Meet Me in St. Louis

Or Clayton, as the base may be. So last Thursday, the weather in Seattle was glorious--sunny and warm--and I was stuck inside writing a paper of doom. It was a rough draft on privacy and surveillance and how these issues affect libraries and librarians. Anyway, after consuming copious amounts of caffeine and writing ten pages, I said, it's good enough, and I sent it to be peer-reviewed by classmates. The nice thing about getting most of that out of the way is that it won't be so bad to revise/finish in a couple of weeks. And then it was time to consume copious amounts of alcohol and pack my bags for St. Louis!

I woke up bright and early on Friday so I could register for classes at six am. I think I'll like next quarter better--only one core class and two electives. If I don't like the electives, I'm just screwed at library school. Then I finished packing and called a taxi to pick me up. It was a lovely ride through Seattle and all that sun. $60 later I was at the airport where ESPN (or something) was blaring commentary about Tiger Woods's apology, and who cares? It's not actual news. Every time one of these "stories" break I want to buy this book. Eventually I boarded the plane to fly to Sacramento which is probably the most rural and agricultural of all major airports to which I've been. Then I flew to Phoenix, and then finally to STL. The full day of flying did not help my complete mental and physical exhaustion. I swore off caffeine and alcohol--this lasted less than a day. Then I took a taxi to Clayton, a wealthy suburb of St. Louis and the county seat of St. Louis County. The city of St. Louis is its own independent thing. And I was deposited at the Sheraton Hotel which is much nicer than the places to which I am accustomed to staying. It was actually a little unnerving, but wonderful. And then Rae dropped off Slarue and we caught up, swapped gossip, chatted about boys, and then I fell into a deep, restful sleep.

The next morning I was totally refreshed and the whole gang went to see Rae's daughter, Katie, play in her basketball game. Afterward, we made the mandatory stop at Target, because no trip to a new city is complete without a visit to this homogeneous big-box retailer. We grabbed a quick bite at Stratton's Cafe where I finally met the fabled Keith, whom I like a lot. The French dip was delicious--pickles, what a revelation!--but Hell's Kitchen will always be #1 in my book. Then Nick, Rae's brother, chauffeured Slarue and I to the Moolah Theatre for my authentic St. Louis experience. He got lost on the way, but I don't blame him--without mountains (and large bodies of water) I had no sense of direction. We drove past Washington University, lovely red-brick institution that rejected Nick and Slarue. If they had an LIS program, I'm sure they would have rejected me too. And I saw the Gateway Arch from afar, so I was happy.

We eventually made it to the Moolah which has ruined movie theaters for me everywhere else. The movie screen is huge, and instead of standard auditorium/stadium seating, there are leather couches and love-seats. There's also a bar and lounge in the lobby, which we didn't get to enjoy since we were running late, but it looked fantastic! Anyway, we saw Shutter Island and this review pretty much explains how I felt. It was dark and atmospheric, the camerawork, directing, and acting we're great--it's Scorsese after all--and the material is unabashedly pulpy. The ending was cliche, so it sucks teleologically. I can't decide if it would be better or worse with a repeat viewing. So while the film-making is great, the story is less hot. I'm guessing this is why a Scorsese film was released in February.

After the movie, all the ladies were getting mani-pedis, and I somewhat reluctantly decided to get a pedicure too. After I got my pedicure, Rae told me I should get a manicure too. And so the small, Asian woman, with an indecipherable accent, clipped away twenty-three years worth of neglected cuticles. That was gross. and awesome. And my buffed nails are so shiny! Anyway, the mani-pedi was nice, but I'm not entirely sold on it, and I spent most of the time very confused about what was happening.

Grburbank & Slarue Get Mani-Pedis

Then it was time for the main event: Rae's 40th French Soiree! Slarue and I rushed around frantically getting dressed and ready, and then we hopped over to Keith's fabulous condo. I was immediately served a glass of wine, which kept getting refilled, so I was quite tired and emotional by the end of the night. There was fabulous French food, and I'll eat anything covered in a pastry. Keith asked every party to bring 40 of something as the present. We brought 40 Oreos (there are 45 in a package in case you were wondering) because those are Rae's addiction, and we were each going to burn 20 songs onto a CD, but our playlists were too long, so we only got 19 songs onto each. Happy 38th! And then there was even dancing which Keith was recording, and even though I only danced a couple of times, there is incriminating evidence of me shaking my money maker to "Baby Got Back." Oh dear.

Grburbank & Slarue Party (Ignore the wine glasses.)
Me and Two (Other) Sassy Gay Men
Grburbank & Slarue Celebrate Dearest Rae

On Sunday Slarue flew home, and I kept waiting for something good to come on HBO. Nothing did. I finally went to the hotel bar for dinner and thought I'd try a Mai Tai which was the featured drink. The bartender had no idea how to make one. So then I asked for a Cosmo, after which he disappeared into the kitchen before reappearing to make my drink. It was his first day, but still, what was the hiring criteria? I then ordered the macaroni and cheese which turned out to be a chicken and penne in alfredo mess. That wasn't his fault (except for the chicken part), but don't people know how to make decent mac n cheese? For reals.

Then I "woke up" at 4:30 Monday morning to get to the airport. I use the term "woke up" in the loosest sense because I never really fell asleep. We flew to Denver and then to Seattle. It was still morning in Seattle, and it was still sunny. I shared a shuttle van with a 20-year-old girl who was interviewing for the PhD program at the UW Med Center in microbiology or something sciency. Damn girl. Once I was dropped off, I unpacked my bags, and turned my back on the glorious weather and took a very long nap. Once I woke up, Netflix sent me Brokeback Mountain so I watched that. And then Ady put in (500) Days of Summer and then Finding Nemo. So that's what I did on Monday. Anyway, my exhaustion coupled with recycled air has led to a sore throat and other cold-like symptoms which I am warding off with Cold-Eeze, Ricola, and Day/NyQuil.

On Tuesday night I made my first trip to Trader Joe's which was okay. I'm not in love with it after one visit, but it's definitely the least money I've ever spent on groceries out here. And I picked up some 3-buck Chuck, which is okay as far as bargain wines go.

This week my 530 professor is gone somewhere (Rome, maybe?) and so we're going on optional field-trips to the SPL Main Branch and SAM. There's been mass confusion, and so Lillian and I thought we were going to SAM yesterday, but it was really SPL. And Lillian had already given me a tour of SPL which isn't even as cool as SLCPL. (Later I heard it was a boring lecture and not a tour anyway.) So instead of joining the rest of the group at the library, we decided to visit Pike's Place Market, which was my first actual visit to the Market. Now previously, I had driven through the market on my very first day in Seattle, and we had once tried to find something to eat around there on a Sunday night when all the stalls were closed. Well, here I finally was, and I was largely underwhelmed. But we found a fancy French bakery where I got a brioche and a cafe au lait. So now we have to decide if we still want to go to SAM on Friday.

This is week eight of ten of the quarter, and I have a major group project due next week in Research Methods which we haven't even started. I'm so over grad school. Well I better get to work.

Oh, by the way, I'm trying to work on a new Spring playlist. Send your suggestions!