We Play House As Suburban Yuppies

We Play House As Suburban Yuppies

We spent a few days in Kansas City at my sister’s place. It’s always fun stepping into another lifestyle. Here’s what I liked best.

Neighbors are fun.

We met a bunch of her neighbors this visit. They swarm around whoever seems to light the grill first in the evening. Then the parents circle the wagons and the kids attempt to tire each other out, the older ones keeping the younger ones out of the street and the parents occationally shouting orders that are followed as long as the kids remain in view. It’s wild.

It was fun being surrounded by nice people. In Chicago, we felt more adversarial with our condo neighbors. I never should have been on the board!

Kids are energetic.

Seriously. Up at 6AM on a good day and ready to play. My nephew rocks it, regardless of how much his uncle drank the night before. As some other friends have observed: “[Our son] just doesn’t seem to want to stay up late on Fridays and sleep in on Saturdays.” Yep. Every day is a play early day at first. Well, for the children.

We babysat one evening and tag-teamed our nephew. For about 20 minutes we had calm — we watched an episode of Bubble Guppies and were able to sit still on the couch and breathe. Then it was bath time and Aunt Lisa scored big by calling it time to ‘play in the water’ instead of time to get soap in your eyes. Phew. We did it once. My sister and brother-in-law do it every day.

Kansas City is yummy.

Wow, we had some good food. Barbecue at Oklahoma Joe’s, lunch at Succotash, coffee from the Roasterie. Wings at The Peanut. All of it delicious.

Wings at The Peanut Bar, Kansas City.
Wings at The Peanut Bar, Kansas City.

Holy pollen, Batman!

Everything was blooming in Kansas City and the air was thick with pollen. It covered our van and filled our sinuses. My eyes have never been so pink from pollen, my nose has never run so much. My goodness. If only the flowering trees weren’t so damn beautiful.

Rocky got to rest in a driveway, but got blanketed with pollen.
Rocky got to rest in a driveway, but got blanketed with pollen.