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Saturday, October 02, 2004 Meet Me in St. Louis So in a last-minute decision, I did make it to the St. Louis Lindy Blues Exchange last week after all. And what a great decision it was, although I'm now on a self-imposed hiatus from exchanges for the next few months; I've spent about half of the last five weeks out of town for music, dancing, and work.  St. Louis is a far more interesting city than I ever gave it credit for being. Natives there seem to have a fondness for strange signs--they'll be posted in their own section on Fun Stuff eventually--like "We accept the following forms of payment: Cash, Cash, or CASH" (in a bubble tea shop), "No firearms allowed" (in a restaurant), "Please leave me alone. LIDS, STRAWS, NAPKINS, & UTENSILS to your RIGHT!" (in a pizza joint), and "Please DO NOT Throw Away Our Dishes!! (Example: Plates, Silverware, Bowls, Trays...) Thank you, Bubble Tea."
The exchange organizers certainly delivered wonderful venues as well. We danced in the Vault Room of the City Museum, a childrens museum full of hidden passages, caves, slides, and generally crazy stuff to explore (most of the dancers spent half the night playing instead of dancing), and underneath a replica of Charles Lindbergh's plane at the Missouri History Museum.  Funny Moments: #1. Matt set his drink by the antenna on top of Jeremy's Mustang, our transportation for the weekend, and didn't realize that it was outside of the car until we drove from the KFC parking lot and it fell. #2. Less than five minutes later, Jeremy nearly drove into the freeway exit sign. #3. On Friday night, or Saturday morning, as the case may be, Matt was so tired (around 6:00am) that he couldn't figure out how to turn off the light so he could go to bed. #4. While crawling through a passageway in the City Museum, I slipped and fell backward; Melanie was behind me and instinctively tried to break my fall--since she was only a couple of steps behind, she ended up with her hands on my butt, one on each cheek. #5. Again crawling, this time through caves, Melanie's leg got stuck in a crevice as she tried to navigate holes designed for small children. Most Random Moment: Picture a late-night diner full of lindy hoppers gathered around a laptop computer, forming an impromptu poetry reading... of poems about swing dancing.
Fun Quotes: "She can reformat my hard drive any day" (Matt talking about my cute, she-geek roommate that he has yet to meet). "I guess all spider monkeys are very good at Latin" (Jeremy on Erin). "I’m going to blues the hell out of some people" (Matt getting excited about the exchange). "The snow looks all nice and fluffy, but underneath it has special powers" (Robert, our host's son, on snowboarding and skiing injuries). "Jamie can be a guy’s name or a girl’s name and so can Loren, but my name--oh no, this is headed in the same direction as my milkshake" (Melanie realizing that she's not making sense). And in Chicago on the way home, from my jazz musician friend who keeps learning different ethnic musical styles, like klezmer: "You go swing dancing, I decide to become Jewish" (Bryan on pastimes). Some days I love my life. ^ Top | 10:19 PM | | | 
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