February = Summer (thoughts)

Well, hello there! It has been such a long while. Have you been waiting long? No? Good. Anywho, I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how much I despise cold weather, making my decision to stay and live in Chicago seem a bit...idiotic. But the witchcraft this lady (Chicago) possesses, called summer, makes you forget all the pain she has inflicted. You get so taken back by the beaches and riding of bikes and beer gardens, we all seem to forget about the other 9 months of the year the entire population of Chicago wants to die due to dry, itchy skin and the clanking of radiators. 

But my summers don't just consist of Chicago fun. I try to head back to my hometown, Kansas City, Mo., at least once. I was talking to one of my KC friends this morning and just got so excited. I started thinking about my favorite day of last summer - everyone has at least one perfect summer day each year - and I'm going to do my best to take you there after the break...

I awoke around 11:30 am with the soothing sound of central air kicking in above my ears. As I stretched out, feeling each of my toes move one at a time and reaching my arms above my head, I looked over at my best friend sleeping next to me. I had stayed the night at her parents house after the BBQ my father hosted for my friends and me. As I nudged her and requested water, I may have had one too many Boulevards the night before, a sudden thrill went through my body. As this was one of my last days in KC, I had been looking forward to the happenings of it the entire trip!

Lindsay and I jumped out of bed, drank some water and headed out to grab lunch at Chipotle - where else when you're on vacation in your hometown! Now this is an important part of the story - as we walked out of her parents beautiful new house and got into her car, the sun hit me in a way that gives you goose bumps. It is a feeling that doesn't happen very often, especially in the mild Chicago summers, but one that I wish I could get regularly - it's my drug of choice. We climbed into her awesome Honda Civic, rolled down the windows, cranked up the toons and headed to lunch feeling slightly less 24 and slightly more 16. It was nice. 

After lunch, Lindsay and I literally spent hours shopping for a t-shirt to match that evenings outing with the girls - that outing being A ROYALS GAME!!!!! Now, I'm from KC, not Boston or New York or even Chicago. I know Sox fans (Red & Black), and Yankee fans and Cubs fans - and I'm really not trying to compare Royals fans to them. The history of those century old teams is just simply incomparable to the 40-year-old history of mine. But I still Love them. What you need to understand about Royals fans is they don't really go to the ball park to watch their team win. There aren't legends of curses or goats or tales of musicals that have impeded our winning streak. We know why we don't have the record of the other teams - we frankly don't have the capital to support it in our city. But no one ever doubts we one day will. Which is probably the best way to describe a Royals fan - forever and unmistakeably hopeful. We go to games to watch some ball, drink some beer and converse with our friends. It is, by far, one of my favorite things to do on this planet with some of my favorite people on this planet. Mmmmm.

So, sorry about that rant, the point is that Lindsay and I spent quite some time going from store to store looking for Royals T-Shirts that were both cute and in our price range. We finally found them, along with a 36 pk of Miller Light, in the little boys section of Wal-Mart. Of course, Missouri.

My friends and I spent the first 7 innings of the game in the parking lot of The K talking, sharing stories and laughs over a few cold ones before we even made it in. After the game ended - and we won! woo hoo - we went to Quinn's little batcherolette pad in South KC for some fun. And it was fun. And silly. And amazing. And I think hot sauce was involved.

That was my favorite day of summer 2008. And now with Quinn and Adam engaged (Congrats!) I will be heading back to my hometown in mid July for what is sure to be another wonderful reunion with Royals games, BBQs, Wal-Marts and Weddings. I just can't wait.