Playing Catch Up

I'm just plain behind. You'd think with all the free time I have here in the good ol' midwest there would be a new post every day, maybe even 2 a day. I'm just a slacker at heart I guess. It doesn't help that I was browsing the blog of my lovely new friend Chelsea. I mean, I know she lives quite the life, and I don't exactly have much to report on, but the envy of her skill is simply not going to go away - so I'll use her as a mentor instead. Kudos to you love! Inspire me, oh lovely muse of mine... Wow, a little out there, I know. My apologies, it's quite early for me.

In an effort to post at least every other day, I must catch up my enraptured audience.
After all, how are you to understand my epiphanies and such if you don't know my past, right? Right. Starting... about a week ago. Last Tuesday was my favorite..

Why, you ask? I got to run around playing photographer! My spectacular Aunt Sandy took me to downtown St. Louis by the courthouse, parked the car, and proceeded to follow me as I led the way in a broad and winding tour of the city as most have never traveled. I say this because I'm a ridiculously obsessive person who would normally follow a strict plan of walking in straight lines and such, but this pesky little "Oooh! Shiny!" mentality of mine doesn't cooperate well. It was quite the internal struggle, many lives were lost in the skirmish. Anywho, I'll be posting some proof soon, but don't say I didn't warn you of the mediocrity.

My next exciting outing including my other favorite, Aunt Rochelle. She figured I might like a night on the town while I'm here, and since I am very much without transportation or moolah, she helped me out a bit. First, all three of my aunts and a rather alone uncle of mine took me to this amazing coffee shop/lounge called The Grind. Oh my goodness! Aside from having the most spectacular cake batter ice cream and one heck of an espresso, the setting lends quite the inspiration. It's an old 3-story mansion that was pretty much emptied, painted, and filled with odds and ends of eclectic furniture and over-sized chairs. The upper floor (previously the attic, I suppose) is now a game room with pool tables, a juke box, and old school arcade games; The second floor has a few chess tables, as well as desks for those who need study time; and the bottom floor has free internet and computers. But my favorite part? The addition to the back of the house. You walk all the way back to what should be the back door, and instead you end up in this dark, themed room full of pretty neon lights, soft and luxurious fabrics, and a state of the art bar equipped with its very own DJ. I felt like I was walking into a speakeasy in the 40's and I should have been smoking a long cigarette, twirling my boa. Simply fantastic.

Moving on through the night, after a short nap at home, 2 of my aunts and myself proceeded to grace the Ameristar casino with our presence. Apparently this new nightclub, Home, required some investigation, and who better than us girls? Long story short, we danced the night away, mixed with drinks and the ever amusing random gentlemen, of course, and ended up in the casino diner eating the most amazing steak I've ever tasted in my life - seriously. Something akin to magic went into the making of that steak. Moving on, we left the night off with me passed out on the couch, outfit intact - lol - but only after my aunt dropped her food down the stairs leading to her apartment of course. Amused me.

The next morning, the two of us decided to wake up at 8am - a mere 4 hours after we had gone to sleep. Oh well, why waste a morning? So we traveled to a magical land of art and culture dubbed Forest Park. You can read read about it's history on its very informative website, very interesting history, as it was the site of the 1904 World's Fair and includes, among other things, a zoo, history museum, planetarium, golf course, pavilions, bike paths, etc... But my favorite? The art museum. This museum did the unthinkable and put the ever changing trendy modern works on the 2nd floor, and reserved the main space for the classics and art and sculptures that had proved its worth through years of criticism and weathering. I didn't have my camera with me (boo!) but I plan to return there this week when my little sister comes to visit from California. Joy for family and excuses to visit your favorite places over and over again =) And I wouldn't mind a trip to see the tigers at the zoo either. Oh! and also, everything there is free, which is such a benefit to the youth of St. Louis! Simply amazing!

So my week continues, and to catch you up completely, last night my aunts and mother took me to another of the prominent casinos here to gamble away my $10 at the penny slots. After hours of pushing that button, hitting a high of $17, praying for those tornadoes (on the game of course), having some old lady run over when we screamed and almost explode with anger when she found out it was only $3, cultivating our Texan accents, and flirting with the cocktail waiter, I left with 8 cents more than I came in with. God bless the gamblers. And this time I didn't lose my cell phone. I'd say it was as near perfection as one could get.

Looking back, I'd say this is probably the most I want to type, since this entry is lengthy at this point. So maybe I'll post again today. Probably will actually. I have so much more to say! No more bottling it up, I promise.