Day Thirteen

I went to school today. Good lesson. We learned about the pyramids of ancient Egypt. I enjoyed it very much. My professor is good about putting stories into his lectures. That's the way I learn, by stories. It makes history more fun and more real to me. Without stories or some sense of personality all these historic people are just names or pictures in a book, nothing more.

Anyway, after school I called my cousin, Marisa, and asked if I could spend the day at her house. I didn't have work today and I wanted to take advantage. I hadn't seen my cousin in ages and she only lives about twenty minutes away. I'd have felt bad if I didn't go and visit her at least once while I'm here.

Well, she told me the directions of how to get there. Her apartment is just beyond the Missouri River and you have to pass Kansas City to get there. Have I ever mentioned that I hate the traffic there? Well then, I'll say it: I hate the traffic there! First off, I get so confused as to what lane to be in. Holy Cow there are like three to four at one time and I can't ever figure it out! And then, of course, the traffic itself is completely booked all the time. People rushing by, people taking their sweet time on the road -cruising along like there wasn't a huge back up behind them. Ugh! I was one of those confused drivers who had to make up their mind at the last minute: Do I turn here? Is it this lane? Yes? No? What?

Well, that twenty minute drive I was just talking about took almost sixty. Hu. I hate asking for directions. She had already told me the way and I was determined to learn on my own. I find that it sticks better in my brain that way. If I have someone help me the learning process doesn't work too well.

I crossed the Missouri river six times yesterday. First, I crossed it with relief. I had just met up with a split in the road and had to make a choice of which direction to go down. My logic went a little childish and I picked the road that looked more pretty, more lit up, instead of the dark, not so pretty one. Do you remember the movie Beauty and the Beast? Do you remember the part where the Dad and the horse and trying to find their way to the fair? Well, they met up with a split in the road and they had to make a choice. The horse, brilliant creature as it was, started going down the bright, colorful road, where the birds were all chirping; but the Dad wanted to go the "short cut" where the road was dark and the theme music suggested that it wasn't safe at all. Well that's how it was for me. But with the roads in Kansas City, a driver never has time to pick and choose the road they want, the traffic is much to fast for that, and I didn't have any helpful theme music, either. So, with a split second view of the roads I picked the most appealing. And I was so lucky that it was the right one! Sigh. I felt so relieved. I was almost there!

...Well, sort of. I took the wrong exit the first time, crossed the Missouri river a second time, looped back around crossing it again and then took the same stupid wrong exit, crossed the river, looped around, and then finally found the right street. It was so easy! Had I just gone straight instead of turning I would have found it. It was like two miles down the road! Ugh!

I had fun at my cousins. Her two boys are so cute! We went bike riding with the boys in the trailer and we went shopping. We went to Target and bought a few things. Read some books. It was fun! The boys started getting restless so we went home shortly after that. We talked mostly. Catching up on old times or just joking around about silly brain-fart experiences we've had, i.e. putting milk in the cupboard instead of the fridge, finding random things in the fridge, forgetting why in the world we went to a certain room, looking for the toilet in the laundry room, etc, etc. It was really fun! I am so glad I decided to go!

We ate chinese food in the living room with her boys and hubby and watched the weather. I left around ten-ish (I think, its hard to tell with Marisa's clock. It runs backwards -numbers and all!) trying to avoid the storms there were suppose to hit near the area. There was a report of 42 tornadoes along a certain part of the northern states all within the last twenty four hours. Isn't that insane? Well, I had no trouble getting home, like at all. Oh! and as I was driving I noticed a van behind me and as it was passing me (I was stuck behind a diesel, unwilling to pass because I was afraid I'd miss my exit) I noticed with a quick glance each of the windows that flew by. One, two, three....four...five...six...seven... eight! Wow! I gawked as the dark van-size limo sped past the diesel and was eventually lost among the flow of traffic. It was so cool! ....Ha! Shows you how simple my life is. It was just a car. And as I was entering Kansas City the first time I thought it was so cool! All those Huge buildings! It reminded me of when Melinda and I went to see Stephenie Meyer. The buildings were so big and beautiful!

I got home just before the rain started pouring. I watched the news with weary eyes and managed to get to my bed before I fell unconscious. I was so pooped out! I prayed that night that I would wake up if the tornado sirens went off, I was that tired. I was worried I would just sleep through them! But, fortunately, that didn't happen. ...At least, that I know of. The following day, everyone was talking about how bad it was and I couldn't join in because I had slept through it all. Well, nothing bad happened. I'm all in one piece and so is the house.