48 Hours To and From St. Louis, Second Verse

It was similar to the first, and delightfully worse!

Friday:

On three hours sleep, please, my friends, go to Laguardia Airport on Passover weekend. It will crack you up. I have never seen so many people going home, so many white, blonde people going to Aruba, nor have I have ever been that late to the airport without running into serious bad luck. God was on my side.

Nap.

Rental car. Now, I am not a car person, nor do I like to drive. But I love the rental car. I love that it wasn't that expensive, and they still guilted me into buying the extra insurance. It was a machine and I still felt bad. Near fatal car accidents do put the fear of God into you, I suppose. But still.

Drive to Broham's new house, which despite being full of vaguely offensive college items was very cute. Went for a sandwich, and got fixings for lamb curry and the fancy supermarket that looks like it was built in a mansion. Clayton, which is both a suburb of St. Louis, and remarkably like a second downtown in the really rich neighborhood, is weird. But it's okay. Watched so much 30 Rock we thought we might explode, and then watched some more. Cooked. Napped.

Out to dinner with several of Broham's sweet college friends. I felt exceedingly old, but I was so happy to not be afraid of getting carded. Actually, every time I got carded this weekend, it just made me feel worse about how old I am. But that's another story.

Saturday:

Wake up late!

Cardinal's game! The ebst deal in town is these standing room only seats in Busch Stadium where you just sit in folding chairs behind the bleachers. Wonderful. Beautiful stadium and nice folks. Everyone in St. Louis is so friendly. We had food and sat and then.....Jonny came to meet us! In a true homage to St. Louis Road Trip I, The Quinn came all the way from Chicago to explore the magic of the Lou. Also, Broham and I invented a tee-shirt about St. Louis that involves Nelly, Lewis and Clark and the Arch.

Speaking of which, our next move was to the Museum of the Westward Expansion, where we went up in the Arch. The Arch is so cool. Did you know that it is as wide at the base as it is tall? Yes, it is the world's largest optical illusion (it's an illusion, Michael; a trick is something whores do for money!)!! So awesome. I also may have bought a Laura Ingalls Wilder themed cookbook.

Home, nap.

Dinner at Bar Celona, a cute tapas place in Clayton (which is within walking distance of Forsyth, for all you lazy Wash U kids out there). Delicious food, sweet waitress who loved us and two bottles of wine! Oops! Also, there was a party of potential professional athletes and the women who wear inappropriate clothes for them. It was amazing. One could actually see a girls' thong through her dress, which I though was impossible/the point of thongs. We loved them. They did not see us.

Then we did a little Clayton Bar Hop, which was so cute. Clayton is weird, but there were several cute places. Also, the beer in St. Louis is not all Budweiser. There are several excellent breweries locally and they usually have lots of good Midwestern beers. Take that, beer snobs.

(The rest of the night involved crazy college times that made me want to go to bed and be old.)

Sunday:
Wake up late!

Brunch at Soulard Coffee Co? Jon and I went there the last time we were in the Lou, and it is so cute. We sat outside for brunch. It was really nice. We Then took a walk around Soulard and saw St. Louis' oldest standing home. I would totally run a multi-use arts space in Soulard, which is also the site of St. Louis' Mardi Gras.

Then it was quick trip to the Schnuck's and home to pack and run to the airport. I got lost, despite the iPhone maps and directions. I am an idiot. It's funny. Then I was massively late but my plane was delayed by the Pope's visit to NYC airspace.

Home. Chinese food. Sleeping.

I love the Lou.

Bar Celona: http://barcelonatapas.com/
Museum of the Westward Expansion: http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/expansion_museum.html

18 Hours in Astoria; or An Excercise in Excess

Part One: Greek Feast

In the spirit of excess that characterized America's holiday of thankfulness and sharing, I was overcome by a desire to eat ethnic foods. On Friday night, Margo and I had burritos. So Saturday night was naturally the night that I was struck with an overwhelming urge for Greek food. I tried to find a place in Manhattan, but everywhere I looked was expensive and needed a reservation. Manhattan. You old so and so, you'll never change. So to Astoria we went.

Astoria is kind of the best. I will admit that I am thinking of moving there once my magical tenure in the dorm is through. I love all the Greek stuff, the old ladies in the park, the whole scene. Also, one time, I saw a girl at brunch wearing my exact same plaid shirt from H&M. It was such a magical moment.

So on the recommendation of Peter, our Astoria resident and Greek Feast supporter, we walked over to Broadway and went to Ethos. It was so good. We had skordalia (a whipped potato and garlic dip) with beets and fried eggplant, Greek salad and saganaki. It was delicious. we also split a nice bottle of white wine from Santorini. All told, a fantastic meal. And, because we are beautiful, we got special dessert on the house.

Part Two: Astoria Pub Crawl

Peter, our Astoria tour guide and generally fun graduate student about New York, met us for a drink at the surprisingly sweet and undeniably hip Crescent Lounge. This place is cute. Like a living room. And we were sitting on this couch across from a man (I think) who was napping in an armchair and occasionally sipping from a glass of either sangria or red wine with ice. In the bathroom, which featured an adorable vintage dresser and good smelling soap, there was a vase full of New York City condoms. Although they had "sold out" in a matter of weeks, there were still plenty in Queens. Which was funny to us. These are not condoms to be used, but rather to be saved and cherished. There was also educational literature, which I will save along with my "So You Have Mono: What Now?" pamphlet that I got at the Columbia Student Health Center. Being informed is so important.

Our next stop, an Irish bar on Broadway that had Stella Artois on tap for less than $5 a pint. Magic! Additionally, they had erotic photo hunt. The team of Peter, Margo and myself got three of the top ten high scores. Peter and Margo in particular take the game seriously and are gifted players. We are considering buying an erotic photo hunt machine for personal use.

Part Three: Sleeping in a pile in a bathtub

I made enemies with Peter's neighbor because I closed the door to his apartment too loudly. Our three intrepid fun-seekers took ourselves to the couch at Peter's house, and quickly realized that Greek Feast had turned into Saturday Night Extravaganza. Then there was sleeping until 2 PM. I had homework due at 12 noon! Good lord! I was reminded of my days when I played softball and would stay out all night drinking Stella and stay in bed until 3 in the afternoon because I was so wrecked. On the way home on the N, there was this way cute girl who was wearing a cute hat and some great boots. Also, I stood on the 1 next to a man who was singing to himself the entire trip, which was, needless to say unpleasant. To quote Margo, "Don't they know who I am?"

Part Four: Lessons

1. Greek Feast is amazing, and will be repeated; also skordalia is the best
2. Astoria is great, even though it is so far from Manhattan and can be directionally disorienting for snobby Manhattanites
3. Beer is not for the faint of heart and should be entered into soberly and with the fear of God
4. Russian guys spit on the sidewalk a lot
5. Erotic photo hunt of never about the nipples

And those were our 18 Hours in Astoria.