My days here in St. Louis are dwindling. This weekend, as I perused my mental checklist of things I must do while I'm in St. Louis, I realized that I hadn't yet eaten at White Castle. I have several restaurants that I have to have while I'm here: Imo's Pizza (St. Louis style pizza, which has become comfort food for me since I moved from this area, if you can believe that), Steak 'n Shake (for those amazing shoestring fries with cheese), Giannino's (for their house salad), and of course White Castle (for their amazing tiny cheeseburgers).
So Friday evening, we decided to swing by White Castle in South County on our way to the Magic House for their free night. We stood in line and ordered our food and waited what seemed like twenty minutes for our food. I was so hungry and excited to eat. My sister-in-law Karma went up to the front to see if our food was ready and it just so happened that mine was. Being the wonderful sister that she is, she grabbed my tray and was walking toward me. I was sitting at the table and saw by the smile on her face, as she walked angelically toward me, like floating, that she was bringing my food. It was just like slow motion, I watched her walk toward me, then mis-step, tipped the tray, then recovered all the food but Bianca's orange soda, which fell on its side, knocked off the top, and cascaded down the table and continued its waterfall right into my lap.
I jumped up, stunned, shocked, and didn't know what to do. My sister Betsy and Karma grabbed all the napkins they could and started dabbing. But I looked down at my now-orange completely soaked shorts and stood in disbelief. After several minutes, I recovered enough to sit back down (at a different table, as the one we were sitting at was now being doused with a dirty mop by an underpaid teenage employee) and tried to eat my cheeseburgers. They didn't taste quite as good as I remembered them being, shivering, my knees trying to knock together but they kept getting stuck together from the sticky orange soda filming my legs.
There was no way I could go anywhere after this. But we called my parents, who brought replacement clothes for me, from the waist down. I peeled the wet shorts from me and peeled my sandals still stuck on my skin and covered my sticky mess up with clean clothes. I still didn't want to go. But tonight was the free night. But Bianca really wanted to go. I said, fine, only for an hour. But we went and I soon forgot about feeling gross and sticky and Bianca had a great time. And we stayed until it closed at nine, and I'm glad we did.
But this brings me to another thought: Would I do something even if I didn't want to, just because it's free?
My other list of things I must do in St. Louis is go to all of its free attractions, which are numerous. (I don't work for the tourism marketing department for the city of St. Louis, despite how this may sound.) But St. Louis is the city with the most free attractions of any city in the U.S. While we're here, we go to the free zoo once a week (and get there before nine to ride the carousel free and get into the children's zoo free); try to see every musical showing at the Muny, to see in the free seats; go to Anheuser-Busch's Grants Farm (which is just like a zoo, but a little different nevertheless, even it is better than the Hoogle Zoo in Salt Lake); different museums, like the art museum, history museum, mastodon museum; if I happen to be here in June, I go to the free Shakespearean festival. There's so much here to do, and I love it. But am I doing it just because it's free or would I do it either way?
I don't know. Have you ever been to a restaurant when you're so full you can barely walk, yet the server brings out free dessert? Do you eat it, even though its painful, just because it's free? I don't think you want to know what my answer is to that, but I think you already do. I eat it. And I run myself silly around the city of St. Louis the entire month I'm here. It's all free. I'm like a kid in a candy store. And even though I'm miserable and have a tummy ache, I'm still eating.
Today's my last full day here, and if you're wondering, I'll be at Powder Valley, a free nature conservation area stocked with trails and wildlife. Oh, and by the way, my dad tried to entice me to go to the Monroe County Fair tonight, as it is the only free-admission night, and I declined. So there you have it, I guess I only do the free things I really want to do. But I really love to eat dessert.
