over the precipice

Sunday, we all slept in until around 1 in the afternoon. I got up, downed a few aspirin, fed suki, and went back to bed around 9 am. I took Tay to get some blueberry pancakes at Winslow's home. You get a stack of three that you won't be able to finish, real maple syrup, and with the first bite, you put down your fork and say "oh my god." We brought coffee and a scone back for Saori who was getting ready to go. We then went to studio to work for a few hours- I was putting together my Approach* materials and Saori was working on her (un)Desired Object class's final presentation materials. 

After a few hours of work, Tay and I split for Soulard since its a place he's never been before. We hit 1860 for a beer and a chat. After the beer, we walked around the block to the old farmers market. The area and the brick houses reminded me of parts of Boston.

We hit a grocery store on the way to Dew's house where Saori and Dew were working on their Desired Object class. At Dew's, we cooked a box of Jumbalaya with a mix of spicy and Italian sausage from the Schnuck's deli (amazing sausage), and also a small salad. Dew cooked a tomato and cabbage soup and some pork shoulder. It was a tiny feast. 

Afterwards, we let Dew and Saori work in peace and I drove Tay to Bridge, one of my favorite bars in St. Louis. Bridge is in the downtown locust neighborhood, basically an urban, upscale wine bar which sells beer instead of wine. It was pretty quiet on a sunday night, so we sat at the bar and perused the 60-odd beers on tap and ordered a few rounds of particular brews in small glasses to just get a sense of the taste. It was fun and a good chance to catch up.

When we got home, we started watching Dune but Tay got too bored with it so we switched over to watch Disney's Robin Hood. Went to bed around 2. Saori ended up working all night with a few naps at Dew's place. 

Today, Tay and I got up late and went out to Bus Loop Burgers to take out some burgers. Bus Loop is in fact, an old bus loop station- the terminal end of "the loop" which runs through University City. It's actually less than a mile from the school but in contrast with U city which is affluent and predominantly white, this area is almost totally black and poor. Tay was definitely feeling awkward waiting for our burgers in the dingy waiting area. 

We brought burgers back for Saori and sat in on her review for Desired Object. Strange class. After a few projects, we ducked out and had a coffee at Kayak. Came back to school to find Saori just finished with her reviews and we took Tay back to the apartment to pack up his stuff. 

We drove him to the airport and sent him off to Phoenix. It was great to see him and it would have been much sadder except for the fact we'll be together again in Salt Lake in a few days.

Saori, who at this point can barely stay on her feet she's so exhausted, and I swing by the gocery store to pick up ingrediants for the studio night dinner at our advisor's house. We make a salad and Saori makes a kind of sour sauteed eggplant and zucchini. We're really late, which makes me feel really bad for keeping everybody waiting on us, especially since our advisor is such a stickler for being on time. Anyway, he's got a cool house, and two old dogs he kept trying to give away ( "Six months of health insurance and food.")

After Ben's we drove to another friend's house where a farewell party had been going on for awhile. It was good to see everyone in a bittersweet drunken state. We ceremoniously burned Philip's conceptual models in the firepit out back. Got home around two AM.   

*Approach is a catalog of student works assembled by the school. It's only selected projects, but they don't tell the students which ones they want- they make everyone submit highly specific documentation in highly specific formats and sizes and resolutions.