Birthday and other Stuff

Well I had a great birthday this past weekend. Most of you reading this are like, isn't your birthday on February 28th? Yeah it is, but since this is the first year I haven't been near may family on my birthday, I decided to take a trip up to St. Louis (actually it was a birthday gift from John) to have dinner at Mai Lee. When I was calling everyone to let them know about it and what time, I found out that a few of my friends were going to be out bridesmaid shoe shopping for Von's wedding coming up, so that meant a little shuffling around and trying to figure out directions to the place from where they were at. Since I hadn't really ever drove around St. Louis when I lived there, I was at a loss as to the directions so I ended up trying to relay the directions. Bad idea. They got lost and I ended up handing the cell over to dad so that he could get them there. In the meantime, we decided to go ahead and order because both John and I knew that we would have more than enough food to go around. After they got there they had just about a little of everything left on the table (which was all right considering all fo the food we had remaining).

After dinner John and I took T back to her house and then headed over to the Cheshire Lodge. If you've never stayed there, it's definitely worth staying there at some point in time, even if it's not one of the suites. A warning though, they have a quiet time since the room walls are so thin (and it's sometimes more "sorrid" past). It's inside is the same style of theming as the outside. It's supposed to look like an old English lodge. I've never been in an English Lodge but it definitely evokes that feel. I have fallen in love with the place and may think about possibly opening a much smaller type of place (maybe will all suites, I don't know). Unfortunately John and I did not really bother with the pool since I felt like we would be rushing if we did. So it was time to check out and head over to Einstein Bagels just down the street for breakfast(since they don't have a continental breakfast on the weekends).

From there I called my Aunt Helen to see if we could stop by to say hi. After that call we had a little time to head over to Both Whole Foods and REI to get lunch snacks since we had time before going to Aunt Helen's and didn't have much time before the play at the History Museum. At REI I bought a book called "Vegetarian Backpackin' Snackin' ." Before I had headed over there I had told John that I was just going to browse so when he go back he gave me a little flack until I pulled it out. "Awww..you got it for me," he said. I figured it was much cheaper to make the meals in the book when we start going hiking/backpacking than it would be to buy those premade packets that people usually get (considering that we would either have to pay for gas to get up to St. Louis or pay for the shipping on the packets).

After that we went over to my great aunt Helen's to visit her since I haven't seen her since dad's wedding and she had broken her right upper arm a little after Christmas. She wasn't in a sling, but was still swollen so she wasn't taking any chances. She told me that my Aunt Beverly had stayed there one time so long ago and after the second day staying there she asked Aunt Helen if she could stay at her place because apparently there were a lot of people partying in the room and since there wasn't any sound-proofed walls in the place she couldn't stand it. I will have to say that it was much quieter when John and I stayed there than that story.

From there we went over to the History Museum to get tickets to "Dancing on Air: Katherine Dunham". It was amazing. She got her degree in Anthropology and studied the cultures on the island of Haiti. When she moved to back to the US created her own dance troope. The play itself had excerpts from some of her dances which I found fascinating. For those of you that don't know, Katherine Dunham makes her home in East St. Louis and is still going strong at 95 years old!

After we were done there, John and I headed over to Westport Plaza for dinner at the Drunken Fish before heading back to Cape Girardeau. The restaurant really wasn't John's style but the food was really good in my opinion. I had this philly roll that was fried in tempura and something else (I don't remember off hand what t was) that was brought out in a martini glass and was garnished with apple slices. For dessert I had this truffle-like dessert that was a rice patty filled with chocolate ice cream and good syrup formed in the shape of a tree.

My birthday proper was actually kind of anticlimactic. I went to school, came home for lunch where John surprised me with a DVD and poster from The Mates of State; the first band we went to see together and the band in which we went to see when we picked things back up after splitting (don't ever want that to happen again), and a sampler box of cheesecake from a really good cheesecake bakery down here called "My Daddy's Cheesecake." I have actually asked them once if they would be able to do a vegan version of it but like all of the other bakeries down here, they shut me out and gave my a nondescript answer (basically a way to say "No" without answering, it's one of my pet-peeves).

That evening it was off to work to be trained in the fabrics department. for those of you who don't know, I have been feeling kind of not really into my job and have decided that the only job that I would work at where money would not be the issue would be one where I love more job. I am taking it opportunity because moving to a department is a big step and not only more responsibilities but hopefully more future benefits. We'll see though. One big perk is that I have every other Saturday off so John and I may be able to go up to St. Genevieve or St. Louis or wherever we decide for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it.