked her at Canasta, while she plastered my ass to the wall at Shanghai Rummy.

Vacation - Vocation

My parents are the sort who go to church every Sunday. I'm no longer in the habit, especially since I'm not living with Mom and Dad, so they don't take me out to lunch afterward. Anyway, it's not so much church I mind, as their particular church. Even Mom admits that she's never been a member of a church that's so hidebound and resistant to new ideas. The legions of old ladies there just tend to make me uneasy. So when Mom suggested we go to this other church, I was gung ho.

I piddled around with packing while I was waiting for Mom instead of getting online, and we may have been the eensiest bit late. So we were cruising down Shawnee Mission Parkway, and she mentions how this other church is so small, she hates coming in late, and I mention I'm hungry, and then she spots the Perkins coming up on the left.

We ditched church and had a long leisurely breakfast instead. Mmm. Waffles.

I should mention that I am a Master of Packing-Fu. I managed to cram all six pairs of shoes, and my new clothes into the duffle I'd brought, and brought home the aloe plant I've had since I got custody of it from Nathan back in '97. It spent two years in the garage after I left Kansas, and it's still alive. That's some plant. I'm hoping some sun, water and actual attention will make it all sprouty so I can give unkillable plants to my roommates.

The flight back was Southwest, and even though we took off from KC about ten minutes late, by the time we got to Seattle, we were fifteen minutes early.

Vacation - In the End

The shuttle driver home was the youngest driver I've seen them employ yet. She was painfully young, her makeup rather dramatic, and her bleached blonde hair all pulled up in tufts on top of her head. It looked vaguely gothy, though the effect was rather spoiled by the company jacket. She consulted her map quite a bit, and chewed gum and I was just amused by her in general. She was friendly and earnest and so new to the job she was shiny. I tipped well.

And then I got home and unpacked and watched Xfiles. The End.