I’ve just returned from the St. Louis area for yet another trip to the mid-west with my girlfriend. I swear I’m 10 lbs heavier than I was before I left, considering I had a hard time refraining from anything covered in cheese or cheap cold beer it’s not surprising. I’m going to try to write about the trip and post a few pictures I took. For now, I need to get back to work and eat some salad, lots and lots of salad.

I think I’m going to get back into the habit of posting. I’ve got a new camera coming in the mail today before my annual trip to STL. It’s a Nikon D1X (kind of ancient I know). It will be my first DSLR and I’m really excited! Hopefully, I’ll be posting some more and including some images of things I do or shoot while out and about.

I broke down and registered for this last week, even though I thought I was going to skip it this year. I’ve had a great time so far, I’ve got to see some old friends (Mike Sutfin, Tonya, Tomi and a slew of others I’m probably missing). Yesterday was pretty awesome for me, I walked around with Mike, Tonya and Pushead, looking at art books, while trying not to seem like I had a fanboy crush. Later on I stop by some places to grab some sketchbooks, and check out some artists work. Not too bad. I had to work the whole weekend but it was worth it. I’ll do it all again next year.

It’s been about 10 years since I’ve had a math class. Nice job waiting forever to take math. Oh well, I guess I’m in for a refresher course. A friend of mine said something that made sense to me the other day: “Math is like a foreign language, if you don’t use it, you lose it”. So true. Wish me luck.

I’m back from the St. Louis, MO area after a week full of gluttonous eating and driving around. I feel like a gained at least 5 pounds and definitely a new respect for the midwest. I’ve been to major cities out there, but I’m really starting to enjoy the little niché places that are the right amount of modern, yet still have the essence of comfort, as small towns tend to. I loved the quiet nights and calm streets in the day, people were friendly, commenting to me–a complete stranger–on my photography of the downtown architecture. Just as soon as you found yourself in a coffee shop drinking your common cup, you could find yourself in rolling hills of green on a two lane road to the next town. The greenery at this time of the year was great, new leaves that define the color, were everywhere on moist dark tree limbs. I managed to evade a tornado and some hail, although I would have liked to experienced them in a strange way. All and all my memories are fond, I can’t wait to get back.

I’m saddened to be back home as I left my girlfriend there as she travels for the semester. It seems as if now it’s setting in that my vacation is over and I have to go back to work and school. It’s time to get back to pacing the sushi bar and spending hours on programming, not wandering the back roads of Illinois with my girlfriend.

After stuffing myself with “roasted” chicken that turned out to be fried, Ashley and I took off for a show at The Creepy Crawl. The only band name I remember was The Hard Lessons. It was pretty interesting, they were a three piece band. Guitar, keys and drums. They seem to be getting a bit of hype. The thing I didn’t like was how the set seemed scripted and it was almost like going to a show at Seaworld. “Alright thanks for coming out tonight! I’d like to introduce our amazing dolphins… alright let’s go!” We left during their last song, it was a cover that was pretty forgetable since I can’t even recall it. I was getting annoyed with the middle aged woman who wouldn’t stop laughing at the fact that the drummer for the band was a “little person”, either way it made no impact on his performance, he ripped. After that we went to The Stagger Inn, a bar with a rich history in this town. It was open mic night, enough said. I feel like I smoked a pack last night because you can smoke in all the clubs/bars/restaurants out here. Ugh. Oh one more thing, I had this thing called a slusharoo a.k.a. hurricane. It consists of shaved ice or slushie blended with vanilla ice cream! Delicious.

Hey everyone I’ve made it to Edwardsville, a city just a bit away from St. Louis, MO.  I got here on Monday and have been eating everything in sight.  The food is fried and the people are friendly, and you can smoke everywhere.  As for me I’m doing fine on the quiting thing, I’ve even gone to bars and been able to refrain after a few drinks.  I’ve yet to spend a lot of time in St. Louis, although I hope to get out there tonight and see what it’s all about.  I’m in a public library posting this so I’m going to hit the road soon.  I plan on getting out side in the 30 degree weather and taking some photos of the scenery around here.  I’ve never seen so much brick!