Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category
DALLAS, Baby!
I am an Omni Hotels Select Guest and often receive offers for free and discounted hotel stays at their hotels across the country. Earlier this summer, I received an offer to spend a weekend at one of their hotels. I decided that it would be fun to spend my birthday weekend celebrating in a city that is a cheap plane ride from Kansas City. Chicago and Dallas both came to mind right away. I decided on Dallas for several reasons.
The more I thought about it, I thought that it would be AWESOME to turn my birthday trip into a Brunch Club trip.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/The-Brunch-Club/125834977429769?ref=ts
https://amymariekc.wordpress.com/2010/08/
I talked it over with the group and everyone thought the idea sounded fun. The more we discussed it, we decided that taking a road trip would be really fun.
Brittney, Marc, Richie, and I drove down to Dallas after work on Thursday. Mako had a work commitment and she flew into Dallas on Friday evening.
We stopped in Wichita, Oklahoma City, and Denton before arriving at our destination in the Los Colinas area of Irving. The nine hour drive went by so fast. The four of us chatted, listened to music, read, and slept on the way. We arrived at the hotel at about 1 am on Friday morning.
Friday was nice and relaxing. I slept until I woke up without an alarm and then went for a nice run on a few of the paths/trails near the hotel. Luckily the staff met me at the door with an ice cold bottle of water and a towel. I spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. It was a nice break from my usual daily life.
Mako flew in Friday evening and we met a few of her friends for dinner at a Japanese restaurant near our hotel. The staff sang happy birthday to me and brought a very generous slice of cake for our group to share. The food was delicious but the service left something to be desired.
After dinner, we headed to downtown Dallas to experience the night life. We took a lot of great pictures and met some interesting people.
Saturday, I went for another run and lounged by the pool while the rest of the group got out to experience some of the city. I attended 5:00 Mass at the University of Dallas and had a nice visit with one of the bartenders at the hotel bar. The driver that took me too and from church was very interesting. He grew up in Jersey and lived all over Europe and just moved to the DFW area. We actually talked quite a bit about his family that lives in the Kansas City area.
Our group reconvened and headed to Uptown Dallas for Tex-Mex and more night life.
Mako and I are pretty big fans of Kidd Kraddick in the Morning (www.kiddlive.com) which is syndicated out of Dallas. We actually stayed across the street from their studio, but the show was in Naples all week. Anyway, one of the cast members, Big Al Mack, owns a bar in Uptown, so we headed there for drinks in hopes that I could get a birthday picture with Big Al. Not only did I get picture, but we also received some drinks and birthday cake on the house.
We met some really cool people at MAT…hopefully we can keep in touch.
A definite highlight of the trip was Sunday brunch at Blue Mesa. The brunch is all inclusive, all you can eat buffet with unlimited champagne and mimosas. There are multiple buffet lines with traditional breakfast items, authentic southwest and Mexican dishes, and an array of desserts, fruit, and salads. Boy did we eat! I have to say the first hour or so of the car ride home was miserable as I let my food digest.
We got a little “lost” in that we were on US 75 hwy as opposed to I-35 for the first couple of hours of the trip, so we had to take a few minor detours. On the way home we stopped just south of Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Emporia. It was a nine hour drive so we had plenty of time to talk and REALLY get to know each other.
All in all it was a fabulous trip and we had a GREAT time.
The Brunch Club
Marc was a year a head of me in school at K-State, and we were in the same major, but never knew each other. We both started working at our current jobs at around the same time and connected via our work in a local professional association that we are both active in. We have become pretty good friends.
Marc introduced me to Mako, another K-State grad that he works with through the Kansas City K-State Alumni
Association. I knew of Mako at K-State but we became friends when Marc formally introduced us at a KSU basketball watch party.
Mako introduced us to her long time best friend, Richie, who is also her “man of honor” in her upcoming wedding.
One evening earlier this year, I introduced Marc, Mako, and Richie to Brittney. Brittney and I met at a Halloween party hosted by my old roommate who just happens to be engaged to Brittney’s old college roommate.
We all got together for dinner and bonded over a horrible dining experience at a local restaurant (https://amymariekc.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/customer-service-nightmare/). We then headed out for drinks and live music. Our group had such a great time that we met for brunch and then an impromptu visit to the ballpark for a Royals game. https://amymariekc.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/loving-life/
During that brunch, The Brunch Club was born. Brittney, Mako, Marc, Richie, and I get together on a regular basis for Sunday brunch, Thursday Fun Day, and other fun activities. For Sunday brunch, we pick a different location each time-preferably a place that is new for all of us. Sometimes we invite other friends to join us. Thursday Fun Day is a chance for us all to get together during the week and we try out a new local bar or restaurant every week.
We all get a long great a majority of the time and have a really interesting mix of personalities. When we get together, we have a complete BLAST. We have been hanging out and getting to know each other for several months, and I can say that this group of people are some of the best friends I have. I still have my friends from high school and college, and other friends that I’ve met in life, but have some how managed to form a strong bond with the Brunch Clubbers that I just know will turn into life long friendships. We have all also enjoyed introducing each other to our other friends. I’ve met some really great people getting to know some of their friends.
SURPRISE-Kudos
Growing up, my family always made a big deal out of our birthdays and that is something that I have carried into adulthood. I love celebrating my birthday and I love celebrating friends’ and family birthdays.
The Brunch Club decided to throw a surprise birthday party for Brittney this year. We weren’t able to do much on her real day, so we planned a party for July 9th.
We could not have pulled this off without Aimee Eaton at Hook Gallery and Framing (www.hookgallery.com). Aimee is the event coordinator at Westport’s newest art gallery. She made the planning and day of so easy for us. It was great! The gallery is an awesome space and it worked great for our surprise birthday celebration.
Vi Tran Music (www.facebook.com/vitranmusic) provided the entertainment via an acoustic set by Vi Tran himself. He did great as usual with a nice mix of familiar covers and his raw and personal originals.
We had drinks, a nacho bar, birthday cake, good music, and good friends. Everyone seemed to have a great time.
I wanted to take the opportunity to give some credit where credit is due.
Thank you THANK YOU to The Brunch Club…you guys are the best friends anyone could have and I love how much fun we have together. Thank you for supporting this idea and all of your hard work to pull the party off! Richie helped shop and chop fruit and veggies, made sure we had cold beverages, and most of all, he was able to get the guest of honor to the party on time! Marc listened to me stress nonstop, made an awesome playlist, and made sure that Brittney’s favorite (red velvet) cake showed up for the party. Mako brought A LOT of awesome food (and chocolate chip cookies) and made sure we had dance music when Vi’s set ended. She also was a HUGE help in coordinating the cleaning and packing at the end of the night. I appreciate all of you guys and everything you did for the party!!!!
Thank you to Aimee Eaton at Hook. You were so nice and friendly and a great pleasure to work with. I’m excited to work with you on future events!
Vi, thank you for the great tunes and for just partying and hanging out with us. It is always a big treat to introduce you to my friends and expose new people to your music and your story.
Rachel, Nicole, Amy, Matt…you guys were so awesome! Thank you so much for all of your help cleaning up. You seriously didn’t have to do that!
Rachael….I wish I had your last name and contact info. You did an awesome job on the cake…well exceeded our expectations. Hopefully I can connect you with others that may need your services. Thank you!!!
Emily….I really appreciate you agreeing to make your delicious carrot cake…that was all I could think about for 2 weeks! Thank you for helping me reach out to invite Brittney’s family and school friends. I’m really glad that we tried to include them.
Thank you to all of our friends that took time out of their Friday to come and celebrate with us. It was so great to hang out and enjoy the gallery with all of you.
A BIG thanks to Brittney for being such a great friend!
Love ya, Last Minute!
Check out the pics on facebook!
PS….Thanks to all that weren’t able to make it, but sent an RSVP. I really appreciate the heads up! Hopefully everyone will learn to understand the importance of sending an RSVP when receiving an invite!
Wow!
I went into this weekend knowing that I had a LOT going on, and it was a little crazy to try to be in a million places, but I live for being really busy.
I had a “pre” weekend outing on Thursday with a group of friends. We went down to Westport for live music, so it made for a late night. The next morning I drank a lot of coffee so that I could stay a wake for my busy day.
I tried to finish work as soon as I could so that I could run errands and be ready by the time my friend was going to pick me up at 3:00 to go out to the K. We had to meet with the sales staff to finish up some details for an event that we are hosting out there in a couple of weeks.
After we took care of our business, my friend dropped me off so that I could wait on another friend to come and pick me up so that we could go back to the stadium for the Royals vs Twins game at 7:00.
The game was AWESOME….nice weather, lots of trips to the concession stands, and post game fireworks.
We got home and I went straight to bed as I had an early morning ahead…the plan was to drive to Manhattan for KSU’s Open House, go to my cousin’s wedding in the afternoon, and then head to the KSU Spring Game on Saturday evening.
Well…I woke up at about 2:00 am and was sick the rest of the night and didn’t go to bed until I was scheduled to be up to pick up my friends for the trip to Manhattan. I normally eat a lot of steamed and raw veggies and lean proteins, so I think the combination of the pastries that I ate Friday morning and all of the random concession stand food at the game really did a number on my stomach…ugh.
I decided the only thing I could do was stay in bed and get some rest, so I called my friends and told them to go to Manhattan without me and I also called Grandma and told her to head to the wedding without me. I was SUPER disappointed….
I felt well enough to make it to the game Saturday evening and was able to bring my friends back to Kansas City afterward.
Again, I went straight to bed because I had to be up early again, as my friend was picking me up at 6:20 so that we could head to a 4 mile race that we were running. I was pretty nervous as I hadn’t been feeling well or eating , drinking, or sleeping properly…but, I still managed to get up and run the four miles…well I ran most of the time and walked a bit too….
After the run a few of us met up for brunch. I went home and finally crashed. I love staying busy, but my body doesn’t always love it!
I’ve got to do some laundry and a few other things and I think I will be ready for the week!
Loving Life
This weekend was one of those weekends that reminded me that my life is actually pretty good and I should be VERY thankful for what I have and the people in my life.
I moved to Kansas City about four years ago and my two favorite things about my experience so far are my job and all of the fabulous people who I have met through work, church, volunteer work, sporting events, and various social activities.
This weekend I was able to spend time with some of the new friends that I have made fairly recently.
I left work at about 3:00 on Friday a bit fried from the week. I took a mini nap and then was ready to start the weekend. A friend met me at my house so that we could meet a few friends for dinner at a local restaurant. (see my previous post for more on that dining experience!) We ate and drank and had a great time chatting and getting to know each other.
After dinner, we headed to another local spot to hear a favorite local musician of mine play. We were guests of the manager at the establishment as a result of a negative service experience from a week or so before. We met a few more friends and enjoyed the evening listening to the live music and sipping on house champagne, compliments of the manager.
We happened to be out on the same night as the Royals Red Sox game and the George Strait Reba McEntire concert, so we ran into lots of interesting people. We captured several of our fun moments of the evening…we all had our cameras and phones and took a lot of pictures. We all had so much fun.
I kept Saturday pretty low key…chores around the house, errands, and Mass. I met my sister and 3 year old nephew for dinner and had a great time catching up with them.
Saturday evening, some friends and I decided to make plans to go to Sunday brunch the following day.
Four of us met for brunch at a popular hotel here in town. It was so much FUN. We had a great time laughing and talking and discussing our weekend and enjoying DELICIOUS food and champagne. We were seated at a table near a window and had a really nice view of the city. As we observed the sunshine and beautiful weather, someone made a comment about how today would be a good day to go to a baseball game. We checked the time and decided that we had about 40 minutes to close our tab and head out to the ball park before the first pitch would be thrown.
I’m a planner and there isn’t much that happens in my life that is spur of the moment…but maybe there is room for more of that in a 20 something’s life.
We were dressed for Sunday brunch, not for an afternoon at the ball park. We decided to stop in the sports apparel store in the mall where the hotel was located and purchase appropriate attire. After the shopping trip, we decided that we would all meet at a Wal-Mart close to the stadium and drive in together. We purchased more clothes for the game and were ready to head in.
The weather was beautiful and we had an AWESOME time roaming around the stadium and watching the baseball game.
We even made plans for a future get together.
This weekend was so much fun not necessarily because of the activities, but because of the awesome people who I got to spend time with!
Now I am ready for the week ahead!
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