Under the Arch

Well, I'm still moving around, just slowly. No Naked Monday this week, sorry. Between working, laundry for BlogHer, and my discomfort, I wasn't inspired to share this week. Next week, though, will be Naked BlogHer! Hee.

I am doing well, no lasting damage to anything but my car. She wasn't much to look at and I guess I can be thankful that at least the car wasn't a great financial loss, just really bad timing. I've never been one of those people who thinks, if I hadn't gone to McDonald's to get a breakfast sandwich and a sweet ice tea, I wouldn't be in this situation. But when I stumbled out of my crumpled car, wearing that sweet tea, it was hard not to, especially as the green light was still staring right at me.

I've never had an accident like this before and I found that it was harder to recover from mentally than physically. I am starting to get my head back on straight, though, and thank god I live in an urban environment with public transportation. A bus and an mp3 player is all I need. ;) I should have a car of some sort next week, if nothing else, it seems I will be borrowing a family vehicle until I figure out a more permanent solution. Right now, I'm dealing with the lovely hassles of insurance companies and towing a car. Here's hoping the bruising on my ribs fades by thursday, cuz laughing, one of my very favorite activities, is painful at the moment. ;)

Thank you everyone, for the well wishes, I appreciate it more than you know. :)

I wore a new pair of sandals to work for my shift today. Can we say stupid? And ouch?

So, I was already running late to work today (forgot to eat lunch, had to stop at 7-11 for a soda and a snickers bar. mmm, snickers!) and, of course when I exited the interstate onto Lindbergh, I was unpleased to see bumper to bumper traffic. As I was inching forward, trying to make it the FEET to the mall entrance, firetrucks were shoving their way through to get to Toys R Us, which already had a couple of firetrucks and police cars out front. (Hmm, car fire?) I inched forward and snickered at the morons who kept getting in the way and yelling at the asshat who nearly hit the woman in front of me. I finally noticed the blinking traffic light ahead that was causing the backup (why, yes, I AM observant!)
As I watched, more and more police cars were weaving their way through the intersection, confusing people and running around like chickens with their heads cut off and in the back of my mind I heard the beep. beep. beep. beep. of the opening credits of 24. I wouldn't have been surprised if Keifer Sutherland showed up and commandeered my car (except that it is a piece of shit and not exactly car chase material).
Now I was curious and I noticed more police cars and firetrucks in front of Best Buy and again across the street in front of Macy's. Oh, it's ON now, nobody messes with MY mall, even if I have to call CTU myself, Jack Bauer better get his ass down here and fix it! At this point, I'm half expecting to be turned away from the mall all together, but other than another police car at the entrance I use, trying to look all official, nothing happened and I walked right in.
I sent a twitter about this unusual scene and tried to find out what was going on. No one inside seemed to be concerned and the only sign that anything was happening was the closed doors of Macy's and the darkness inside. I walked up to a man sitting at the cookie stand and asked him what was going on. This is what he said. "Oh, the power went out and they're trying to figure out what happened." W. T. F.??!! A power failure caused all that drama going on outside?! I was expecting a bomb threat or anthrax or something, but power failure?! How does that make any sense?!
Disappointed and suspicious, I went into work and related the depressing tale. And then my cell phone battery died, so I couldn't even tell anyone what I had learned. I still think the whole thing was fishy and I'm willing to bet that Jack was in Macy's torturing a terrorist. Makes more sense than a power failure in three stores that requires the services of half a dozen firetrucks and twice that many police cars. Just saying. ;)

Update!
News story on ksdk.com here....that still makes no sense. Smoke reported at all those stores...on the same street but not really close to each other? Fishy. Just saying.

Driving east on Watson, I always see this tower rising out of the hill. The building itself, is always shrouded in darkness, but the top of the tower glows like a beacon.

Being the nosy creature that I am, I HAD to know, and last night I decided to investigate. You never know how hilly St. Louis is until you go wandering in and out of residential neighborhoods, trying to keep a glowing tower in sight. My poor car struggled up and down, up and down.

Closer now.....
Ah ha!!!

Kenrick Theological Seminary or Kenrick-Glennon Seminary

DSCF2328, originally uploaded by gwenrose77.

And I take pictures in traffic...Hee. I was on my way home from work one day and I saw this on the car in front of me. I want one. :)