ALMOST there!

Well we are on our way at last.....

After having to pack up our apartment, Patryk and his dad and brother had to shuffle things from the apartment to a van to a storage pod to a truck to a garage to a car to a carrier.....I helped very, very little.  I fully admit this.  But I was also working all week, which is a wonderful excuse to be "unavailable" to help.  In any case, he did a great job, and we actually will have almost everything with us in our new place.

It was hectic - each night last week I didn't know where we would be sleeping, but I kept telling myself to take it one day at a time.

(Side note: My work had a lovely send-off for me Friday night after work.  It was so much fun.  Saturday morning was NOT fun.  We'll leave it at that)

So now we are in Columbia, MO.  It was right at 380 miles and took us about 6 1/2 hours to get here, but that's okay.  For anyone wondering about our dog Bella, she did great.  She was a little whimper-y when we started, because she's used to riding in the front and we had her in the back on her doggy bed, but she fell asleep soon enough.  She also stayed in a hotel for the first time last night, which she thought was great.  She ate her dinner right away and then got to work on her rawhide donut, so she's a happy camper.

I'm excited.  We're getting ready to start our life, and it's exciting.  I'm not going to lie; I'm VERY excited that in a couple days it will be close to 70 degrees in Kansas.  But I'm also looking forward to getting the apartment set, buying our own washer and drier, picking out a bedroom set, etc.  I like making wherever I live feel like home.

We'll get to Newton later sometime this afternoon - after stopping in Kansas City to get Patryk some barbeque :)

Wish us luck!

Wichita...or, Jack White, get out of my head

Patryk and I took a trip to Wichita this past Thursday, just to see what it was like, since we've decided the reason to move to Newton is because it's close to Wichita.

Every. Single. Time....I say Wichita, I automatically think of "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes, where the third verse starts off, "I'm going to Wichita/far from this opera forever more."

I don't even care for the song that much, (although I do like the beat) but when I don't love the song, does it mean I won't love the city?  Maybe not, but Wichita did not impress me all that much.  

The downtown area, which is about 25 miles from our place in Newton, has lots of office buildings, and even a couple "skyscrapers,"about 30 stories high I'm guessing.  I quickly discovered that all of the shopping and restaurants are on the outer edges of the city.  Not in strip-malls, or indoor malls, but just outdoor, busy, crowded shopping areas.  

I wasn't expecting anything outstanding, but I guess I had higher hopes.  I can't complain too much, though - we are going to see Jim Gaffigan in March, and we discovered Tracy Morgan is coming there this spring, too, so maybe we will check that out.  

Living in Chicago, you take all the opportunities and events for granted.....so much so that I think it's easy to not do much at all, because you figure you have lots of options available whenever you want.  Maybe living in an area where Wichita, KS is the "big city" it will force us to really hunt down all there is to see and do.

And yes, now the song is stuck in my head again.  And probably yours, too.  You're welcome.

Seven Nation Army music video