Last Friday might have been the longest day of my life. I may sound a little dramatic, but I was awake for almost 32 hours!
In the words of Fraulein Maria, “Let’s start at the beginning. A very good place to start.”
If you read my post earlier this week, you’ll know that Friday morning I attended the Monsanto sustainable yield pledge awards. After the awards ceremony, I toured the Chesterfield, MO location with the other judges and award winners. (FYI, one of my fellow judges was Marc Brazeau from realfood.org, who was featured in this article yesterday.) This was a great tour, especially as it focused more on biotech. Me = nerding out, #science.
After the tour, I spent the rest of the afternoon learning about Monsanto’s vegetable business. Yes, did you know they have a vegetable business? In fact, most of the fruits and vegetables you see at Whole Foods are most likely produced using seeds from Monsanto. Most people think genetically modified organisms (GMO) or biotech is synonymous with Monsanto, but Monsanto produces more than just GMO seed. Let me drop a knowledge bomb on you here…. this means that Monsanto sells to organic farmers. Gasp! What say you, grasshopper?
Before I hopped on a flight back home, Janice thought it would be a good idea to get some dinner. It’s a good thing too, because I had no idea what was in store for me that evening. We went to Pastaria and I’m not kidding when I say, I think it was the best Italian food I’ve ever had in my life. From the food to the decor, this place was culinary innovation at it’s finest. And the food was definitely an experience….the shaved kale salad with breadcrumbs, the risotto balls, the pistachio ravioli, the salume beddu nduja (aka spicy) pizza with honey, and the chocolate gelato totally hit the spot that night.
I expected dinner to be awesome, because Janice has great taste, but what I didn’t expect was the crazy monsoon that was happening outside the restaurant while we were eating. Tip: If you have a sun roof, you might want to keep that closed if it looks like a chance of rain. #themoreyouknow. Poor Janice.
After dinner, Janice dropped me off at the airport and I was on my merry way. Or so I thought. Apparently a monster storm decided to pop a squat on top of Omaha for a few hours, which was my final destination. The flight from St. Louis to Omaha only takes about 50 minutes. It should have been an easy flight, but after about 35 minutes, the pilot came on and said that we would have to “hang out” for a while because of the storms in Omaha. After about 25 minutes of “hanging out” over Kansas, the pilot came back on and said that we were returning to St. Louis because it wasn’t safe to land in Omaha.
This resulted in an overnight stay in the southwest terminal. Luckily, my friend Karin (co founder of Lincoln Coding Women) happened to be on the same flight, so we were able to bond over an all-nighter at the airline terminal. Also, I guess yellow tablecloths can be used as blankets.
So what does one do when one is stuck overnight in a strange airport? One makes a music video of course. It’s a good thing too, because otherwise I might have gone nuts with boredom.
Haters gonna hate and creatives gonna create. One day I hope they say, “She’s not weird. She’s an innovator.”
Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow with an actual recipe for the week. =)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcLdK45X2y4&feature=em-upload_owner
Enjoy!
