Welcome to Shangri La

Okay so i know i said i would be posting more. I am thinking of posting more often, soon. There is a button on the Blogger website that lets a person "Sign up for mobile Blogging!". I can't even manage to sign in from the real, live internet, much less do it from my phone - i guess i'm behind a little. But this post is about St Louis, not Blogland.

My housemate and i went out for breakfast over the weekend. I happen to absolutely love going out for breakfast. Its one of my favorite treats. So i had heard about this place, Shangri La (no, silly, its a restaurant in St Louis!) that is all vegetarian or specializes in veggie food. It had moved steadily up the priority list as i continually knocked into stores, restaurants, and food-sellers who are NOT interested in providing vegetarian goods (or local, or organic). These are all things i seek out, and demand as a consumer, so as my options dwindled, Shangri La climbed the list. Anyhoo (ah, you can hear the midwest in me already!), we arrive at Shangri La eatery and i promptly declared it my new favorite place. It is ALL vegetarian (!), and it is a tricked out, retro-metro psychedelic hipster place. I felt like i had landed in...yep...Shangri La!

So we choose a table, which was surrounded by a sort of curtain fashioned from plastic half-dollar size disks strung together suspended from the ceiling so it sort of looks like you're surrounded by hanging flat bubbles or earrings. It might have been the dazzle of the curtains, but as my housemate sat down, he scooted his chair just so, and the next thing we know, a palm tree fashioned from metal, plastic sheeting and LED light ropes came crashing down onto the table next to us. We hadn't even ordered coffee yet, and i was sure we would be kicked out and told to never return. The crash spilled beverages of all sorts all over the neighbors, plus gave one woman a serious walloping (midwest again - like it?). Everyone who wasn't crushed by falling objects leapt to their feet, trying to mop things up and apologize profusely and clear debris. Meanwhile, my housemate was wrestling with his anger and embarrassment, and tried to rightside up the palm tree, which only entangled the ill-fated sculpture in the dazzling curtains. It was a mess. It was like the clowns in the circus. However, it turns out that no one at the crushed table had gotten their food yet, and the lady who got the whacking wasn't hurt (much) and so the staff let us all stay (and paid for the other table's - 6 people! - food). The amazing thing to us was that the servers wanted to (and did, in the end) leave the tree where it was - in this precarious and unbalanced situation. But my housemate is a trooper and we both decided to face down the embarrassment and sit down and get breakfast.

Now, at this point, you probably don't believe any of this happened. I'm making it up, right? There's no place called Shangri La and there's no way i was part of a destructive posse! That's preposterous! Well, you'll have to take my word for it. It happened. OR - you could call the DEPUTY MAYOR of St Louis, because (i'm STILL not kidding) that's precisely the "lady that got a good whacking". She was also surrounded by several top lawyers. The server told us this after they left - otherwise i might have had to crawl out the window of the bathroom in shame (and so they'd never associate me with this incident!). As i was chalking this up as one of my most embarrassing moments, mentally making notes so i could tell you all about it, all that kept running through my head was: Welcome to St Louis! Welcome to Shangri La! I think i'm morally obligated to go donate to the Deputy Mayor's campaign now...

Ice running

Running in Forest Park today. It was cold, windy, and icy (it snowed last night). Despite all that, it was beautiful, and overall dodging the icy patches was pretty fun, like Frogger is fun. In the time when i'm not ice running, i'm starting a list of my favorite St Louis places. Here's the first cut:

• Hartford Coffee Company. the cool cafe i mentioned in a previous post: they have a play area with toys and small chairs for kids.
• Forest Park. its huge, and i see awesome birds every time i go. also houses the Zoo, the Art Museum, a theater, an ice skating rink, and more!
  
• Saint Louis Coffee House. cafe two blocks from my house, serving coffee and mediterranean food and hookah. open late.
  
• Missouri Botanical Gardens. gorgeous. amazing. indescribable - you just have come see it.

The list will grow! More to be added soon.

The grind

Okay folks - its been a bit sporadic since i don't have internet access all the time at the moment. Here's what i did yesterday:

Shaw Nature Reserve
(wow)
(cold + snow)
4 Lazuli Buntings (a first bird for me! - WOW gorgeous ohmygod)
2 Bald Eagle (1 male, 1 female)
4+ Tufted Titmouse (titmice? giggle)
2 Northern Cardinals
Northern Juncoes
Two types of woodpecker, including (i think):
- Yellow-bellied sapsucker (sounds like Star-bellied Sneetches, Dr Seuss)
Hooded Mergansers

It was well worth the cold.

And, day before yesterday:

Forest Park (urban city park)
Belted Kingfisher
Canada Geese

I am now presently moving into my new house, and enduring the frigid temperatures that seem to have followed me from Colorado! Despite anything else, i have discovered this is a good place for birds.

Missouri progressives unite!

Here's one thing about Missouri: they haven't discovered the all-pervasive endless benefits of good, strong coffee (and their associated coffee shops).
Supporting statement #1: when i entered Missouri from Kansas City, it was earlyish in the morning and i was in sort of a desperate condition to get some coffee. The following TWO HUNDRED miles yielded ZERO (believe me, i was paying attention) coffeeshops of the sort that might be advertised on the interstate (read: starbucks). Now i'm not in favor of supporting Starbucks on principle (although there have been compelling cases made to me, such as their community and environmental support programs) - but when you're in need, you're in need and Starbucks, lets face it, at least has a consistent product that i know will taste good and isn't the same ilk of evil as, say, Wal-Mart. Back to the point here: i was jonesing for some coffee. There was none to be found (even when i did make it to St Louis!).
Supporting statement #2: i tell you its been a trial finding myself to a "coffeeshop" in the cultural sense that i am used to - this means a comfortable place with good coffee and maybe some baked goods, a place to sit for a long time, free wireless internet, a community board and some semblance of progressive minded people. Needless to say, i have found one and this is precisely the location i'm blogging from now. Thank goodness. (Note: i finally saw a Starbucks yesterday, in on of the mini-mall-big-name-store shopping corner clusters that have come to dominate every city in America.) But the real revelation here is that it seems that Saint Louis does NOT have so-called Coffee Culture! Imagine my shock and dismay (what will i do? how will i meet people? where will i find my organic, fair trade, shade grown coffee friends?) and imagine the countless other things that will probably be difficult to find - indie rock, Savage Love, low-consumption lifestyle groups.

The upshot is that there are probably other jewels of experience that are integral to Saint Louis life. I'm just trying to get myself excited about the possibilities. So far, i've got the thrill from driving around at top speeds, not knowing where i am and trying really hard not to be lost or drive into the "wrong" neighborhood. That IS actually pretty exciting, and keeps me on my toes. Also, i DID find a weekly news rag that seems pretty cool (passes the Savage Love test!) and i did find this outstanding specimen of a cafe which meets all the touchy-feely criteria listed above. I have resigned myself to the fact that its a long, tough road, but in the meantime i'm going to go nap since i've got a headache from not having enough coffee.