oh my, look what you have done [CoA 9]

song: tip of my tongue – artist: the civil wars

Sometimes you find yourself entrenched in an outmoded, maybe even less than gracious, view of your own city. Perhaps it comes about due to circumstances that are not at all the fault of the city, itself. Just the timing of arrival that resulted in the first few months not being the most seasonally flattering, while working on that transition from things you were accustomed to, to what the new region has to offer, and you unwittingly lock into this take. Or something. Maybe, really, it’s not you, it’s me. I did that. For a girl who usually tries to avoid these kind of things, it’s a little humbling to discover just how severely I’d veered.

You know what’s good for remedying this, though? Approaching your city with a fresh set of eyes. Something that can be accomplished through sheer will. Or, even better, by being accompanied by someone "not from around here." I was ever so fortunate to have the latter as my experience for this last week. I got to be part of a stop on the epically awesome road trip of the delightful fella who has filled my mailbox with his artistic skillz (skills so awesome they require the use of a ‘z’ – also, check it! [two links for your viewing enjoyment]) on more than one occasion. And so, one of those winsome internet friendships found some in person, real life legs and it was nothing short of AWESOME!

Have you ever encountered someone who’s spontaneous planning is full of WIN? If you ever need to get a fresh perspective on your city and test your navigational skills downtown, it’s the only way to go. (Here is where I admit that, as the person who has lived in the city for a year and three-ish months, I had to, at one point, utilize the map feature of the GPS to meet up with the person who’d only been in the city for a few days. And we left from the same place. I’d taken a disorienting wrong turn in the dark, sure. But still…)

On the second evening of relentlessly splendid good ideas, we found ourselves down by the Keeper of the Plains for a stroll by the river, to culminate in the witness of one of Kansas’ amazing features, thanks to the wide open spaces: a glorious sunset. You see, the previous day had been on the cool side of the temperature spectrum, as was the one following. But that day/evening was pleasantly warm. At least warm enough that I got by with capris, 3/4 sleeves and – my favorite – open-toed shoes. So standing outside for the sunset wasn’t full of trying to stay warm. Instead it was full of conversation and photo snapping. The latter occasionally resulting in a cycle of accidentally getting my totally rad companion in a shot, then doing it on purpose. Sometimes not entirely stealthily, either. 😉 The accidentals are still some of my favorites.

While the following collages are not every shot snapped, they’re a healthy cross-section of them (you can click through to get to slightly larger versions, if you wish).

The Keeper, from a few different angles:

The rest are mostly just sunset-y:

So, this week the Cache got stocked with a new appreciation for Wichita and unforgettable moments with an exquisite individual. The depth and reach of the awesome involved far exceeded all of my expectations. I couldn’t have asked for a better time. 🙂 Thank you for making such magnificent magic happen, Tim! 😀

[what the "CoA" bit is about]