Snow Day and Reflections

I apologize for not having written in a while. The truth is, I've been trying to take things slow and figure out what to do with...well, everything really. Sean (and some days, myself as well) is going through some really tough stuff right now, and it's been so terrible to see him struggle the way he is.

I've been told by many that your twenties are the best years of your life, and now that I've been in them for about three years, I can easily say that, no. They're not. Granted, I love where we live and the freedom of being a young adult, but the mind has a way of making all the physical things become nonsense and I have many days when all I want in the world is some kind of certainty or stability. I hate that everything is up in the air all the time, and Sean and I, having such high expectations of ourselves, are so pressured to feel like what we're doing right now is meaningful and worthwhile.

On top of that, it is a struggle to believe in ourselves and to know that we are making the right decisions for us now and for someday. 

Right now, the things that keep us sane and happy are days like last Wednesday. We had a random snow day and since Sean didn't have to work, we decided to head out in the storm and walk to Barnes and Noble on the Plaza to look at some books. I don't know how, but this has become a thing we do. Even if we don't leave there with anything, it's nice to choose a pile of things to look at and watch the snow fall while we drink our hot drink from Starbucks. Plus, the Plaza Barnes and Noble is so old and lovely looking on the inside, I always want to stay when it's time to go. 

Anyway, here are some photos of our walk. Now that it's 65 degrees out, it's funny to think that these pictures were just last week! Still, we've been enjoying the weather lately, despite how erratic it has been, and we hope you have too, wherever you are. 

KC Blogger Meetup!

I had a great time at the KC Bloggers Meetup last Friday! I just wanted share some of my favorite photos from the event! 

D'Bronx & Prospero's Explorations

Sean and I have been taking advantage of the amazing temperatures we've been having this week to go out and explore. These photos were taken of our lunch at D'Bronx and Prospero's Books. D'Bronx is kind of special for us because the first time I ever went was senior year of high school for AP Studio Art (and as you can see from the photos, you can write on the walls there. The photo of my name was what I wrote when we went in high school. You can even see my art teacher's name "Mrs. Cox".) And the first time Sean went was when we began dating. It was our first KC date! D'Bronx is always a treat

Prospero's was very interesting. I'd never been before and I know I'm going to get some crap for this but aside from the aesthetics of the place itself, it was kind of a bummer. All of the books were super boring and you could tell they don't really have a selection process, they just take anything. I expected rare and interesting finds, or even just old 1930s cookbooks or textbooks. Instead, there was just a lot of 1970s and 1980s romance novels and history books (in my opinion, there are no books that are bigger wastes of space than post-1930s/pre-2001 history or science books). Still, the building was very old and charismatic, so it was a successful exploring day, I believe.

I'm really wishing this weather keeps up because I've been loving every moment of it. School starts again on Tuesday and I am really not too anxious about it. The weather should be nice so walking won't be an issue and plus! I only have classes twice a week this semester! (They take up my whole day, but even so.) I'm honestly looking forward to getting classes started so summer can be here. Lots of great plans coming up!

I hope you all are enjoying the weather and season, where ever you are. What have you been up to? Any explorations?

November Art and Friends

A few weeks back, my good friend Jerica came into town from Seattle to visit her boyfriend (and me!) in KC. Her number one priority for visiting was to see the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum since she'd never been. Unfortunately, we arrived too late with only an hour to look around, but I think we still had a really good time. I had also never met her boyfriend Stephaun, who turned out to be a complete sweetheart and such a great match for Jerica.
We had a really lovely time and although I was sad she had to go back to Seattle, I enjoyed our time together.

Plaza Lighting Ceremony

Every year on Thanksgiving night, Kansas City celebrates the beginning of the holiday season with the Plaza Lighting Ceremony. The Country Club Plaza is a high-end shopping district in Kansas City and among other things, it is known for its Christmas lights. People come from all over the Kansas City area to see the ceremony where they "flip the switch" and mark the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year! Luckily for Sean and I, we live one block away from the plaza so we decided that this year would be our year to see  the ceremony. Now we can say we've gone!  

Wednesday Morning Date: Part II

I honestly forgot to put up the second part of our date yesterday as it was Halloween. Sean and I busied ourselves with our potential plans on how to spend the holiday, and we ended up going to Trader Joe's and spent the evening at home. We bought groceries to make tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner, watched the Addams Family movie, finished Halo 3 together (maybe once a year Sean and I play through a game together. It ends up take two or more days, but it's fun). You know, all the things one does on Halloween.

I've also been having very severe wisdom tooth pain. My surgery is this Friday, but I honestly don't know if I can wait that long. The pain is probably the second worst I have ever had and the entire right side of my head just feels like horror. Still, I am pushing through and hopefully I can get them to do the surgery on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Anyway, enough of all that. Here is the second part of our Wednesday date!
After the Big Red Barn in Weston, we made the fifteen minute drive out to Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth is home to an army base and some awesome little antique shops and boutiques. Sean and I enjoy the antique mall, the army surplus store, the music store, and the Corner Pharmacy cafe. It was lunchtime so we parked a couple of blocks down from our favorite shops and walked. I told Sean that I always forget how much I love the old architecture down there and that I'm always so pleased with how well they keep up with it.

Our first stop was our favorite antique store. We love it because it is huge and everything is completely affordable. Eventually I gave Sean the camera and let him take some photos. Something that a lot of people don't know about Sean is that he's a pretty great photographer, even though he will swear up and down that this is false. Maybe not good enough to do something with it but the angles he uses as well as the things he chooses to photograph, make for very interesting pictures. I will mark the ones below that are his. 

Sean didn't find anything from the antique store but I went home with Bill Cosby's first comedy album on vinyl and two 1960s Dr. Seuss books. 

I've recently taken to collecting vintage (pre-1970s) children's books. Sean and I don't plan on having babies anytime soon, but I've been thinking how great it would be to build a collection of vintage books over the next few years so that we have them when we decide to grow our family. Until then, the books are wonderful and I am in love with the illustrations and colors. Maybe I will do a post about them sometime.

Photo by Sean

Photo by Sean

 Photo by Sean

 Photo by Sean

 Photo by Sean

I thought it was hilarious that these two have the same looks on their faces. I pointed that out to Sean and he laughed and said that's exactly why he took the photos. I think you can always find bizarre things in antique stores if you look hard enough. Although, it was terrifyingly difficult to miss the one below.

Photo by Sean

Photo by Sean

Photo by Sean 

Photo by Sean

Photo by Sean 

Photo by Sean

 After the antique store, we walked across the street to the music shop. They do classes there, but they also have this awesome guitar room in the back where you can play or just look around.

We were pretty hungry after the music shop so of course we went to one of our favorite parts of Leavenworth: the Corner Pharmacy cafe. This cafe is amazing because the food is super cheap (84 cents for a bottomless cup of coffee, 1 dollar for eggs, 2 dollars for a large slice of pie, etc.) and it's actually pretty delicious for how cheap it is. Sean always says, "It's like they've kept all the prices from long ago!" And it totally is! I had a cheeseburger, onion rings, and a cream soda and Sean had a breakfast special with coffee. Our total was $12 or something like that. 

 

 So that was our date! After lunch, we drove home and Sean went to work, and while I wish we had more time to look around, we both enjoyed the time together. I'd like to plan more things like that for us to do. I think it's really easy to just go places rather than make a big deal about a date and exploring. Sean and I love to explore and see new things, so hopefully there will be more outings like this in our future.

I will be spending this weekend trying to get through my wisdom teeth pain (although, hot tea is actually helping a little) and working on some homework for the coming week.
I really can't believe it is November already and while I am usually very eager to put up my Christmas decorations as soon as this month rolls around, this year I am feeling a bit of a slowness which, I have decided, means I should take my time and enjoy things as they are and as they happen. I am looking forward to the end of the semester as well as Christmas break but there is time between then and now that I cannot just skip over and ignore. Maybe I will feel different in a few days and I will feel the push to put up my Christmas things and write off the fall season early for the year, but write now I am happy with November.