May 26th

So today I moved out of my apartment in St. Louis for good. I write this from the Amtrak train to Chicago from where I’ll catch the Metra to a station two blocks from my parents’ house! I’m doing all this with my bike, talk about convenient.

I have learned a few lessons from moving out:
Start at least a day earlier than you think you need to – at least put things in boxes, and write the address labels for all the boxes ahead
Don’t mail liquids. I wasn’t thinking since I was in such a rush (see above point).
Selling your furniture is like another job! It takes time to keep up with craig’s list emails and such. I didn’t have the time at all.
Sometimes not saying goodbye to everyone you ever knew is easier.
Saying goodbye to the people you really care about is pretty hard.

But I am really excited to get home. I have been riding around St. Louis – if you’re familiar with the neighborhoods this will make more sense, but the other day I rode from my apartment (U City) to my friend’s place (Demun area near the Dorchester), with whom I then rode to a concert in the Shaw neighborhood and left him there so that I could ride east towards the river, then to downtown, past the arch, zigzagged around Washington Ave and then came back down Olive which became Lindell. So my rough estimate would be 16 or 17 miles.

If you ever go to St. Louis you have to walk, bike, something around Forest Park. I like the outer loop – about 6.5 miles I hear, but the inside paths are great, too. You go by the art museum, the history museum, the observatory, the zoo, some restaurants, some ponds… all in all I found it to be a wonderful meditative place. And the large pond at the bottom of Art Hill dates from the World’s Fair at the turn of the century.

I’m going to miss St. Louis.