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a little over four years ago, my family moved from cedar rapids to kansas city. at the time i wasn't too pleased with this decision. but since i was only just seventeen, i couldn't really move out on my own, away from my parents, so i went with them. the first semester was basically spent passing the weekdays away at the library/playing guitar/watching movies, and on every two or three weekends i focused on getting back to cedar rapids. after the first semester i got a job and started jr. college, so i became a lot busier, but still focused on getting back to cr as much as i could. so in the two years i spent in kansas city before i moved back and started at iowa, i really didn't get to know the city well at all. there was the occasional saturday afternoon drive where i would just take the car out and try to get lost around downtown kc area, but i never really discovered anything i thought was cool. i always thought the city was just kind of lame; too big, nothing to do.

FALSE. interesting how one night can change your whole outlook on something. i spent my evening with two native kansas citians and had a great night out. we started by hitting up oklahoma joe's, a local kansas city bbq joint. i'm no great lover of barbeque, mainly because of my underexposure to it, but this place was great.

after dinner we drove downtown to crown center. gorgeous area. right around the headquarters of hallmark, so obviously the decorations were fabulous. they have a ice skating rink down there, a sweet playground with mini vehicles to play in, and this gorgeous square of water jets that shoot the water straight up. more on that later. across the street they have this mallesque building with different restaurants/shops, so we visited there. unfortunately hardly anything was open, so we mainly just walked around and looked at things. they have this restaurant called fritz's railroad restaurant. apparently you sit down at a booth, all of which have little telephones you use to order your food. after it has been prepared, it is transported to you by model train, of which they have many riding around on tracks that hang from the ceiling. so cool. when your food gets to you, there is some gizmo that takes your food (in a box) and lowers it down from over your head onto the table. so cool. and they have hats, similar to the burger king crown, but they are way better train conductor hats. awesome. crown center also has a big hallmark store, and a sheridan's frozen custard with a very friendly staff.

we headed down to the plaza and drove on through to westport. but the plaza is gorgeous. they still have the lights up, and driving through it's just breathtaking. all of the architecture is modeled after towers and buildings in seville, spain (which i hope to visit in the next five months), so the whole area has a very european feel. very cool. a walk through the plaza is a fantastic way to spend an evening.

moving on to westport. this is a small business neighborhood close to the plaza which i had never really visited before. i had driven through before, but had no idea what i was missing. we parked and started walking up one of the few blocks that make up the area, and there were speakers on the light posts that was playing a jazzy little piano/horn number. so classy. there are a bunch of bars and restaurants along this area; we stopped in a bar called harpo's for a quick drink. one of the more average joe type of bars in westport, we were able to sit in on wednesday night extreme team trivia. which actually sucked, instead of "pop culture" questions, as was advertised, the questions consisted mainly of crappy 80s songs and early 90s rap. two other places which i was told about but did not visit: jerusalem cafe (hookah bar) and blue room (jazz lounge). such a cool district.

after that we headed back home. but other highlights of kansas city which i have either visited or heard about:

• kansas city zoo. never actually been so i have no idea whether it is great or not.
• sprint center. brand new gigantic venue for sports/concerts/whathaveyou, made entirely of glass and has mini quicktrips inside. awesome.
• WWI museum. haven't been yet, might go tomorrow with the fam. we'll see how it is.
• skies. by far, classiest restaurant i've ever been too. it's in a very slow-revolving disc at the top of a tall hotel in downtown kc. at night, the lights of the city are absolutely gorgeous and it takes about an hour for you to see the entire city. delicious food, wonderful live piano music, and just a sexy quiet atmosphere. absolutely love it.
• kansas city art museum. tons of cool stuff here, including a tremendous shuttlecock out on their front lawn. awesome.

and this barely scratches the surface. this is only some of the stuff that i know about, and i lived here halfheartedly for only two years. imagine all the stuff a real city patron knows about. it's a shame i never gave this city a real chance, because it's really a beautiful city with loads to offer. make the trip. you wont regret it.

-jon

It's Christmas! Let's Be Glad

when i was a kid, the worst night of the year was christmas night. worst day was by far the 26th of december. they both sucked cause there was no more season left. it was over. people were tired of gifts, tired of eating, tired of family. it was like all joy was sucked out of the holiday and people were ready to move on to new year's. now that i'm half grown up, it's sad to think about. the reason people are sad is that the anticipation is over. nobody wants to take down decorations and think about getting a gym membership. nobody is thinking about Jesus on christmas night. and it's His night! this whole day is about celebrating the birth of Christ Incarnate and people are bummed they don't get to look forward to anything anymore. it's a sad thing. i wish my focus was more on Jesus and His birth than on worrying about getting all my gifts wrapped and all the other stuff. this is a special time of year, because of the anticipation, the excitement of being with family, of feeling more love in our society than normal, but especially because of God's gift to us, and i wish my excitement was a result of that; God's great gift to us. one of my favorite christmas songs is O Holy Night. favorite line:
"Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth." i want to feel that worth again through christmas, through His birth. such a touching line. i miss real christmas.

running with this christmas theme, sufjan stevens has one of the most incredible christmas albums i've ever heard. check it out here. from what i gathered, for like four or five years, he basically made a new mixtape of christmas songs each christmas for his friends and family and gave them away as gifts. how cool is that. a few simple mixtapes that become a terrific (and long) christmas album. he covers mostly classic christmas hymns (joy to the world, hark the herald angels sing, etc.), a few originals (get behind me santa! among others, how clever is that?), and a few non-christmas themed songs (amazing grace, come thou fount of every blessing, etc.). such interesting takes on mostly overdone songs. he makes all these old songs feel new and heartbreaking. so good. it's absolutely worth the fifteen dollars on itunes.

and this is effectively the end of christmas 2007 for me. i'm going to bed and in the morning i redirect all thoughts and efforts towards getting completely ready for spain. daunting. i have shoes, jeans, umbrella, voltage converter, slippers, and all sorts of other things to buy that i haven't even thought of yet. i also just realized the fact that tomorrow is the 26th of december is going to make everything less efficient...all of the kansas city metro area will be out returning crappy gifts. that's a shame.

merry christmas.
-jon

#1

i love finding the cold side of the pillow. when i climb into bed, i always flip my pillow around bunches of times to cool my ears off. my ears are always get red when i'm super tired. weird. anyway. right now i'm writing my first real "blog" in my bed with my new computer. is it superficial that i feel more productive now that i own a laptop? i have a color-coded calender set up with all my big events coming up in the next month. i have a to-do list, also color-coded. i'm worried this is a novelty rather than a real life organizational change. i hope to keep this blog updated at least once every day or so once i get settled in spain. especially with pictures and stuff. and spanish phrases. that would be pretty exciting.

so anyway. i spent the day hanging out with a buddy, doing the most lazy stuff in the world. and it was great. in no great detail, i woke up midmorning, spent the day watching a few movies, playing wii, going on a hy-vee run, then coming back to watch the series finale of the incredibly hilarious show extras. what a lazy day. it was so great. and i don't feel bad about it at all. i'm 21, maybe i should be spending my free days getting ready for my mcat or my trip to spain or something adult, but it feels so good to have a day like this right after a long semester. i only have one or two more days of this kind of living before i head back to kc and spend time with my family and really start getting ready for spain. days like this i really feel my age, like young slash old, young enough to not have too many responsibilities and be able to spend the day shooting zombies and eating pizza but old enough to drink if i wanted, or run an errand at 1:30 in the morning. this is such a weird age to be but it's nice. sometimes it can be stressful and crazy and nerve-wracking but sometimes it's great. today it was great. tomorrow it will probably be great too. earlier tonight i watched this show on hbo called extras. it's about this guy (ricky gervais, who i will hopefully blog about soon) who works as an extra on movie sets and finally gets a break, but it's on this horribly camp tv show. he struggles with sacrificing his artistic integrity and dignity for fame and fortune. and tonight's show was the series finale, the last hour and a half special that closed the whole story out. it was all about this guy's struggle, alienating his friends, and also how his friend who also works as an extra hasn't been able to catch a break in show business and so she quits the acting scene and just struggles to make it working odd jobs, and she deals with all sorts of "what happened to my life?" types of issues. some of the best writing ricky gervais has ever done. for an hour and a half i slipped back into thinking all about what i'm doing right now, what i'm studying, what i'm trying to accomplish, where i want to get to, what happens if i don't. it was a nice reality check before i started killing zombies again. lazy days like this are always great, but it's also nice to stay grounded and aware of where you are in your life, and that hour and a half was perfect.

sometimes i worry if i'm worrying myself to death. how ridiculous is that? i should just be trying to my best at whatever i'm doing. instead i get nostalgic at age 21 and prematurely worry about my future wife and kids and grandkids at this age. why do i think about these things all the time? does anybody else my age worry this much? of course they do. who doesn't. it just sucks that nobody ever seems to voice these thoughts.

in ten years none of this will matter. i probably won't be blogging anymore, i'll probably be trying to provide for my family and keep my garage organized and worry about moles in my front yard or something. hopefully. or maybe something completely different. who knows. i am just doing my best, which is all anybody can ever do. deep huh? pretty good for a first blog. ok i'm going to bed. there are all sorts of zombies that need killing tomorrow.

-jon