Cinco de Cold-o

Thanks to Molly and Eric for inviting us to their annual Cinco de Mayo party in El Village de Prairie. The food was awesome - homemade salsa, guacamole, jicama and dip, taco bar, and the drinks were nice and frosty - cervezas, sangria and Palomas. Betsy picked up Adam and me and Mitzi and we headed over.

Unfortunately the drinks weren't the only things that were frosty - temps were down around the 40s, so as soon as the sun went down, most of us headed inside. This even though they've got a great deck on the back of their house, which is perfect for warm-weather parties.

Does this mean that our summer is going to be brutally hot?

It was nice to meet Molly and Eric. I read a lot about them on Betsy's blog, but now we all know that we're not imaginary...Now, I just have to meet Betsy's parents.

Living in Wichita for so long, I was conditioned to the fact that Doodah is more like a small town than a city - I was ALWAYS running into someone I knew or who knew someone I knew. I didn't think it would be that way here in KC. Bigger city, lots more places for people to go, etc. Last night, there were four people at the party whom I either knew, or had some connection to.

Two were teachers I work with (one went to high school with Molly), one was the opinion editor on the newspaper at Shawnee Mission North (she graduated the year before my freshman year), and one is the brother of a girl I played softball with and went to high school with. It was really strange.

Since I went away to college (trust me, when you grow up in JoCO, going to K-State IS going away for college), then moved to Wichita when I graduated, I'm not used to being around people from that era, or running into high school acquaintances. It's a bit of a paradigm shift for me. I am quite impressed though, with people who have maintained those friendships for so long. I don't think I'd have anything in common with my HS friends anymore.

I'm glad we got to go to the fiesta - it continues the string of CDM parties following the trip to Lawrence for state. It's always the first weekend in May, so when I get back from the state trip, we used to go to Ross and Leigh's for their CDM party, then last year it was at our new neighbor Rachel's house.

Luckily, I no longer have a two-and-a-half-hour drive to get to state anymore. I was home by 1 p.m. yesterday. Gave me enough afternoon time for watching Lost and the Office, before I took a nap. I needed one. When the alarm went off Saturday morning, I could not remember why I had to get up so early on a Saturday. It took a few minutes of bumbling around before I remembered that I had to drive to Lawrence.

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One last question I'll pose to the group:

Suppse you're a soccer mom, heading to a local high school for your kid's soccer game on a Saturday morning. You pull up, drive right past the GIGANTIC student parking lot (empty, by the way), choosing instead to park in a spot right next to the field. The empty spot is clearly marked "PARKING FOR SCHOOL VAN ONLY." Do you park your SUV there?