Celebration, History, and St. Louligans with Julie

After work Friday night (10 February), I drove to Julie's house. We had dinner and exchanged gifts. I gave Julie a small heart-shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates and a card for Valentine's Day. She enjoyed the sweets, my card, and the short love letter I included with the card. In turn, Julie gave me some flowers for Valentine's and a book for my birthday three days before. She gave me "Way Beyond the Blue: The Memoirs of Colonel Jackie Jackson, USMCR, Retired," as told to Laine Boyd. I look forward to reading this soon.

We sat on the couch to watch a very funny movie Julie streamed to her TV, the 1971 comedy "And Now for Something Completely Different," which starred the Monty Python troupe.

The next morning, after breakfast, I drove us to the Missouri History Museum. Julie and I browsed among several exhibits, including Coloring STL. That exhibit spotlighted architecture in the St. Louis area and we used colored markers to color within the lines on several large drawings of noted St. Louis buildings on the walls of the exhibit space. 

We also toured the exhibits "The 1904 World's Fair" and "Seeking St. Louis," then we shopped in the gift shop. Julie and I then went to get cash from an ATM in Richmond Heights and got lunch from a Starbucks in west St. Louis before heading to the Schlafly Tap Room in Downtown West.

There, we attended the St. Louligans Annual General Meeting. Julie and I drank Schlafly Beer and bought St. Louligans scarves while chatting with fellow soccer supporters. This meeting laid out our plans for the St. Louis CITY SC season that starts later this month. This included parties by Schlafly Tap Room before and after home matches. Help was requested in painting a tifo for the home opener and for other projects. I contributed some money to the tifo effort.

After the meeting, I drove Julie home and then drove home, arriving early last night.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

Russell Stover: Russell Stover Chocolates | RSC

Monty Python: Monty Python Official Site

Missouri History Museum: Missouri History Museum | Find Yourself Here. (mohistory.org)

Starbucks: Starbucks Coffee Company

Schlafly Tap Room: Tap Room Brewpub - Schlafly Beer

St. Louligans: Saint Louligans – Supporting Soccer in the St. Louis Area – St. Louligans – Supporting St. Louis Soccer (stlouligans.com)

St. Louis CITY SC: St. Louis CITY SC (stlcitysc.com)

MPC, Missouri History Museum, and Time with Julie

Yesterday morning (21 January), I drove to the St. Louis Artists' Guild for the Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC) meeting. Writer and illustrator Lynnette Schuepbach spoke about "How to Refill Your Creative Tank." This was about finding creative freedom when you are dealing with creative block in your writing. Schuepbach spoke about factors in both creative block and creative freedom and lead exercises by the audience (both in person and via Zoom). 

In one such exercise, the in-person attendees were divided into groups of three and each group was given a sentence by Schuepbach. The group members had four minutes for each person in that group to add a sentence to that previous one to create a short story. The program was most interesting and should help me out in my creative writing endeavors.

After the meeting, I was able to get Deborah Reinhardt, co-president of MPC, to sign my copy of her recently published book "St. Louis Coffee: A Stimulating History." My brother Rick edited the book at The History Press. 

Speaking of coffee, I stopped by Kaldi's Coffee in Kirkwood on my way home from the meeting. I had a Gibraltar with a lemon raspberry scone before returning home for lunch with my mom.

Sometime after lunch, I drove to Julie's house. First, I took her to a post office for her to purchase stamps and put Christmas cards in the mail. Then, I drove us to the Missouri History Museum. Their exhibit "St. Louis Sound" was in the final weekend. Julie and I toured the exhibit, which traced the history of pop music in this area from the late 19th century until the present. It was fascinating seeing the story of the music and the personalities, venues, and media involved, ranging from Scott Joplin's ragtime to Nelly's rap. Julie and I shopped in the gift shop before we returned to her house for dinner. 

After eating, we saw the movie "Hidden Figures" that was streamed on Julie's TV. This was the first time I had seen it and I was impressed. We then called it a night.

This morning, Julie and I had breakfast before watching some episodes of "Ted Lasso" and a soccer match from yesterday. Julie's son Dave came by in mid-afternoon, along with his wife Barbe and daughter Little Bird. Dave took out the old sink and faucet in Julie's kitchen before installing a new sink and faucet. Barbe and Little Bird watching "PAW Patrol" on TV with Julie and I. 

After Dave, Barbe, and Little Bird left late this afternoon, it was time for me to take my leave. Julie and I hugged and kissed each other and we promised to keep in touch before meeting up again next weekend.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

St. Louis Artists' Guild: St. Louis Artists' Guild (stlouisartistsguild.org)

Missouri Professional Communicators: Missouri NFPW affiliate | Missouri Professional Communicators | Clayton (moprocommunicators.org)

Lynnette Schuepbach: Books * Art * Poetry – by Lynnette Schuepbach (kidsdoread.com)

The History Press: The History Press (arcadiapublishing.com)

Kaldi's Coffee: Kaldi’s Coffee - Specialty Coffee Roaster, St. Louis, MO – Kaldi's Coffee (kaldiscoffee.com)

Missouri History Museum: Missouri History Museum | Find Yourself Here. (mohistory.org)