It's the Freakin' Weekend

I had quite the Kansas City weekend.

It started with First Fridays on Friday night with Ashley, Ben, Liz, Ryan and Elizabeth.  First Fridays takes place the first Friday (shocker) of every month in downtown KC.  All the art galleries open up at night.  It's crowded and fun and I spend a lot of time pretending I know anything about art.  If you just say the words composition and medium a lot, you can make it through any art event.

After leaving First Fridays, we went back to Ryan's and played Settlers which I (of course) enjoyed.  It was just a fun, relaxed night with old friends.  I can't really explain how nice it is to have people here that I know already.  I would be going crazy otherwise.  Literally.

Saturday we experienced the other side of KC.  That would be the middle of America, cattle town side of KC, which I love just as much as the urban side.

Ashley and I had been excitedly talking about PBR coming to town for the past week.  (And by PBR, I do not mean Pabst Blue Ribbon, I mean Professional Bull Riders.)  

PBR was the ultimate in Middle Americana.  The event started with the cowboys being introduced and running out in the middle of a giant "USA" spelled out in flames.  That was followed by a prayer (in the name of Jesus) that included thanking God that we were all born in the USA because America is the greatest country on Earth.  

Another moment that most people I know would find indignantly offensive, but this crowd loved came when a rider named Ryan Dirteater climbed into the shoot.  The announcers introduced him as the "Native American from Oklahoma" and then proceeded to play Indian Outlaw followed by Cherokee People and encouraged the crowd to do the Tomahawk Chop to get Ryan revved up.  Yeah.

Really though, it was a lot of fun.  They put on quite a show and it is an intense sport.  (We saw a guy get stomped in the head by a bull.)  And, even though I hope it does not show up in my day-to-day life, part of me deep down is country.  It's in the blood.  

We followed PBR with a trip to Denim and Diamonds, a country bar in North KC.  It was quite the place to people watch to say the least.  Line dancing, 2-step and the Cupid Shuffle.  You can't beat it.

All in all, it was a fun weekend and was a good way to get me out of the funk of being unemployed and essentially homebound.  

Good friends, good times.