Volunteer Sunday, Movie Tonight, and Brian in Town

I had a busy day of volunteering last Sunday (24 June). First, I was in downtown St. Louis with about 100 other Enterprise (https://www.enterprise.com/en/home.html) employees in marching in the St. Louis PrideFest Parade (https://pridestl.org/). After waiting in the staging area for about two hours, we stepped off onto Market Street for the 12-block long parade. We had a truck from Enterprise Truck Rental (https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/truckrental/en_US.html#_ga=2.97405727.1020205400.1530151678-1638779697.1529286224) and three convertibles from Enterprise Car Sales (https://www.enterprisecarsales.com/) with us in the parade. There was a great crowd there, and we got a great response from the crowd. (Perhaps, this response to us was helped by the candy we were throwing out to the crowd.) I was very pleased and happy to march again (my third Pride Fest Parade) to show my support--and Enterprise's--for Lesbian Bisexual Gay Transgendered Queer (LBGTQ) people, including those I know and have come across in life. I am proud to be a straight ally for LBGTQ rights.

Right after the parade ended, I got into my car--parked at St. Louis Union Station (http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/)--and drove to the Kirkwood Community Center (http://www.kirkwoodmo.org/content/City-Departments/1856/community-center.aspx). There, I was a volunteer at Festa Junina, a Brazilian folk festival presented by Viva Brasil STL (https://www.vivabrasilstl.org/). After checking in, I served as a floating volunteer, mostly clearing dining tables. Festa Junina was very nice; this festival included Brazilian food, children's games, a silent auction, and Brazilian music played by a disk jockey (DJ). They also had Quadrillha (a Brazilian form of square dancing), for children and then for adults, plus a demonstration of Capoeira (Brazilian martial arts) by a local group, Capoeira Luanda St. Louis (http://www.capoeirastl.org/). I then helped to clean up and pack up after the festival. Overall, a long but satisfying afternoon.

Back at work Monday morning, it was busy, but we got it done. During my lunch break, I contacted customer service at CREDO Mobile (https://www.credomobile.com/) regarding my replacement mobile phone. After about 40 minutes on the phone, they were able to fix the problem with my phone not getting service. The SIM card for this phone was not set to my phone number. CREDO Mobile fixed the problem at their end and my phone is working good now.

Off work today, I went downtown to help Mom find the hotel where my brother Brian (http://www.bddrums.com/) stayed the night. He arrived the night before with Melissa Etheridge (https://melissaetheridge.com/), for whom Brian plays drums. Brian spent the day at home with Mom and I. That included watching some FIFA World Cup (https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/) matches on TV. (Vamos Brasil!) Etheridge performs tomorrow night at the Sheldon Concert Hall (http://www.thesheldon.org/). Looking forward to that. More on the concert in my next post.

Tonight, I went to the Saint Louis Science Center (https://www.slsc.org/) to join with other Missouri Aviation Historical Society (https://moavhist.org/) members in watching a screening of "Aircraft Carrier: Guardian of the Seas" (https://www.slsc.org/omnimax/aircraft-carrier/) on the center's OMNIMAX theater. It was a terrific documentary of modern aircraft carrier operations, filmed during a RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercise.

Later