Cities

Saturday was St. Louis' Soulard Mardi Gras festival. I obviously couldn't make it back, but I received the amicable and slurred voice message on my phone from RL at the end of the night: “You love Mardi Gras with (ML). It’s so fun riding the Metro.” (the Metro Link is St. Louis’ city train system.) His voicemail gave me a good laugh, and reminded me yet again how eternally grateful I am to be armed with such a vast array of cities where I’ve lived and have traveled. I was speaking with a friend the other day who has less interest in seeing places than I, and in my disbelief and amazement at her indifference about it, my mind turned over a rapidfire montage of various corners of the country I've seen. I explained to her that when I'm walking through the airport terminal here in Richmond, hanging above the baggage claim area are video monitors announcing which flights' arrivals' bags are being deposited where. It's a constant stack of city names: Atlanta, Indianapolis, New York. Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis. And so forth. Every time I walk beneath these monitors a little bit of arrogant admiration of my own experience and memories creeps in. I feel proud of the mileage I've put on this body I carry around, I explained to my friend. But going back to the Mardi Gras I shared with these two incredible people (RL and his wife ML) a couple of years ago, I mentioned it briefly way back but didn't really do it justice. I doubt I can: it's really just a giant street party, a day packed with cold beverages, crawfish, costumes, beads and an exaggeratedly risen noise level. It's St. Louis' chance to emulate what New Orleans is best at celebrating. My friend who doesn’t particularly like travel, when we spoke, dropped a comment about how she has determined all places are the same. This doesn't hold an ounce of truth from my perspective, and while I appreciate those who settle in one location and take pleasure in it, I regard my travel experiences as the fabrics stitched together that have made me who I am today. My Mardi Gras with RL and ML remains a crisp memory: from our breakfast at my apartment in the morning all the way through the day of weaving through the crowds in Soulard. ML has a uniquely wry sense of humor that can catch you off guard if you're not prepared for it, and she and I spent a good deal of the afternoon introducing ourselves to groups of St. Louisans who filled the streets like bobbing strands of colorful tiki lights. By some small miracle we even managed to run into several of RL’s and my co-workers. Cell phones didn't work; the crowd was too massive, the streets too littered with discarded plastic cups, abandoned beads, the stray feather boa dropped by mistake. It was such an epic afternoon of good friends and even a community parade which toured the streets. The houses in Soulard and buildings and bars each have their own personalities, all characters of a story, standing side by side like obedient sentinels. Almost anywhere in Soulard you can poke your head around the corner of a building and there is the Arch in the distance. As I once mentioned, the human arch was a thing we invented , and I didn't dare post pictures of friends at that time, but I've since decided it's a wonderful way to pay tribute to such great people. The human arch was our response to being long-term tourists in St. Louis. I'm using long-term tourist to describe what we are, those of us who move every year or so, stopping briefly to meet some locals, perform our duties at work, and pick up and move along to the next wonderful place. Thus far I've had the pleasure of living (as an adult) in supremely interesting cities: Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, and now Richmond. (I say supremely interesting to vaguely cover Detroit, which was a place that I loathed while I lived there, although now in hindsight I can discern its good from its bad: Comerica Park, Hockeytown, the Red Wings, proximity to Canada, Dearborn, Ann Arbor, first dates with Craig!!, etc.) St. Louis stands out clearly as my favorite city so far, Atlanta had its moments and now Richmond is showing us a really good time, too. I hesitate to announce the news yet here of our next destination, for fear it will not prove true if I declare it to be so, but I will say this much: if it unfolds as our next reality, an absolute fantasy I’ve had for years will be filled. Everything will change, from our transportation means to our grocery excursions to the size of our living space. And something I can confess will be true of this place unlike anywhere I’ve lived to date, if we move there, I will consider myself a resident from the onset. It may be unfair to those who originated there, or who have lived there for years, but I feel like everything we’ve done and seen so far, together and respectively, has culminated toward this big transition. Of course, as summer draws nearer and our time in Richmond shortens, and as the decision is confirmed, I will be able to speak more freely of this. But in the meantime, I want to thank each city I’ve seen for every thread it has contributed to my existence, every memory I have folded inside of each of those cities, the conversations exchanged with interesting people, the cramped seats to see hockey at Joe Louis Arena, the bloody martini with a pickle at the Double Olive, monstrous 6-egg omelettes at L. George’s, vegetable spring rolls at Pho Grand on South Grand, Mississippi Nights at the Landing, Cardinals fever, Midtown Atlanta’s weekend summer music festival, Little 5 Points’ Variety Playhouse (Sleater-Kinney, Tegan and Sara!), Vortex burgers, Bottom’s Up Pizza in Shockoe Bottom, and Café Gutenburg’s illy cup of coffee…and so much, much, much more…for all of these things (and I didn’t even mention the many East Coast places Craig took me while he was in Hartford and then Syracuse!) I am so grateful to cities, for their unique localities, their spices of life. Indeed I missed being at Mardi Gras this year, missed RL and ML and their endless comedy routines, but thus far the Richmond locals that we’ve met have shown us the highlights of living here. I hope I can cram in as much more as possible before the next adventure begins…