I Knew I Forgot Something...

It's funny how I've had a blog running for a week or so and I haven't shared how my mini road trip went with you guys. On the week of January 10th, I had a vacation week from my work (funny how I forgot I had vacation time I can use) where I had a bit of work and fun. I was able to send more resumes and DVDs to several news stations in Louisville, El Paso, Wichita, Green Bay, Davenport, Iowa and Fort Smith, Arkansas. Still keeping my optimism up on the job front because I know that I will get a job doing what I've always wanted to do this year. I just need to continue to be patient and steadfast throughout this process.

On the Friday of that week, I took a mini vacation that would take me to the southwestern corner of Missouri. I would spend Friday in Waynesville (near Fort Leonard Wood) visiting an awesome friend I met at Mizzou and Saturday in Springfield visiting a friend that I've known since 8th grade. One thing I will say about the road part of the trip, there are FAR fewer billboards on I-44 compared to a trip to Columbia on I-70. On 44, you can actually see the beautiful countryside as you drive around the Ozarks to Springfield.

A dear friend of mine, Rachel, lives in Waynesville and it's been a year and a half since I've visited, so I thought it was time to make a return visit. We first met at Mizzou during my sophomore year and her freshman year. On a later post, I'll go in depth about some of the people I've met and consider dear friends over the years but let's just say I couldn't wait to spend the evening with her and say hi to MamaPep again. Turns out that Rach, her mom and I are really into sushi and we made our own sushi rolls for dinner that night. My sushi roll with lobster, cream cheese and cucumber didn't turn out too bad and it actually tasted pretty good (considering I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese in sushi). For sides, we did have some awesome Miso Soup with some pickled ginger set aside to cleanse the palette after our meal. Wasabi was there, but I am NOT a fan of wasabi as any of my friends will tell you. With Rachel being part of a military family, she gladly gave me another tour of Fort Leonard Wood and I wanted to see it again in general, but I wanted to see if any part of the base sustained any damage from the New Year's Eve tornado. Turns out that an EF-3 did hit the base and some of the pictures that MamaPep took showed just a bit of the damage.

I remember that I saw trees still stripped of their bark when I was chasing with the Mizzou Storm Chase Team in April of 2008 as we drove into Great Bend, KS from the south. That was only a year after the huge tornado went through Greensburg and took out 95% of the town. This, however, was the first time I saw actual tornado damage. What amazed me was one street that we drove down that had one house with gutters torn off, siding blown off and windows blown in, but the house was still standing. The house that was supposed to be right next door, all that was left was the foundation. Another house had most of the outside walls ripped out by the tornado but three of the four walls still standing were in the bathroom that still had the toilet and bathtub in their original place. Thank God that most of the people on base were on holiday leave and there were no fatalities reported with the tornado. Before we called it a night, we stopped by Dairy Queen for a few Blizzards and went back to her house where a delectable chocolate cake with cherries inside was waiting for our desert. MamaPep, I swear that everything you make is to die for!!

Saturday comes around and after a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy, I headed southwest some more into Springfield. I've driven by Springfield so many times whenever the family took a vacation to Branson but the last time that I was actually in Springfield was when my older sister toured the Missouri State campus back in 2001. Needless to say, things have changed quite a bit since then. I met up with my awesome friend Ashley at her dorm and she gave me quite a tour of the city. We first went to a great pizza place (which I forgot the name of... A little help, Ashley?) where I got a cheese pizza with grilled chicken, jalapeños and alfredo sauce. It was DELICIOUS!! After that, she said that the city actually had a random giant fork nearby and wanted to see if I wanted a souvenir photo.

Later on, she gave me a tour of the *crowded* Battlefield Mall (plenty of cool shops for me if I get bored like Hot Topic, GameStop, Spencer Gifts, etc), stopped by a place called EntertainMart (a video game/poster/CD store) where I bought a cool PS2 game called Psychonauts, tried to balance out the bad food with some good food at a frozen yogurt shop (inside joke with Ashley and Celia) and hung out at her dorm until later that night.

6:00 rolls around and Ashley, her friend Kyla and I went to an awesome sushi bar (yep... more sushi) for dinner. I loved the presentation of my California Roll...

After that, we went to an AWESOME video arcade called 1984 in downtown Springfield. This place was amazing! You pay only $5 at the door and all the games were free to play. They had pinball tables as well, but they cost a quarter a pop. The whole place was decorated like an '80s arcade...even the bathroom was decked out with blue lights and glow-in-the-dark Pac-Man and Space Invader decorations. In the background, '80s music and music videos were playing while each arcade cabinet added to the chorus. Here's a quick tour of the arcade...

If you're ever down in Springfield and want to check this place out for yourself, it's open Wednesday through Saturday between 4 PM and 11 PM. They trade machines out every few weeks so you never know what you might be playing the next time you're in there.

After that, we met up with Ashley's boyfriend and some more of her friends and we wined, dined and talked about anything that came to mind until we couldn't do it anymore. After crashing at her boyfriend's pad, Ashley and I went to IHOP for breakfast so we could talk and reminisce about our fun day before. Then, with the bill paid, we went back to the apartment and I took off for home. The trip to Waynesville and Springfield was a blast and makes me great to live a great life and have great friends to share it with.