Speaking of 18 years, OTW 2009

In the previous post, I talked of when I went to college, 18 years ago this past week.  That first weekend, during orientation events, I met Melanie.  We can’t seem to remember exactly when it was or how it was that we met, but she and her roommate, A, became my best buddies right away.  Mel and I had MANY an adventure, some side-splitting hysterical, and some not as much fun, but all of them were priceless in their own way.

That first weekend we coined a phrase for which we now just use OTW.  I won’t go into a whole explanation, but suffice it to say it was all about boys.  Anyone surprised?  I was 17…what else was there?  Several years ago,  Mel, A, and I went on a trip together, then another a year later, then another.  We called them OTW trips, and they were so much fun.

In between then and now, we’ve lived a few hours apart, but now we’re only 10 minutes from each other, so we’re enjoying getting to hang out more.  I’m loving being back on old stomping grounds and that Mel is back here, too.  Even our getting together for dinner or just a hang out chat is easy, relaxing, and fun.  We don’t get to do it enough, if you ask me!

We’ve not done a trip since Melanie’s son was very young, 5 years ago this month, so we decided it was time.  A no longer comes with us, but being a duo instead of a trio doesn’t slow us down!  With work schedules and kids and husbands, we couldn’t get a weekend on the calendar, so we took advantage of Mel having a day off in the middle of the week.

Tuesday night we headed downtown St. Louis to Lumiere Place to a room gifted to us for this little mini-getaway.  Here’s the hotel atrium.  (I didn’t have my real camera, just my phone…brilliant, I know.  But it’s better than nothing, I guess.)


We checked out our super cool suite and dropped our stuff.  Then after a bit of primping, we headed over to the casino to investigate the restaurants.  We ate at a nice place, had a relaxing and totally non-rushed dinner, then we walked around a while to work off some of those calories. 

We decided to go into the casino area to just walk around and see what’s there.  Neither of us are gamblers in any way, shape, or form, but it was quite something to see and hear.  Of course, we had to experience it a tad, so we spent $5 on penny slots.  Big spenders, that’s us!

One of the machines we tried was called Wild Panda…so we just HAD to try that one.  See it in the background?


Here’s Mel’s big slot machine debut.


And she ended up being much more successful than I was! 


There was a little station of machines with Wizard of Oz characters and the super neat chairs.  Melanie is a big Wizard of Oz fan, so she stopped to take a couple pics with her phone.  A security guy gruffly told her she had to stop and that she had to delete the pics right away, while he hovered over her.  He said no pictures in the casino.  Oops, we didn’t know that.  And while they were busy deleting the pic off her phone, I snapped this one.  Daring rebel.  That’s me. 


We decided we’d leave the casino at that point… no reason to hang around if we can’t document our fun with pictures!  We went and found another little place nearby and had a drink while we did some reminiscing of old silliness I had totally forgotten about.

We finally made it back to the room after midnight.  WAY past my bedtime.  I didn’t feel well during the night, and I didn’t sleep much or well.  That was a bummer because the beds were very comfy.  We had great views of the Mississippi River right outside our window, so that was neat to peek at when I was up trying to settle enough to sleep.

Wednesday morning we got up and checked out at about 11 am.  Then we walked around Laclede’s Landing only to remember that if it’s not night time and if you’re not hungry, there’s not much to do down there.  So we opted to head back out here to StC County and get our hair done. 

We were fortunate that my stylist—actually Rachel’s stylist that I’ve glommed onto—was free for a couple slots that day. I got mine cut first (It looked ok, not great, but I like the cut), then it was Mel’s turn.  In fairness, you should know that Melanie is way not into change with her hair.  It’s been very similarly done for most of the 18 years I’ve known her…though she still seems to look cute all the time.  I just look outdated, but I digress.  Mel has ALOT of hair, and Stephanie had some good suggestions about things to try.


So after much work, including the longest blow-drying session I’ve ever witnessed, she was done and looking pretty darn smashing, I think!  She just couldn’t get used to seeing herself…it was funny!
   

We picked up her son at school, stopped at B&N for a snack and saying hi, then dropped them off at home.  All in all it was a fun, if short, getaway. 

Thanks for going, Melanie!  Biff and Sven say hello! (Remember, they’re under the bed!)  And thanks to M for keeping the girls and doing a great job at it!!