Is This Show a Comedy or a Tragedy?

ACT I: Birds of a feather

   Just a few minutes after I arrived at my seat prior to Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne show at Sprint Center, a woman and her son sat down next to me. They were friendly and asked if I came with friends, and I answered no, that while I did have friends who were here (somewhere), I bought  a single ticket. So we proceeded to make good friends. Claudine was around the age of my Mom, and Kip was her adult son. Both were huge fans of the performers (!) and had driven down from Omaha, Nebraska just to see this show, so of course I respected them immediately. Claudine had recently retired from being a high school art teacher for over 30 years. She herself had studied with a famous Japanese potter (whose name I have regrettably forgotten). They were both intelligent and animated, and the more we talked, the more we had in common. They were huge foodies, and we traded notes on the best restaurants in our respective cities (I recommended Justus Drugstore; she recommended Grey Plume). Judging from our rave reviews, I think each restaurants should be paying us handsomely for the advertising! Speaking of which, here are a pair of recent raves:  KC Star  /  Time Magazine

   As we carried on, it struck me that I was having a conversation with a 60-something me, and I was enjoying myself. In fact, I'd be quite happy to grow into Claudine: still attractive and fashionable, young for her age, animated and easy to know, funny, and with interesting tastes and passions that run deep. Hoping this really was a crystal ball into my future.

   ACT II: Kanye vs. Jay-Z

   Read my synopsis of this spectacular show here! Admittedly, I was feeling guilty for spending $100 on a ticket and then not being thrilled with the new album, but was thrilled to be proven wrong—Money well-spent!

ACT III: Rav-4 vs. Semi

   This is where the tragedy starts. After a euphoric 2.5+ hour performance, I exited the arena and headed back to my car in the Wall Street Tower parking garage. It took over 20 minutes to get out... and about 16 minutes of that was waiting to back out of the spot. People were not feeling generous. I finally exited and rounded the block, headed back toward I-35 to go home. A semi truck was ahead of me for a few blocks. We stopped at a red light, where I needed to make my turn. He also had his right turn signal on. Alright, going my way. I waited patiently. This is where the trouble began.

   Without warning, the semi which was stopped directly in front of me back up. And after 1:00 am, I guess my lightning-quick reflexes aren't sufficient, because I laid on the horn and threw it into reverse as fast as I could: and the semi crunched the front of my car anyway. The driver got out, clearly hopped up on adrenaline, and first got upset and asked what I was doing behind him, and claimed that he never saw me. Once I explained that we were both turning the same direction and I was just waiting for him to go through the light so I could get to the freeway, he softened, and admitted that he *didn't* intent to turn right. He was parking. And he had overshot his parking spot on the curb... and backed into me.

   A security guard called the police for us, and we waited over 40 minutes, but all the police were tied up with traffic control. So we took photos of the damage, exchanged information, and went our separate ways. With me hoping that he didn't change his story later—since we had no witnesses to prove that he backed into me, and that I didn't rear-end him. This made me nervous!

ACT IV: Update, December 9

   I enjoyed my week in Lake Tahoe, dropped the car off at Toyota on Monday for repair, picked up my rental car, and my car was done, as promised, by Friday. It looked good as new, though it was after 5, and getting dark, when I picked it up.

ACT V: Can I please be done already??? December 28

   I took the car in yet again because on Christmas morning, 3 light inexplicably illuminated on the dash: Check engine, VSC, and 4WD. I assumed it was an anomaly from the accident. Toyota said it wasn't: I had a rare occurrence for a low-mileage car in which a gas valve went bad. They said they could probably cover the $1600+ repair cost for me. And while I was talking with them, I asked them about the oddly-curved panel in the lower front of the car which I thought should have been straight after the collision repair. And the scratches on the hood, which was supposed to be brand new. Apparently they missed those minor details. Guess who has to take the car back for repairs during the New Year?

One Hundred Thirteen

   This is the actual outdoor temperature in the OP. And the gym was equally hot for tonight's yoga: the AC is broken. No escape! Since I was sweaty anyway, I started my training for Race for the Cure (which is in just 12 days) and took a quick 2 mile run with the dogs after dark. They didn't like it, but I felt remarkably good!

Random Hallmark Moments: Act of Kindness

   My flight arrived home later than expected from my Charleston adventure (ah, weather delays), so, bleary-eyed, I hopped on the shuttle to the satellite parking lot. I got to my car and found that all 4 tires on my car were very low on pressure. This was frustrating primarily because I just spent a small fortune on new tires several weeks ago, and was gunning for another 3-year run of issue-free driving on them. My old tires had started to leak air and I was having to fill them 1-2 times a week. The service guys suspected I had run over a bunch of nails, but they weren't able to find the culprits.
   So this morning I had an unscheduled stop at the Toyota dealership on my way in to work. (Nothing like coming in late on your first day back!) No nails to be found, but my tires needed air and apparently the pressure sensors have stopped working. There might be a problem with the rims too, causing leaks if the tires are stationary at just the right spot. The service guy is a little sweet on me and said he'd try to talk Toyota into covering the cost of the repair, since I'm so recently out of warranty. (I think wearing a skirt today didn't hurt.)
   Enter my hero. Around 10 am, my buddy & neighbor, Nick, showed up at my desk and surprised me with a fresh latte. Completely out of the blue! Apparently he has a latte maker in his office and surprises an unsuspecting coffee lover everyday, and today was my lucky day. We don't even work in the same building, much less see each other very often, so it felt remarkable. I think the universe must have told him I needed that!
   And just like that, my sleepiness melted away and my frustration turned to elation. This was a great reminder about how a simple, thoughtful surprise can turn someone's day around. I'm going to do something nice for someone on my team this week, and hope that anyone that reads this will do it too.

A toast to Nick!!!

Ice ice baby

   The Snowpocalypse that hit on Tueday and lingered on Wednesday has passed us, and by today many of the roads had been plowed and were clear. It was smooth sailing on the way to work. The way home was more interesting.

   I left after 5:00 and took my usual route, 31st Street westbound over Broadway. Well aware of the weather, I was taking it slow. The light at the intersection ahead was red, so I had slowed to about 10 mph and gently touched the brakes.

   In a split second, I realized that the entire street was a sheet of ice, and my car surged forward and accelerated. It felt like I was going 1000 mph and was moving in slow-motion at the same time, and I could tell a crash was inevitable. I had to decide immediately whether I was going to rear-end a line full of cars in front of me, or swerve into the cement barricade on the right. Since insurance companies are so fun to deal with, I went for the barricade, which fortunately had a snow pile left by the plows in front of it.

   My car hit the snow and started to climb up the pile. It stopped suddenly, which I assumed was my bumper hitting the barricade. I was perpendicular to the traffic flow, head-on into the wall. @$%!! My poor car. I got out to assess the situation and prepared to call AAA to have it towed. But as I walked around the car I realized that I hadn't hit the cement: I was about a quarter of an inch from it! There was so much snow in front of it that had been pulled up into my front wheel wells that the wheels were locked up and couldn't move. The snow actually saved me!
   The photo above is approximately where I hit; I took it the next morning. I shudder to think about what would have happened if my car had climbed the snow and over the wall; it's a VERY steep drop... as evidenced by this photo I took from the opposite side:

   Excitedly, I thought, "I can dig myself out!" and grabbed my ice scraper, chipping away at the front passerger-side wheel. A minute later, I heard a woman call out, "Are you okay?" and when she saw that I was, she said, "I might have a shovel, let me check."

   I couldn't believe how quickly someone stopped to help me. She came back with an ice scraper and said, "I'm glad you didn't see me pull up. I was trying to stop to help you, but this whole street is a sheet of ice. When I hit the brakes I slid, and almost slid right into your car! I ended up being able to swerve around you, and I'm parked in front of you now."

   Whoa. Thanks, Kansas City, for your notoriously bad job of making the streets safe. We weren't driving irresponsibly.

   We each took a side and dug. A couple of minutes later a guy dressed in a sharp business suit and brandishing a shovel stopped to help. We dug all the snow out from around the tires and he asked me to get in and try to back out. Problem was, my front driver's tire was totally off the ground: my engine block was resting on the snow. So the woman got in front to push me backward, and the guy stopped traffic behind me. It worked. A couple of tries and I was free!

    How do you properly thank someone in that situation? I gave them both hugs and thanked them over and over. They were so friendly and selfless. They had both arrived within minutes, and the fact that they stopped really gives me faith in people. We should all be willing to stop and help someone in need. They turned a bad experience into a good one, and I left feeling better than before the accident happened. Pretty powerful.

   They took off with me following behind. I didn't catch their names, but the woman's KS license plate said, "MSCOOKE." So, thank you Ms. Cooke and anonymous guy, wherever you are!

Boys are silly

  Lately I've been taking the inside route on the walk into work (which is quite a walk, BTW) since the weather switch has flipped from comfortable to freezing. There is a good-looking guard (rather Luke Wilson-y if you ask me) manning the station as I walk by. He always greets me with a big smile & says,"Good Morning," "How are you?" etc. which is kinda nice... although it was a bit awkward at first, since I'm always plugged into my iPod & listening to Flo Rida or Fergie or the like, and I couldn't hear what he said. The first couple of days, I had to pull the earbuds out & say, "Huh?"
  Yesterday I had a meeting with some of our senior leaders & dressed up a bit, in my favorite skirt & boots. The guard was friendly as usual as I passed & wished me a good day.
  Today I wore jeans, since I was taking the afternoon off to run errands. As I walked past the desk, the friendly guard called out, "Hey, you're wearing pants today!"
  Taken off guard, all I could think to say was, "Well, it's much colder today!" & keep walking. I didn't realize he was taking notice. I immediately wanted to think up a fun way to f*** with him. Tomorrow I will wear a sweater dress with pants underneath!!!
   Later... I took the afternoon off to get my car serviced & renew my license at the DMV. (I'd rather be at work!) The car took almost 2 hours, just as expected. What wasn't expected was that the guy who checked me in, was not the guy checking me out. (That's foreshadowing, you'll see in a minute.)
  The guy who came to fetch me from the waiting room looked vaguely familiar. After a frustrating exchange in which he told me they could fix neither my parking brake nor my radio, he abruptly changed the subject to, "Hey, aren't you a grapic designer?"
  I muttered "Yeah," in the most disengaged tone I could muster.
  "You do freelance work or something, right?"
  "That's part of it..." (Who does this guy think he is?! I'm not here at the dealership to hang out!!)
  And then I remembered. This was the guy who was hitting on me a couple of years ago. I came in to get a giant bolt extracted from one of my tires, a casualty of a trip to the Legends on a cold, snowy night for dinner with Kelly. On the phone they had told me the patch would cost about $30. When I got there, this same guy was making small talk, friendly but with an unmistakable tinge of creepiness. When I went to check out, he refused to let me pay. He said, " No charge. It's all taken care of. I can do that!" (Wink.)
  Now I'm as big a cheapskate as anybody, but not at that price! God forbid this guy thinks I owe him something. I was unsuccessful in convincing him to allow me to pay, & hoped I wouldn't run in to him again. And I hadn't. Until now.
  Fortunately for me he was busy with another customer when I gathered my things & got to the row of desks. I quickly approached another employee & got the heck out of Dodge (or Toyota, more accurately). He called out after me but I was already out the door.
  You know what they say, "it's not harrassment unless it's unwelcome."

  The rest of my day was happily free of incident. ...Other than waiting for 45 minutes at the DMV only to find out I was in the wrong place, a victim of a sh*tty website that didn't make it clear. Based on the crotchety clerk's reaction to my plight, I can definitively say I'd rather have visited than been working there. I appreciate my job 1000% more now, thank you. And I got my license renewed for another few years. So I won't soon be seen there again, making small talk with strange men or anyone else.

Spa day Sunday!

   After the run, the spa activities began. The pets were up first (and none were happy about it, though the dogs are very tolerant). Despite the cats' protests, they are so sleek & silky now that it was totally worth it. They felt so good snuggled up on my lap while I read the paper!

Atom found it to be very tiring:

Love how wolf-y Tay looks with no collar:

And then I thoroughly washed my car inside & out:

   And finished up with a hot shower using Ten Thousand Waves products, which someone was nice enough to have given me as a souvenir. The yuzu smells SO GOOD & it takes me right back to that amazing trip.

Of course it's going to rain now...

The weather was warm & sunny today (YAY!!!) so I finally got out to clean my car, inside & out. You'd never know it was 2 years old & frequently inhabited by the most profusely shedding dogs imaginable! Have I mentioned how much I love my car? If it were legally permissible in the state of Kansas, I'd marry it.

What a way to start the year!

Tonight I was headed home from Target & got rear-ended at a red light. Turns out I'M the target! My neck is sore & getting steadily moreso but I'm fine otherwise. (Please Aleve, kick in soon!) My beloved Rav-4 is a little mashed. The street was littered with pieces of the bumper and tire cover. This is the 2nd time I've been rear-ended in 6 months, in case anyone is counting. Probably don't want to ride in the back if you're traveling with me. Good news is: at least the shibas weren't with me! I'm seriously going to paint a big target on the back of that tire cover.