from the twenty-fifth floor...

       greetings from st. louis! i'm currently sitting at the desk in my hotel room looking out over my balcony to the magnificently lit gateway arch and the darkened ribbon of the mississippi waters below. i love the city, the lights, the diverse architectures, the strange collection of people. i love the energy. my brother and my parent's young ward are watching the end of saving private ryan while my parents sleep in the next room over. i'd probably rather have the room to myself (or almost to myself), but i still felt the need to tell you about my day. i know i owe you lots of updates. especially about the kindle. i'll have to get to that later, but know that i'm in love with it and it has been everything i've dreamed it would be. but back to my day.

       i had every intention of going to bed early last night. around eleven or so. that's early enough. i was going to get up at six this morning to talk to david. i try to do this as often as he and my sleep schedule will allow it. other friends intervened and kept me up until around four, at which time i wasn't about to go to bed for just two hours and david was online already, so we talked and he continued to brilliantly crush my dreams of becoming a grandmaster in chess. in my defense, it was between four and eight in the morning, i had had no sleep, and it's been about a year since i've played chess. that's my story and i'm sticking to it. but somewhere around eight i realized that my parents were going to be picking me up shortly, so i took about a forty-five minute nap, showered, and tried to persuade my sagging eyelids to remain open long enough to climb into the rental where they could close again for a blissful two hours as we drove to st. louis. well that didn't happen either. somewhere between my brother, my pseudo foster brother, and the road and engine noise, i could only let my head loll heavily on the headrest.

       but then the redwings won. it's been a family tradition for several years. all but my brother were born in or around detroit, michigan, so when my dad's favorite hockey team visits our not-so-new-anymore state we have to visit them and cheer them on. i was fine through the first two periods, and it was between the first two that i was able to snap this picture of the junior blues scampering around on the ice. they were very cute, which i know isn't the right word for young men of roughly ten years but i can't find another that quite fits. it was a good game, though. the wings managed to score three times within a thirty second period, which was pretty incredible, but not horribly surprising considering it is the wings and they were playing the blues. started getting pretty sleepy around third period, but no worries.

       after the game, though, we were able to walk around the city a little, including a dangerous foray into grand central station. it's st. patty's weekend, you see, and there were green drunks everywhere you looked. green drunks, i might point out, that very much prefer the color blue to the color red, especially after their favorite team was just trounced by ours. it was interesting, but it was cool. and i loved this room. crappy camera phone and crappy photographer, but it was nice.

        once we finally made it back to our rooms we were given a short respite before venturing out again to search for our dinner. currently living in collegetown, usa, i haven't seen many of the effects of the recession, but walking through downtown st. louis on a saturday evening i was shocked by how many stores were closed, how many restaurants had shortened their hours. compared to all of the other times i've been in this bustling city, it was nearly a ghost town. pretty eerie. but eventually we found a little restaurant/bar called kitchen k and i had a good meal of a caprese melt panini with homemade sweet potato fries and baked beans while sharing conversation with family and friends. it was a very interesting meal, but that part will have to be saved for either a protected post to come at a later date or you can ask me if you bump into me online. anyway, we were there for quite a while. i was getting pretty tired by the end, but we got to come back to our rooms and see the city so beautifully lit up. i know my phone doesn't do it justice, but i had to share anyway.

       not sure what's on thedocket for tomorrow. there are rumors of a visit to the st. louis zoo, which would be cool, but i'm being a little cranky with lack of sleep and i would probably rather head home. we'll see what happens. i'm pretty much exhausted. i love being in the city, though. i'm a city boy at heart, even though i've spent most of my life living on a 22-acre plot with two ponds and lots of trees. i would very much like, when i'm rich and famous, to be able to keep two places, one in the heart of a large and energetic city, another in a semi-secluded area with fresh air and brilliant stars. mhmm. it would be lovely.      

       i thought it was pretty. hope you're all having a great weekend! update on life and the kindle and everything coming... soon. maybe. you know how i am about posting. anyway. later taters! sleepy time for me... finally!