Week 1 in McPherson
(Copy/pasted from La Route Libre)
It’s Friday which means I have officially been in Kansas for a week. Aside from the frigid temperatures (its 15 degrees outside as I write this), everything is excellent! Friday night around midnight I rolled into McPherson-as I did, it began to lightly snow. I kid you not the timing was perfect. Doug and I went to Justin’s to pick him up and then to my apartment, and Justin helped us unload everything from the back of the pickup even though it was midnight. The original plan was just to get the bed and mattress upstairs but it was fairly easy for them to get everything from the truck upstairs. I helped when I could, but I’m weak and it was about 9 degrees out. Although we didn’t put together the bed, I put clean sheets on it and loaded it up with blankets. Five of them. I promptly fell asleep because I’d been up since 6AM Kansas time.
My roommate was in New Jersey for Christmas so I had the apartment all to myself on Saturday and Sunday. During this time I brought up the rest of the stuff from my car, arranged things in the living room, and started unpacking all of my boxes. As of now they’re all unpacked except for one, and all my clothes are hung up (if you know me, you know hanging up clothes is my least favorite chore ever). The amount of books I have is staggering now that I have them all in on place. I need a bookshelf but haven’t found one at the 3 thrift stores I’ve tried so far.
My apartment has three rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom. The bedroom Lisa and I share is huge! The beds are on one side of it and the other side has my dresser and a huge open space for whatever. Right now Lisa has a sewing project all laid out and I’m careful not to step on any pins. The living room has seating for at least 6 (more if people squeeze together on the 2 couches), and we have already had people over every single night. The dinging room has a rug and a piano in it, as well as an empty hutch that will probably be used to store food because there are next to no cabinets in the kitchen. The kitchen has a non-working stove, semi-working microwave, and an excellent coffeemaker/espresso machine on loan to us from a friend. The bathroom is tiled in three different pastel colors and has a seafoam green tub.
I’m kicking myself for leaving my CBGB, Little Miss Sunshine, and Bright Eyes posters, among others, behind in California. I forgot all about them until I realized how much empty wall space I have and nothing to fill it with. Our ceilings are impossibly high and I haven’t figured out how to deal with that fact yet.
Due to the non-working stove, I’ve already eaten out at all my favorite McPherson dining establishments. First of course was the Main Street Deli, which I would eat at every day if I could afford to. Then Doug’s mom took us to a new Mexican place in town (well, new to me). I also ate at Amics, an oddity in the midwest as it serves Mediterranean cuisine-possibly the only one for at least 60 miles? Also, Doug told me about a Mexican restaurant in Hutchinson which is probably the most authentic one outside of Wichita-Antojitos Mexicanos el Barbas (what a wacky name, right?). We went there when we went to his parents’ house to do laundry and…. it was UH-MAZING. I’m going back every time I’m in Hutch.
Lastly, my skin hasn’t been this dry for a long time. Aveeno and Mary Kay need to send me a personal letter of appreciation for how much lotion I have been using this week. Any donations to the Keep Staci’s Skin Looking Pretty fund will be enthusiastically appreciated.