sorry folks, but i've disappeared for the day.
you can find me here.
(but just for today, silly)
until then, you are pretty damn lucky to be graced by the presence of DeMo from PresentlyDeMo.


Hey everyone! I'm here from PresentlyDeMo as part of 20sb's 5th Blog Swap. I'm taking over erin's blog for the day and bringing a little bit of the plains to you! This blog swap is sending me out on a limb and out of my comfort zone since it's my first time to do this. We all need to get out of that once in a while don't we? You lucky readers get the honor of reading my first swapped post. I was thinking of stuff to write about and decided on Kansas. I've lived in Kansas for 20+ years, so I should know plenty about it, right? Well, sort of. My mind sort of went...blank (like in You've Got Mail) when I was trying to think of what to write about. My family moved here from Oklahoma when I was 3, and since then I've just stayed around. I graduated from college in Arkansas and moved back here to live. It's amazing what lack of money and preparation will do for your plans. :) There is plenty of history in this state, like Bleeding Kansas and the abolitionists, but I'll tell you about the other important stuff:

Largest prairie dog

Largest ball of twine

Mount Sunflower, the tallest point in the state

The largest underground salt museum (way cool)

The Flint Hills

The largest hand-dug well, which fortunately survived the huge tornado that hit Greensburg last year and made national news

My basketball-loving readers will not forgive me if I don't mention the Jayhawks and the winners of the 2008 NCAA tournament. (ok, now that's out of the way and I can move on...)

You can find Kansas on a map in the middle of the US, and it's also found in that old joke that asks why Kansas is so windy. Something about Nebraska and Oklahoma being in a little battle of the lungs. Either way, Kansas is perfectly content being in the center. (I've always had a hard time naming the eastern states on a map. They're so little and I always get New Hampshire confused with Maryland, or Delaware confused with New Jersey. Do people on the east coast know which state is Kansas?)

Some of the best sunsets can be seen here. There's no smog to look through, and the stars are the brightest ever once you get away from the city lights. I think that's my favorite part, is just being able to get away from everything. When I visited Los Angeles two years ago, I started feeling claustrophobic because there are people everywhere and when you try to get away from them, there they are.

And of course you know about the Wizard of Oz and have probably told way too many Dorothy jokes whenever you run into a Kansan.

It's a good place for me. I'm content to just be here where I can watch the sunset without a lot of city in the way. And of course, go looking for my lost Toto...

Thanks to erin for letting me take over her blog for the day! Come visit me at PresentlyDeMo.