Last Day

we finally did go ahead and sleep in a tad on our last morning in st. louis. we had worn ourselves out what with the eating and the walking and the being lovey dovey in public. after showering and packing, we went and checked out of the hotel with our lovely hostess, shontelle, and headed out for another try at the brewery tour at anheuser-busch. a bit nippy, but altogether fun, we did the whole tour, saw the clydesdales, tasted some beer (still thinking ew on the beer), and hit up a cafe for a yummy lunch. the bobble head in pete came back out, so i'm pretty sure he liked his steak sandwich.

then came the time i absolutely least like: having to drive off in opposite directions, not to see one another for yet another few weeks. at least we know that the next time we're together it'll be his 47th birthday, and it'll be party central on a bus to a casino - something to look forward to. still, it's hard as always and of course i cried, because i am a lame-o girl. but he always helps calm me down before the drive...or at least i pretend to be. and so ends another trip together for biggz and smallz.

Upon Reading the Last Post

"lamb?! they had lamb? if i knew they had lamb i would've gotten it!"

"he said, 'prime rib? lamb?' you knew they had it!"

"i thought he said, 'prime rib, my man?'"!!!"

Day & Evening 3

i...don't remember why i didn't post last night. alzheimer's again. damn.

alright, so for our second day and third night in the STL. we actually woke up early again - we had a 10:30 am reservation for easter brunch, so we had to be showered and dressed up and all that good stuff in time to make it there. our reservation was at the eau bistro at the chase park plaza hotel, and man...we had no idea what we were in for. first of all, we woke up to snow. we had a truly icky drive to brunch, parked, and came upon a locked door for eau bistro. cussing a blue streak (him) and not wanting to walk much further in heels (me), we went inside the hotel and managed to find the bistro that had just shut their outside door but was still open.

we sat down and were offered mimosas, which we jumped on, and coffee. shown the buffet, pete and i started going through the line: eggs benedict, hot pasta, french toast, bacon & sausage, then hand-carved prime rib & lamb, an omelet bar, fresh fruit, roasted cold vegetables, prosciutto, salami, cold pasta salads, duck, oysters, shrimp, crab leg, rolls & bagels & danishes, muffins, and i'm probably forgetting something. we filled a plate, then another plate, had a mimosa, then another mimosa, then a half a mimosa that was topped off with straight champagne. finally, we hit up the dessert annex to the space, getting fresh tiramisu, cold chocolate mousse, the richest chocolate brownie i've ever had, a fruit tart, and possibly more. we must've gained 10 pounds in one meal.

we staggered out, me certifiably tipsy, and drove a couple of blocks to the art museum. we found ourselves unable to immediately leave the car, we were so full, buzzed, sleepy, and content. after spending a good fifteen solid minutes in the car, we finally were able to get out and go in the museum, where we went picture happy and had a great time seeing more of the museum that we didn't have time for last time. and i did the whole thing in heels.

next we drove home and changed into notsofancy clothes, poked around online for an idea of something to do, and decided to go play pool. we got there, and i went on to kick booty. his booty, namely. i believe i will go on record to say that i won six out of seven games. woo! i'm now taking names for students, i will teach you all my skills. leaving the pool hall i decided that my windshield wiper blades needed to be switched around since the one in front of the driver is wearing out faster than the other. of course, i have no idea how to switch windshield wiper blades. so i made the illustrious rev do it for me. which he did, in a "quick, 5 minute operation" that became 15 minutes when my windshield wipers put up a fight. but he did it, despite my honking the horn while he was working, making him jump and slit his thumb. uh...oops. it was funny though.

we wrapped up our nice sleepy easter with dinner at TGIFridays and a drink at their bar. all in all yet another successful day, only tempered by the knowledge that we would have to once again leave each other the next day. maybe, though, that sort of situation will come to an end, eventually...

Day & Evening 2

we woke up early saturday morning, as we usually do on our vacations, eager to fit in as much as we could in the day. we first hit an adorable little downtown coffee shop - of course, we did the usual coffee and crossword, and headed out aiming for what we thought was the aquarium.

we arrive at what appears to be an insane asylum for children. suspended over virtual thin air are abandoned planes, a school bus, wire tunnels, a trolley car, a massive ball pit, and various and sundry other very enticing climbing devices. walking under all of this with parents and kids screaming and climbing above us, we enter complete mayhem. children everywhere, exhausted parents, exhausted but forcibly perky employees, and the most insane environment i've ever encountered. a bit overwhelmed, we consult a posted map for the aquarium, only to find that the supposed water wonderland encompasses roughly one eighteenth of this place, this place we've come to find out is called the city museum.

we decided to wander through the store, which happens to be around the corner from ticketing and the one sad sack "guard," aka an older woman in sad bunny ears and a droopy easter tshirt. we look at the store, head out of it, and decide to just look around this crazy place. wandering off, we move far enough in to the place to realize that we have managed to sneak in without even trying. reveling in this, we went on to enjoy the entirety of the building, unfortunately excluding many, many climbing and hiding opportunities both because we were carrying large bags and because we were scared that we would disappear, never to be seen again except occasionally by other Dwellers of the Tunnels.

all in all, we had a blast. we literally high-fived on the way out for our screwing the man and enjoying a $20/person museum for free. totally going back there. because it was freezing, we hopped back in the car and drove a few blocks down to the union station for lunch at houlihan's. we achieved this after a brief driving the wrong way down a one-way driveway debacle, engineered by the chauffeur reverend. we had quite the wait at houlihan's, thanks to about 3000 college-aged wrestlers in town for the NCAA wrestling tournament championship deal occurring one block from union station. who knew that drinking a canned 40 of beer at lunch was mandated by the NCAA rulebooks? we had a great lunch nonetheless, and left union station to attempt a brewery tour, only to be crowded out by wrestlers there as well. our next try was gus's pretzels, a great buy. finally we hit up the history museum, learning about lindbergh, the early conquests of the country by various other countries and how they made their way to missouri, and the st. louis world's fair.

then we headed back to the hotel, where i proceeded to be really romantic and make great use of our time by napping for a large portion of the afternoon. i awoke to pete launching the ironing board around the room with extensive groaning and squealing (on the board's part), and a call to go get my butt in gear so we'd be ready in time for our 8:15 reservation. we made it to savor by 8:20, were seated immediately, and tried to chain ourselves to our table so we'd never have to leave. after an extensive meal of new york strip steak (that you could cut with a butter knife) and crab-encrusted salmon, followed by dessert coffees, we left beyond satiated, replenished, and desperate to return.

trying to extend our nice evening, we stopped at what was neon-lightedly exclaimed to be a bowling alley and movie theater on the same road as savor, only to search much of the building without any success of actually finding a bowling alley. literally, nowhere to be found in the building. so we called it a night, headed back to the hotel, and collapsed to prepare ourselves for the next day.

coming up: snow, bottomless mimosas, a room of desserts, art & heels, pool halls, windshield wipers, and tgi fridays.

Evening 1

my bad for not posting last night. it boils down to i was tired, the end.

alright so to recap our trip to st. louis, remixed...after calling the police, filing a report, doing a little relaxing to try to calm myself after everything, i headed out for st. louis. it's (for most people) a three and a half hour drive. for me, closer to four hours, since i manage to stop four times on that length of a drive. not to overshare, but i have the world's smallest bladder. when i later told pete that i stopped twice, twenty minutes apart, he decided then and there that we shall never road trip together, for he would have to murder me. i am sorry i do not have some backup reservoir system, i am only human.

anyway. so i got to st. louis, far ahead of pete thanks to getting to leave earlier than planned, and hit up the local schnuck's for a couple dinner supplies. we stayed at a homestead suites with a full kitchen in each room. i had planned in advance to bring and make dinner - the plan was to have it ready and on the table for him upon his later arrival. i unpacked, chopped up the chicken for the chicken tikka masala i was making (totally not from scratch, i got a kick a** sauce in a jar from world market), and watched a very interesting diane sawyer (go wellesley!) documentary on "working girls." finally, pete called to alert me that he was in the neighborhood, so i got dinner going so that it'd be piping hot for him. unfortunately we happened to be staying on the most annoying, difficult, and potentially dangerous road to get to in perhaps all of st. louis, so it took pete an additional 40 minutes longer than it should have to find the place and get checked in. needless to say, he was a little peeved when he got there. i had done all i could to maintain optimum heat levels on the food without burning it. it still tasted pretty good, though.

we exchanged some gifts before and after dinner - i had made him a little easter basket with his favorite candies and a huge hit: a white iron paperweight from pottery barn, shaped like a paperclip. apparently, this was his heart's most intimate desire. who knew? then he pulls out a bag and says he has something "little" for me for our 6 month anniversary. and hands me a zales bag...with two boxes in it. turns out the man got me diamond earrings and a diamond necklace for our anniversary - i was beyond surprised, and i have literally not yet taken the earrings off. i take the necklace off for sleep, but i have worn that every day since that minute, too. once again, i am spoiled beyond belief. in case you were wondering if that was waning.

tomorrow's tale will include sneaking into a museum, wrestlers by the thousands, a nap, a large steak, and an invisible bowling alley.

Back From Break

i'm going to, for now, pretend that my weekend didn't happen so that i can regale you with what happened to me BEFORE my weekend began, and what threatened to completely ruin all possibilities of fun with my rev.

as i documented on here, my beloved watch and a cheap but equally beloved bracelet had recently gone strangely missing from my bedside table. i am beyond OCD about my watch. i take it off every night, place it in the little leaf dish katherine had sent me, wake up in the morning, put it on, rinse, repeat. so as i said, its disappearance was truly baffling to me, but i decided to wait it out for it to magically reappear in the freezer or something, as things of mine that go missing are sometimes wont to do.

then, friday morning as i got ready for work in one of my fav new cardigans, i decided to add one of my favorite necklaces to my ensemble: the freshwater pearls that pete had sent me for...well for no good reason, but they were super special to me, for obvious reasons. i opened the drawer where they live(d) in my jewelry armoire, only to find a blank spot. my heart in my throat, i tore out the drawer, pulled open other drawers frantically, slid my hand up the backside of the drawers, and found nothing. i flipped open the top of the armoire where my rings and earrings live, and found three blank spots in the ring crevices.

silver lining: i do not have early onset alzheimer's. tarnished anti-lining: i have been robbed.

i called pete and sobbingly apologized for letting his necklace get stolen, and then tried to go to work and put it from my mind, only to burst out in tears more than once telling people that my necklace from pete was gone. i finally ended up leaving work at noon, going home, and calling the police to file a report. seeing that the cop that came was able to pick a lock to a (now much more secured) door that leads directly to my room in about 3.6 seconds, we think we know how it happened. it still sucks, and whoever you are that took my necklace, watch, bracelet, and rings, watch your back. i'm coming for you.

Thanks...

"are you excited to see my tattoo?"

"i dunno. prolly not."

"um, thanks..."

"huh?"

So Hardcore

i just got a tattoo.

a real one.

i chose a more unusual path than most, and went with all white ink. my tattoo is on the inside of my left wrist, and is a line of sanskrit that translates to drishta dharma sukha viharin. it's part of the third noble truth of buddhism, and basically means "dwelling happily in things as they are." it's often used as a mantra while meditating. i'm just going to use it to try and guide my life a little more and help remind me to focus on what makes me happy.

here's an early image of it, literally the second he took the needle away from my skin:counting the minutes til i get to take my bandage off and see it calmed down. although first i have to wash the extra white off...derek (my tattoo artist) smeared extra ink over the whole tattoo after it was finished, telling me that after they do tribal work in brazil, they put extra ink over it since they are convinced that the tattoo still soaks up more ink. he did this with a shrug and a well, let's see if it works. guess it can't hurt. more pics to come!

Grand

"so you're going on dates with other girls?"

"well...i can't just withdraw from life...."

"WHAT?!?!?"

"wait what did you say?"

Bum Crack of Dawn

this morning i went to my second job to help them finish up a floor set to redo a lot of displays in the store. i woke up at 5:30 am today to be there by 6, and as insane as it sounds i kind of like going in that early. i work on the plaza, and it is so nice and quiet to go in before the morning rush hour, at that time when delivery trucks are making their rounds, when parking garages are empty, when the roads are clear and dark. not to mention the drastic reduction in commute time - i left my house at 5:42 am and arrived at work at 5:54, including a stop at sun fresh. i think, though, that the biggest benefit to early morning shifts is that you go, you work, and the whole time you're kind of in this half-awake state. then you leave, do other things, maybe take a nap, and then the fact that you worked kind of fades away. and then in a couple weeks you still get paid for going to do something you barely remember doing. suhweet.

I Am DOING This

a textual conversation between me and the rev:

"Pilates?"

"Shit."

"Ha oh well."

"Please just try not to think of me as fat."

"Oh please."

true, i did tell him to remind me daily to do pilates. but ever since that first session, i have not returned to my smooshy blue mat in the living room, nor the smiling b*&#h telling me how good i feel while i shake and sweat. but i'm going to do it tonight, right now, without him even telling me to. mostly to make me tired so i can get up at 5:30 am and still have gotten some sleep under my belt, but also for health reasons. and maybe a little so that when he asks i can say YES I DID SO HA.

Early Onset

what do i need to do to get evaluated for early onset alzheimer's?

i can't find my watch and bracelet. i have literally destroyed my room looking for them. i even emptied my trash. yet i have the niggling sensation i tucked them away somewhere, and now i've got nothing. then, thinking back trying to track my movements, i feel like i've had blackouts. i don't remember whole sections of the past week, so i have no clue when i last saw my watch. i'm serious, something is wrong with my brain. if someone saw me set my watch and bracelet down at a random locale and wander off (as i did this past week with a gap bag full of things i bought about ten minutes previously and was lucky enough to recover), could you let me know where? and then get me to a home.

Rehashing the Re-Meeting

despite that booty, the reverend and i had kind of lost and found contact repeatedly for seven years. one of those "hey, what's up?!" every few months on aim, an occasional facebook message or two, but nothing terribly consistent. he will avow up and down and left and right that he has loved me for 50 years, but the true story is that we just sometimes connected and said hey for a bit but being states away from each other we kind of went our own ways.

then, in september 2007, i got another random aim from pete. just a hey, what's up, by the way you should come down to memphis sometime...and for some impulsive reason, i said you know what? what if i do? and i decided to go down for a fun weekend away from kc, not knowing what was coming my way. we talked endlessly on the phone in the time leading up to my visit, and then the day was there and i was on my way. i left at three a.m. from kc, drove all the way there, and finally found his little bungalow by the university of memphis. and i will never forget the hug he gave me in the middle of his front lawn, the sense that i was where i belonged, that this was goodness personified, that something was definitely going down.

the first day there flew by with a lunch out, a visit to the museum, watching a band on beale street, and general hanging out at his house. i found myself wanting him to take my hand, to try to steal a kiss, to just be as humanly close to me as possible. i made my own little move as we watched tv at his house, tucking my freezing feet under that same cute (and warm) bum. finally, he let me know that he wanted to be more than my friend and had been feeling that way for longer than the day that i had been there with him (and not the 75 years he'll claim, either). and i admitted to him that i felt the same, and from that moment we've been together. it will be six months next week, and they've been the most fun months i've ever had with someone who evolved from a good friend to an awesome boyfriend who clearly spoils and loves me who i spoil and love back. the story is going to continue to write itself from here, stay tuned!

How We Met

we are going to go back in the day for this one. i feel like illuminating, for all five of my readers and all five hundred of the rev's, how we met and how we re-met with the ensuing fireworks.

pete and i went to nerd camp together. that's pretty much the sum total of it. it was at the university of kansas, summer of 2000, i was 15, he was 16, it was hot as hell, and we were holed up for seven hours a day for three weeks learning "Writing With Power." he is, quite possibly, the first guy i've had a legitimate crush on. he smelled SO GOOD. so good i wanted to sneak into his dorm room and find out what it was that smelled so good and then buy it and keep it and smell it forever. i would work out ways to sit next to him in class JUST to smell him. he still smells amazing, and his current preferred scent is acqua di gio, of which i wholeheartedly approve. let's look back:there we are with our oddly-blurred classmates. we both were addicted to baseball hats that summer: him because he looked cool, me because i could hide my eyes from you. let's look closer:how cute were we? i was so so skinny, and he had so. much. hair. i prefer the current scruff levels he wears, to be honest. odd fact: the man never wears a baseball hat anymore. and hates girls that do. apparently present company excluded. but let's take one more look back eight years, to see what really hooked me and keeps me around these past six months:woo! and as for the re-meeting, it kind of evolved and was discussed on this blog, but i will rehash tomorrow. til then, enjoy his hot booty. another interesting fact: he is now blushing.

ThisClose

i came within ten seconds today of getting a tattoo. i even have an appointment for friday morning. but i don't think i'm going to go through with it. not that i don't want it...i do want it. but i don't think i $70 want it. despite a recent surge in funds thanks to my tax refund, i would rather spend extra dollars on a couple trips to see my rev than a mark on my wrist. for now. if someone wants to just hand me $70 for fun, i'll go ahead and get a tattoo. any takers?

No Longer Required

henry durant, beloved founder of wellesley college (sigilum wellesleiani), was ahead of his time. about a hundred years before the fitness craze of the neon thong leotards of the 1980s, durant believed in the sound body, sound mind theory. when he had olmsted design the campus, he popped each picturesque dorm on to the top of a hill. no chunky girls allowed at this school! similarly, since the beginning, we've had a gym requirement. through a combination of procrastination and a whacked-out kneecap, i needed one more credit of gym by the last semester of my senior year. for some unknown reason i chose a 9 a.m. pilates class that met twice a week. pilates sounds all relaxing, right? like one step away from yoga. probably it's mostly going to be meditating.

then i started taking pilates with a drill sergeant woman who has three kids and an approximately 12 inch, rock hard waist. when i say drill sergeant i mean a loving, attentive woman who just really put us through the motions. try pilates sometime. it will kick. your. ass. it is easily the hardest exercise i've ever done. i'm big in racquet sports - tennis, racquetball (this is how i busted my knee), etc. that's lot's of cardio, but pilates is all about muscle control. teeny little movements that make you sweat, shake, and often want to hurl. i did it for a semester and noticed an appreciable difference in my strength, graduated college, and promptly gained 25 pounds. olmsted and durant, they knew what they were doing.

now, after having lost that 25 pounds, i want to tone up. i have a mat and a pilates video, so i got back into it starting tonight. we'll see how long it lasts, but it does feel good. although this b*tch put me through the drill and i was red and huffing and puffing, shaking, joints popping, and now i'm sore. but the endorphin thing happened, the de-stress thing to some degree, so i'm going to do it again. but dang try holding that position for a second and you'll get an idea of what pilates is...brutal.

Craigslist: Pros & Cons

i was ok with craigslist til tonight. i found my roommates/apartment on it, and it worked out well. but then tonight, when i tried to post to give away my cat that is currently residing with my mom, and dared to audaciously suggest that i would need to meet the person interested before handing my cat over, the post was forthwith earmarked for removal within an hour. apparently asking to screen people is not ok, according to whomever decided to remove me. so yeah, all you dog fighters out there, let me hand you over my sweet, gentle, 10-year-old cat for bait without ever meeting you. sweet.

Garbled

i'm so tired from this week of work that i am hardly able to form coherent thoughts. coming across the radar:

i wish i could have someone make me a warm, toasted, buttered, jammed or honeyed bagel.

i want to go tanning.

i need to shower but that means like holding my arms up and standing up for over three minutes. then there's the whole having to blowdry my hair. meh.

hmmm ruby tuesday burgers look good. i am a sucker for food commercials.

my hands feel like they are full of sand.

i want an iphone. i am an unabashed consumer immersed in consumer must-have culture. they are cute.

i need to vaccuum my floor. instead, i will wear flip flops everywhere.

Heading Off to Sleepytown

last night i once again quickly hit the i'm-just-going-to-rest-my-eyes-for-2-minutzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz point after getting home from work and eating dinner, so i ended up passing out for the night at the respectable time of 10 pm. and sleeping til 10 am. apparently, i was tired.

i am now hitting the point in the evening where it sounds like a good plan to leave all my lights on and my door open and just fall asleep slumped over in bed, just because all those things are so.far.away. possible contributor to this state: a late-night trip to winstead's for fries, a double winstead, and a frosty. good old greasy diner food has a way of making you sleepy tired.p.s.: i wish the place looked like this instead of an oasis in a frozen wasteland.

Sleepover!

this past saturday night i, on a slightly ill-advised whim, decided to meet my sister and her family for dinner and from there to take my (step)niece to my house for a sleepover. she is newly four, quite precocious, quite the manipulator when she wants to be, and totally fun most of the time.

in my brilliance i decided to get her hopped up on sugar at eight p.m. only to watch a movie. we made triple chunk chocolate brownies (she stirred the mix! and she cracked the eggs! and she made brownies! she MADE THEM!), painted nails as they baked, read a book on monsters, had a bath, then settled on to my big bed (she was forced to use my leather bench at the foot of my bed as a stepping stone to get on to it) to watch "ratatouille" and gorge on brownies and milk. we were up until midnight, whereupon it was time for bed and for my hand on her back to protect her from Monsters That Will Definitely Get Her.

the morning started, for reagan, at 7:22 a.m., at which time she abruptly sat up in bed next to me and said, "katie. katie? katie. it is morning time." i groggily told her that it was morning time indeed, but still quiet time. she huffily laid back down with her feet towards the pillows and somewhat patiently tried to wait me out. i did hear several, "katie? it is still morning time. wake up now?" but they were fairly quiet and quickly shushed. 8:15 turned out to be her limit, so i clicked on cartoons and fell back asleep as she glazed over, finally waking up at 9.

that morning went on to include a trip to the nelson with mandatory treats from the store, and then a brunch out to 180 in westport with my coworker ray and his godchildren, evie & ollie. at 12 and 10 they had a few years on my 4-year-old, but they were great with her and taught her tricks with a straw and patiently listened to her regale them with how she. made. brownies. she. stirred. them! despite her finicky eating habits, she managed to down an entire salad (lettuce, cheese, and croutons, that is all, with "wanch sauce") and white grape juice.

from there we went back to her dad and my sister's house, the drive of which resulted in a severely passed out little girl, finally crashing from sugar, food, art, people, and movie rushes all exploding within her. and so ended my little experiment in parenting - although as a parent i guess i would not be able to crack her out on sugar, keep her up late, and then hand her off. way more fun this way.

Flatline

very large fennel & arugula salad with buffala mozzarella, marinated tomatoes, and romano crusted chicken breast in a light lemon vinagrette plus about half a pound of herbed bread plus my one & only amaretto sour equals me passed out cold about 12 minutes after getting home after dinner. i think i passed out from food happiness but maybe food overload. so sleepy.

Another Nothing Day

three hours of work, a session at panera with my favorite soup and sandwich and a book, a long nap, more reading, and a bowl of pizza rolls.

this was my day.

i am storing up laziness in anticipation of not getting another day off til next monday. if i had a power bar like in the video games, and the bar represented levels of laziness, i would be at about 98%, and only need you to guide me to one more non-energy pack to reach 100%. when my little animated character gets that one last pack, she will lay down in the middle of the game to sleep as all the other little evil characters just walk up to her and poke her with their monster toes. but she keeps sleeping.

Couple Days Back

i forgot to make a post about this, and it's just a short one, but i wanted to just reiterate how awesome my reverend is with some photographic evidence: this teeny envelope arrived the other day. i discovered it tucked way down in the bottom of our mailbox, and squeezed on its odd, crunchy puffiness as i went upstairs. scared to tear anything, i ripped a teeny hole in the corner, only to have a little bit of red confetti glimmer out at me. i ripped a bigger hole (as you can see). this resulted in a mini explosion of shiny red confetti on my bedroom floor that enthralled the cats. tucked in among the confetti, though, was something that made me squeal with happiness: starbuck's gift cards. the man knows the way to my heart.