I Found My Thrill on Blueberry Hill!

(...that's a title of a Louis Armstrong song.)

It's also the name of the restaurant where we ate Brett's "birthday" lunch.

My Promised Post About My Recent Weekend Road-trip with Brett.



It was a fun weekend. We went to St. Louis, to specific places we'd not been together before. We must have walked about 8 or 10 miles on Saturday, in downtown, and up in the University City (?) area, where Blueberry Hill - a very famous restaurant - sits among cool shops, art galleries, and coffee-shops.

It was a pretty low-key weekend, if you call "Champagne Brunch" low-key! (I learned that a Mimosa made with cranberry juice is called a Poinsettia. Yum.)

Wait, back up...

Brett's shoulder, sans monkey.

On TUESDAY (I think), Brett was in the ER with his horrible, possessed-by-a-monkey shoulder. His current job is very physical, so by the time the weekend rolled around he had movement, but was still on some kind of painkillers, and the arm was in a sling. Fun times!

It was. It is always fun times. We just enjoy each other's company, so any "activity" or "meal" or "location" is just a setting for our fun.

At one point, I noticed that we didn't seem as in-sync as usual, and I guessed that his shoulder was bugging him more than he was saying. Later, at Blueberry Hill, I got some kind of "stuff overload" from all the very cool memorabilia. So I was kind of out of sync for a while.

My wounded hero mimicking art.



But it doesn't matter! It was still a good time, with good food, and good art. In fact, it was an exhaustingly  good time.

After meandering the University City (?) area, we both needed to relax, so we headed back to the hotel. I'd received a reliable tip on a good blues club to visit in St. Louis, so we looked at the website together, saw who was playing, looked up both acts, and decided we liked the later one better. Later as in 10pm-2am...or something.

No problem. That's why we were chilling.

...and comfortable.
...and ordered a pizza.
...and relaxed.
...and didn't want to go anywhere anymore.

BUT I HAD PLANNED TO GO OUT AGAIN!
but my feet were tired.
BUT I HAD A RECOMMENDATION!
but I could lay my head on Brett's shoulder here.
BUT - DRINKS AND AN APPETIZER TO SHARE!
but I could take out my contacts if I stay.

And here's how awesome Brett is for me, knowing how I am about following through with my plans.
He put down his computer, leaned over to me where I was playing Sudoku on my phone, looked me in the eyes and said:
"You know, we don't *have* to go out again." - notice, no CAPS, just *asterisks*.
and then...
"I'm happy to go wherever you want, but we don't have to if you don't want to."

I think my logical response was, "But I really wanted to report back to [Otis] about going to this place."

But I thought about how I truly felt right then...

And I realized that Brett was right.

(I compromised with myself by taking Brett down to a hotel restaurant for drinks and an appetizer)

Added  bonus of the perfect boyfriend setting everything right:
"Otis" saw one of the pictures Brett posted the next day and commented about the location, and Brett simply let him know we didn't make it to the particular club he mentioned, but that there will be other times.

He is so perfect for me.

10 for Ten - Four to go!

I am now 4 days away from my next road-trip with Brett. Six days ago I challenged myself to write "something" every day for the intervening 10 days.

I wrote a blog post.

I have caught up with old friends - with pen and paper!
I helped a friend with her research by answering extensive questions.
I wrote my Christmas letter - well, it needs tweaking, but it's basically there. 

It occurs to me that, 'round about the beginning of the year, I made some kind of goal-thingy to blog once a week this year. I have failed miserably. This 10-day challenge I gave myself inspires me that I really CAN do it!

After tonight, my next 3 "writings" will likely be more cards to friends, and hopefully finalizing my Christmas letter.

Then, well, the deal with this weekend is...my mistake. I saw that Blue Man Group was playing in the area and Brett said that sounded cool, so we assumed the weekend was on, for here. A couple-few weeks later when I went back online for tickets, I realized I had been looking at the wrong prices. $87.00! If it was something one or the other of us was wild about I'd consider it. But I've seen Blue Man Group, and Brett was only interested because "they seem cool".

Anyway, I suggested we "go away". And that's what we'll do. Nothing extravagant, just a new adventure to try.

Now that I'm back in a habit of writing, I will post something about the weekend afterward: Promise! 

10 for Ten

In 10 days I will see Brett again.

We get together about every other weekend, but recently our weekends were back to back, plus his birthday is the 19th, so I thought it would be fun to do something on that weekend.

(actually, there was a show that weekend I wanted to take him too, but that fell through.)

Anyway, I suddenly thought, this afternoon, that it would be fun to challenge myself for the next 10 days. Over 10 days, I will do 10 specific cleaning tasks... Over the next 10 days I will cook/bake a different item each day... 10 days of a certain genre of movie.. I will shop for 10 specific items... Something.

I solicited suggestions on facebook, and succeeded in confusing people. SO...tonight is day one and I will WRITE something each day. Might be blog posts, but I also have some cards to send to people I've not contacted since my move, and I have a Christmas letter to write, and you know, Brett's birthday is at the end of 10 days - I suppose I could count a birthday card to him if I make it special.

Any thoughts? What "10 for 10" comes to your mind? Alternatively, what subjects would make good blog-fodder, in your opinion?