A Taste of Wichita

For my birthday, my sister invited me down to Wichita to experience the Taste of Wichita, a new event designed to raise money to fight hunger. I had been to the Taste of Chicago before, and I figured it would be like that, but on a smaller scale. It actually had more differences than size - and I'd actually say its size was proportionately smaller for the size of Wichita - making for both positive and negative aspects of the day.

I think the Taste of Chicago is not a charity event. It is more money making oriented, and you buy tickets that you use to purchase food at many of the different booths. You can spend a long time there, but you also have to pay specifically for the food you eat. We found that it worked well to get our food, go sit in the shade to eat, and then walk around trying to decide what to eat next. This made for eating something every half hour or so. And you split what you eat, and you try crazy new things!

At the Taste of Wichita, you buy an arm bracelet that simply lets you into the event. Instead of choosing food to "purchase" from vendors, each vendor has a specific food item they want to share. Because this is a charity event, it means the vendors are there for some publicity and often want to give you their menus and fliers. Still, not having to worry about the quality of food we were about to receive made going from booth to booth more relaxing. And even though the portions were small, I was stuffed by the time we left. It was the hottest day of the year, or so it seemed, so we generally grabbed our food and headed to the shade to eat it. The price to get in was only worth it if you considered you were giving money to charity, but getting a filling meal was also nice.

The sun and heat had made me tired, so I insisted we get rehydrated (with pop, of course). Erin didn't want to head home yet, because she didn't want our dad making fun of the short amount of time we had spent at the event. So we headed back to her house, where the plans changed again. In order to only take one car back to my parent's house, she insisted on waiting for her husband to come back from shooting with his friend.

So we played "Lego: Indiana Jones" on the Wii. I am a terrible video game player, and most of the time in the past when people are playing the games I am content to be fascinated watching them. For some reason (perhaps a sugar high) it seemed that this game was hillarious. When Erin let me jump in, it got even funnier, due to my lack of skill. We ended up playing for hours, and yet it didn't feel like a wasted day because I was spending time with my sister. And it was a game that I was actually able to somewhat succeed in, so that helped.

We went home and had steaks for dinner, and then we played Mexican Dominoes, which is one of three games we generally play in my family (domonioes, progressive rummy, or rummikubs). Of course we always have a good time laughing and telling jokes and playing around, but this time it felt even funnier.

My mom went to church with me, which really meant a lot on my birthday an all! Unfortunately we were celebrating the Assumption, which can be awkward for a non-Catholic who doesn't understand what is going on. I wish she had been able to come to a more "typical" mass, but I am also glad she went to this one. Hold nothing back - be not ashamed - put your best face forward - that kind of thing.

I drove home, which I think exhausted the puppy. She doesn't sleep in the car anymore. She sits down, leaning against the seat, and looks up at me with her ears down. I don't know if she's bored or carsick or what. Near the end of the trip today she was trying to sleep sitting up. In a construction zone we had to drive on the shoulder, and it completely freaked her out. She jumped into my lap (awkward!) and kind of sat there shivering until I found a rest stop and let her walk around a bit.

It's a nice enough day, I'm hoping we can take a long walk tonight - but first, I have to forage for food!