[JKCalhoun]

I grew up in JoCo. My mom, though single, made it a point to rent the cheapest place in Johnson County because the schools were excellent. My sister and I benefited.

Having been in California for 26 years, I am back in the Midwaste. Kansas City has really done pretty good in the two-plus decades I have been absent. Tech made it here, there's money to be had. It's even become, like the rest of the U.S. I suppose, much more cosmopolitan. I expected to find the same Taco Tico "Mexican" restaurants I grew up with, the Chinese buffet (with pizza in case the kids don't like General Chicken) — and that would be too bad since I had come to like bulgogi, Chinese dumplings, "street tacos", sushi. There aren't exactly boba-tea places in every strip mall but you can find some of that here now.

To be sure though when I mention having come from California there are people I have met here that have made an offhand comment about the "homeless" or the legal marijuana (you know, as a bad thing) or whatever. A real estate agent assumed we we must have moved from California to get away from all that — to get back to "The Good Life".

Christ, in addition to the food and Tap Plastics, I miss the Bay Area weather. How I took it for granted....