Life Moves Too Fast

Top Five: Celebrity Crushes

Do you remember the episode of “Friends” where they each made a list of 5 famous people that they would be exempt from their significant other if they were propositioned? What, am I the only one that watched Friends in 1999? Here is my list of five celebrities my wife has given me a free pass to fantasize about:

1. Scarlett Johansson

2. Keira Knightley

3. Mia Kirshner

4. Shannyn Sossamon

5. Rosario Dawson

Top Five: Favorite Places I Have Been

1. Venice, Italy. Hands down the most spectacular place I have visited. The canals, the architecture, the way of life. Nowhere like it on earth.

2. Innsbruck, Austria. I visited here once in October, the cosmopolitan atmosphere and old-world charm surrounded by the Alps will forever be a postcard in my mind.

3. Grand Cayman, BWI.. We were married here in 2004. Have visited now four times. Hands down my favorite of all of the Caribbean islands I have visited (and I have visited a lot).

4. Wyoming/Montana. Best seen by car, from east to west. Something about the quiet vistas and open land, and the mountains growing higher and higher as you travel on as I did in 2005. Breathtaking country.

5. New York. My perennial favorite. My second home. The City that Never Sleeps. Need I say more?

——
* ‘Top Five’ is a new feature here at LMTF. Once a week I will post a new top five list encompassing everything from travel to food to tv shows. Figured it would be a fun way to share more about myself, and the things I enjoy.

St Louis: Are We Loosing Our Spot on the Map?

It was 1900. St Louis was truly the gateway to the west. The city was the fourth largest in the country. We hosted the world at the Worlds Fair of 1904. In the two centuries prior, the cities location on the Mississippi River made it famous. We were a boomtown. Settlers by the thousands moved to St Louis from points east. It was an entrepreneur’s haven. But in the last 50 years, that all has changed.

Anyone who has traveled the world will agree that St Louis isn’t the fairest of them all. We struggle with our identity as a diverse city. Our climate does not fair well to our infrastructure. We suffer from the typical image of a once industrial city - gritty and crime ridden. Efforts are slowly being made to polish her up and revitiliaze its image, but it takes time. I grew up here. St Louis is my home. I have, though, traveled extensively and have considered leaving for greener pastures more times than I like to admit. But nonetheless, I am still here.

Over the weekend, our fair denizens were informed we lost another iconic company who called us home. Anheuser Busch, the worlds largest brewery by volume, has sold out. To the Belgians no less. The talk of the town for the past two months, we are about to loose another status symbol that St Louisans held proud.

As a kid, everyone I knew was somehow connected to McDonnell Douglas here. My father worked for them for almost 20 years. The company was St Louis. But with the changing times, so came buyouts to line the coffers of shareholders when Boeing announced its takeover in 1997. Within a few years, all but a few facilities remain. My father survived thanks to previous mergers, and while our economy struggled, we survived. A few years later, TWA was bought out by American and for anyone that has found themselves flying on a 50-seat jet to Chicago or DC knows, our global reach was severely impacted then as well. I remember as a kid boarding a 747 and flying non-stop to Hawaii and Germany from St Louis. Those were the days.

I won’t deny that I fear for our fair city. As our economy tightens, and corporations merge and move, in just 108 years since we were the fourth largest dot on the map we are being reduced to a spec. As a wordly guy, I am saddened by this.

The A-B news is front page here in town. It is the talk of the local twitterverse. Even the Today Show sent a correspondent to cover the news this morning. For St Louisans who have been through this before, it feels like another nail in the coffin. Fellow twitterer @CosmosGirl even tweeted that, although she is not directly influenced by the brewer, she felt St Louis lost a little more character following the news. That is precisely how I feel. I work for a stable company. My personal economic footprint will change little by the buyout. But my town, my home, will suffer. The philanthropic impact to our city could be the most visible. For a town already with a pockmarked image, we cannot afford less dollars being infused into our infrastructure and revitalization.

We must turn our focus now to all the great plans for the future. We need to understand and appreciate our city even more. Your image of St Louis may be dark, but take a stroll through Forest Park or our History Museum and remember and embrace our town for all she has accomplished. Plenty of corporations will still call this home, adding value every day. Our economy may change and the ‘family business’ practice may be a thing of the past, but if for nothing else, give our city some credit. She’s had a long history and a bright future.

While I routinely think about moving away, for the chance to experience something new, I secretly have deep roots here that no small force can extirpate.

Beautiful Time Waster

One of my favorite ways to waste time over lunch or while waiting around for something is to browse everyones uploads in Flickr. The single page http://www.flickr.com/photos will show you all the latest uploads to Flickr from its users at that moment. Due to the sites’ popularity, refreshing every 30 seconds will produce usually a whole new selection to enjoy.

It feels like a tour around the world, seeing a glimpse of peoples lives and the things they love enough to snap a picture of. I will typically try to guess where the picture was taken (geographically). Something about the raw pictures, uploaded that instance, is interesting.

Check out our Flickr photostream while you are there.

Living with a Vegetarian

My fantastic wife went vegetarian earlier in the year, and this has become the topic du jour throughout our circle of friends and family. “How is she doing,” they ask. “What are you eating.” Followed by a constant barrage of foods followed by “Do you eat that.” I will not lie, this change has not been met without challenge. As I have continued to eat animal products, deciding on our dinner menus or a place to eat out takes more planning and thought. Not to mention more disagreement. But the general impact on my life has been rather minimal, surprisingly enough.

I have agreed to support her at home. This means our grocery list is largely vegetables or ‘artificial’ meat. We eat more pasta. We instead do a vegetable stir-fry. I was never a red-meat eater to begin with, so the drastic change at home is not as impactful as it would be to some. I do miss chicken and loathe a good number of greens (broccoli, for example, is a vile weed). Nevertheless, I have agreed to eat what she wants to make and so far we’ve avoided any epic feuds.

Eating out takes more planning. She has been met with a lot of disappointment at our favorite eateries. Most establishments we enjoy provide but one or two vegetarian options. And these aren’t steakhouses, but everything from our favorite neighborhood restaurants to the chain establishments. I think this is becoming easier as she knows where to look and what to ask for. I think future arguments will be centered around this, though, as I will have difficulty compromising on an all-veg restaurant. I need at least some cheese, a slice of turkey or something on my sandwich. I will miss the churrascarias, though!

Struggling with diet is again a focus when we travel. Who wants to watch what they eat when they are running about the world? Dining becomes less about health and more about pleasure and sustenance. You indulge, eat more than normal and do it more often. When visiting family, you have more mouths to cater to and thus cannot swing the whole family to the local Veg place. We just returned from a long weekend in Texas, for example, not necessarily a vegetarian’s homeworld. Those we dined with found the topic ultimately curious, but I was impressed at how well she has coped with these inquisitions. She had to make a sacrifice or two, but I think we fared well. While we will tend to have to go out of our way to find an accommodating place to eat, I think the impact will remain low. As long as we eat often enough that I can avoid getting crabby while searching the map for a place with an acceptable menu, I will survive.

So how do I really feel about being a vegetarian myself? The jury is still out. And will be for some time I reckon. While I think I eat somewhat healthy - no soda, little red meat - I cannot get myself to go cold turkey on some of my cravings. I still like chicken. A lot. I also enjoy fish when the time is right. And I prefer to rather succumb to what sounds good, rather than take the time to think about whether it is an animal product. So I think, for now, we will remain a divided family. Meals at home will be carefully planned, and I can still get my fix over lunch at work or when snacking.

But, I support her commitment to leading a healthy life. As long as she compromises to let me stage my yogurt and chicken wings next to her tofu and Brussels sprout, life as a mixed family continues.