#itsacruelsummer

So, the most important t hing about Saturday is that I actually got to lay on my bed for an hour and stare at the ceiling.  This passes for luxury in a world where you dream of eating a meal that did not come out of an industrial vat.  Saturday my whole team went out for a nice dinner before getting to bed in time for our 5:30 am wakeup calls.  The dinner itself was good - there was an amazing feta and heirloom tomato salad - but,  you know, it’s hard to take a restaurant seriously when they can’t spell arugula properly.

I got the peach icebox pie because I was promised that the top peach layer was frozen, and, frankly, because there was a pretzel crust.

But it was all a lie.

Apparently in addition to not knowing how to spell arugula, the water did not know the difference between “frozen” and “gelatinous”.

And also, the crust was soggy.

So let’s just get this out of the way up front: I never did make it to Glace, the ice cream place that everyone in KC recommends, but which will forever remain a 14 minute car trip away.

Friday did result in a make up frozen treat from earlier in the week: sadly, it was just an unmelted frappuccino, but it was consumed when I most needed it, after an inedible convention luncheon and a morning of tabling, sitting dead-eyed in the Crowne Plaza Starbucks.

But the day wasn’t over!  One of the things about work travel is that meals are often work and not just times to eat delicious things and/or try to shovel in sustenance before the next thing.  Friday started with a work breakfast (and sir, I know belgian waffles and that was no belgian waffle) and ended with a work dinner (the sushi game was not on point).  This was followed by yet another work-related logistics problem, and then, finally, work decompressing (ie, cocktails).

But I still needed to fit in an additional frozen treat, and Alamo Drafthouse, with their assigned seats, waiter service, and no talking/texting rules was happy to oblige.  They will serve you warm chocolate chip cookies with ice cream directly at  your seat.  Did I sleep through parts of Ant-Man?  I did.  Am I convinced htat Paul Rudd should be playing super heroes?  I am  not.  But the chocolate chip cookies and ice cream were still worth it all!

So, sometimes you have plans to eat a frozen treat every day and you think, that’s not going to be so hard!  there are frozen treats everywhere!

Then you go on a business trip that just messes all of that up.  Why did I pass up Pinkberry in the Philadelphia Airport?  I was sure I would get something more fun - and possibly local! - out here in Kansas City.  Yeah... not so much.  After a plane ride both delayed and harrowing, and an thwarted attempt to set up my organization’s table at the conference we’re working this week, and two cosmos, it turns out that: a. Kansas City restaurants are not so much with the frozen desserts and b. there isn’t even a 7-11 at which one can buy a choco taco.

So basically, Wednesday was a gigantic FAIL on the ice cream front. And then all Thursday could offer was a half-melted frappucino (but in Thursday’s defense, it was one of the longest days ever and just didn’t lend itself to frozen treat acquisition).

So here we are on Friday, in a strange city, in desperate need of a decent frozen treat.  Fingers crossed.

Some days you can’t wait until after work for a leisurely constitutional to some adorable little neighborhood joint because if you don’t have a treat immediately you will either end up on top of your desk, screaming at your coworkers, or curled in a ball on the floor under your desk, practicing your moaning.

These are the days for which god invented Starbucks.