Ok, so when I said I would write posts from the road, I was wrong. It’s not that I lied about writing; I was just too busy having a good time to write anything down. Like when I said that I’d be doing a lot of writing at Nicole’s; only this time, the time I spent in the afternoon lounging was replaced with time in my car. Anyway, it’s time for me to get down to the business of actually recording what happened on my Midwestern road trip. (Warning: This is going to be long)
St. Louis
The first stage of my trip was to head St. Louis to see one of my best friends from high school, David Baum. I’ve known David for a long time, and we’ve been friends since freshman year of high school. We both did theater, and he was a member of my sister’s dance team. David is currently in St. Louis as a member of the Municipal Theater Company, and so, I was interested in going out to see David, and hopefully catch him in a show.
So bright and early on Tuesday, I took off for St. Louis. The drive itself was pretty uneventful, albeit very pretty. At least I found it to be very pretty. Many people feel that driving through very flat, open, cornfield isn’t all that exciting. But I think that it’s pretty (partially because of the time I’ve spent in New Jersey). Possibly the coolest thing about the drive was coming in to St. Louis on I-70 and being able to see the Gateway Arch. It’s incredibly breathtaking to see it over the trees along the highway in the distance.
One I got to David’s apartment; the two of us just kind of hung out and played some video games. David had a call for the show at 7:45, so we decided to just chill before grabbing dinner and heading to the show.
After grabbing some California Pizza Kitchen, David and I went to the park where the theater is. Now, the Muny (as the theater group is called) performs in an open air theater that seats roughly 11,000 people in it. The group has been performing regularly in the theater since the summer of 1919, and the theater has been in existence since 1904, when the World’s Fair was in St. Louis.
So the show David was in was a musical adaptation of the film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. David was a member of the chorus, and I felt he was awesome. Mind you I may be a bit biased, but still. The show was very good and David got me an awesome seat. David said I looked happy because of the seat, but in all actuality, I was smiling because I was so happy and so proud to see one of my friends up on stage doing professional theater. David has come a long way since high school, and I can’t wait to see him perform on Broadway.
So after the show, David and I picked up our friend, Laura Spencer, and her roommate and we headed to a bar called Beale’s to hear a woman named Kim Massie sing. This proved to be more than worth the 5 dollar cover. We listened to her sing all kinds of blues, rock, and jazz and it was awesome. Apparently, Kim Massie has developed quite a following amongst the Muny cast members, as well as all of St. Louis. I can see why. Especially awesome was Miss Massie’s rendition of summertime, which had the place just going crazy with soul.
After that David and I dropped off the girls, and headed home. We did make a brief appearance at a poker game, but it was getting late and I new I had to be up in the morning.
South Bend, In
So Wednesday, as I had done the previous day, I got up at the ass-crack of dawn and began my journey to South Bend. My reason for being in South Bend was to visit my friends Joe, Keali, and Meghan. Well, Meghan actually lives in Seattle, now, but she was back home visiting her folks. Originally, I wasn’t sure if I was going to catch Joe, since he wasn’t sure when he and Keali would be moving down to Orlando because of his new job at EA, but thankfully, he hadn’t moved yet.
I have been friends with Joe as long as I have been friends with David. We met at the end of our freshman year in high school at Camp CAEN, and we have grown to be good friends since. We attended camp three summers together, before working for three more years with each other. Through Joe, I met Keali and Meghan a few years ago, and we’ve been friends since then.
So, I pulled into South Bend in the late afternoon, and immediately went to Joe’s house. There, we hung out till Keali came over (she’s Joe’s better ½) and we continued to talk. Eventually, we got a hold of Meghan and we went to her house for a bit before going out to grab some dinner.
Now originally, I had only planned to be in South Bend for an afternoon. But a combination of my arriving later than I had planned (stupid Chicago traffic), a bad storm, and just not wanting to leave my friends so quickly, I ended up staying and crashing on Meghan’s parent’s basement couch. With the extra time, the four of us managed to get in a few games of Bowling and From Russia with Love before heading to bed.
I was really glad to spend some time with everyone before I left for Seattle. Joe’s been a good friend to me for many years, and I wanted to see him before moving west. Especially since finding out about his job. I’m very proud of my friends and their accomplishments, so getting to celebrate Joe’s job was something I was very happy about.
Man…That’s a lot of writing, and I’m not even half way through yet. I think now is a good time to stop. I’ll finish this tomorrow. Yeah…that seams like a good idea. Lata.
Life and Times
