STL Thursday

Dew came in late wednesday night. He’d waited too long to pick up tickets from Japan, so he flew from Tokyo to Canada, and then to Chicago, where he rented a car and drove the 5 hours down to St. Louis. There are many things I’d like to do after a transpacific crossing. Driving for 5 hours is not one of them. While I waited, I enjoyed some of Alex’s white wine which had been opened but not finished. It would be awhile before Alex would come back, and it was going to go to waste anyway.

His mom came with him, a tiny and nice woman. I crashed on some mattresses in the living room.

Thursday morning, I was up early- I would sleep restlessly the entire trip. I spent the morning with Dew and his mom. We drove up to Winslow’s home for breakfast, then he drove me to the post office to pick up a box to send some stuff to Saori. I took the box with me back to the school, where I dropped my luggage and scrounged up some packing foam for the box from the now abandoned architecture studios.

I went with Dew back to the student store and picked up a few more things for the box, and hiked over to the school post office where I shipped the box to Germany. $20, cheap.

It was about time to check into the hotel, so I trudged with my luggage down the hill the metro and caught a train to CWE. Grandma Loretta got us a hotel in a great location, right on Euclid, and just a ten minute walk from the station.

The receptionist at the comfort inn was not having a good day. All these people kept coming in, almost like there was a graduation in town or something, and they kept on coming and they had all kinds of unreasonable demands like a room that didn’t reek of cigarette smoke.

Maybe they’re better when they don’t have that many customers. Anyway, I ran into some difficulties checking in. At first, she said I couldn’t check in because my name wasn’t on the reservation. (it was, but the person who had put it in had put it in the wrong spot), and then she wanted the card grandma’d used to pay. Well, grandma got on the phone with her, and after a short conversation, the receptionist hung up and said “what a sweet lady, but you really don’t want to make her mad.”

Anyway, I finally got in my room, and to kill some time before the Year End Show, shot some stupid photos with the regalia cap. It’s kind of a funny hat, really looks like something out of the middle ages. And I wanted to get my $100 worth out of the rental.

I walked up the street to a bar on Euclid, saddled up to the bar, and ordered some good St. Louis craft beer. Actually, I downed two pints before snagging the bus that dropped me off at the University.

The Year End Show was a little sparse as far as projects go. Actually, if I hadn’t forwarded the emails and looked over the requirements for submission with Saori via gchat, I wasn’t going to submit anything. For one, I didn’t have any of my studio work on me, and the other, I didn’t really want to hang around the office working late on stuff I didn’t really need to do.

There was a big crowd of people there, and warmed up by the the strong River City refreshments, I caught up with friends and professors, took some photos, and just enjoyed socializing. I was there for awhile. Dad and Neri and Loretta finally came from the airport and picked me up and we drove together to the hotel in CWE where Tay had also just arrived, driving in from Bloomington.

I was so happy to hear that he’d been able to make it, since I’d been warned that he might have to be in training and would only be able to see him over the weekend.

We dropped bags in the room, and walked into CWE to find some dinner. We dined al fresco at the Bar Italia, enjoying the great night weather and CWE atmosphere. Culinary overindulgence would also be a recurring theme for this trip. After a late dinner, Tay and I continued on to have a drink at a quiet cigar bar overlooking the street, and then tottered back to the hotel to sleep.