My trip to St. Louis

I decided to take a couple of days off and visit my friend Shannon out in St. Louis for the weekend leading up to St. Patrick's. If you may remember, Shannon and I met at a mutual friend's house party back in late September. Since Shannon had bigger plans to move to New York City in December, I used to opportunity to stop dating and make a new girlfriend with whom I would go out with every single weekend.

Shannon didn't make it out to NYC when she'd expected as she didn't find adequate housing during her short vacation in December. Instead, she went back to her hometown in Misourri, and opted to find short term living in St. Louis and continue waitressing until she saved up more money for her relocation.

I left on Thursday after work, with much excitement about what Shannon had planned for us for the weekend, but I was not prepared to have a non-stop, jam-packed, vomit induced weekend.

The girl wore me out to the nub.

As soon as I stepped off the plane and into the car, Shannon whisked me away back to her place to get changed and head out to dinner, followed promptly to an 18+ club, where we quickly felt out of place. We went back home near 1:00, and I awoke completely hung over, to the worst headache the next day, which pounded in my head until late in the evening.

Oh God, how am I supposed to continue?

Shannon wouldn't take "slow down" as an excuse. We went out to the Gateway Arch the next afternoon, and stood in line to ride up the tower's arch to overlook the city from the observation deck. Later that night, we repeated the same schedule, going to a fancy restaurant and out to a club, this time, meeting a guy she'd been casually seeing, and his friends, one whom she was completely lusting over. Shannon kept whispering to me that she wanted to sleep with the friend, but wouldn't, calling it a "bitch move" to do that to her interested party's friend. It soon became apparent that the friend wanted to continue talking to me. I on the other hand, was not  interested in the least.  The friend was only good for conversation, but didn't win me over, the fact being that I was only there for a short weekend, and that my preference is for white guys (he was black.)

After one too many drinks, Shannon whispered to me "Girl, git it! Don't worry, if you want him, you should totally sleep with him, cause I can't." I simply smiled, and stopped drinking, knowing that I would have to possibly step in and drive us home that night. Shannon kept pushing the offer throughout the night, while I told her each time that I wasn't interested. Near the end of the night, I tried to hatch a plan to get the friend to drive us home so that she'd get some alone time with him.  She wouldn't accept it. She may have been completely wasted, but she still had "values" knowing that it wouldn't be an appropriate move to make to her "date" at the time. We decided to leave, with the intent of going out to IHOP so the rest of the group could "sober" up, but from the moment we walked out to the time we made it to the car, Shannon had changed her mind and wanted to go home and sleep. I decided to drive us home seeing as to how Shannon had tripped over her own two feet and fallen to the ground.

On Saturday, the next morning, we went over to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown. We had a good time and enjoyed the different groups. Afterwards we went to the Zoo and stayed until closing time, until we went home to get ready for another night out. After dinner, we went to another bar and stayed until closing time, getting robbed by one hour due to Daylight Saving Time.

On Sunday, Shannon accepted her friend's invitation to Dave & Buster's and we all went to play for a couple of hours. We had fun playing trivia, and a while later, Shannon and I went to Harrah's, the casino, to play for a while. I didn't have much luck on the slots, but Shannon won over $300 at the roulette table. I joined her and learned how to play, but only got ahead by about $40. I wasn't getting enough returns and ultimately stopped playing when I was down by $8. I still had a lot of fun though. On Sunday night, Shannon decided it would be my night to go all out and get completely drunk. She ended up taking me out to an all black club in downtown, where I immediately felt uncomfortable. "I feel like I'm on display" I told Shannon. I pushed her to get us out, feeling out of place as the only "brown and white chicks" on the dance floor. Since it was Sunday night, and no other place was open, we drove into East St. Louis, Illinois to another club that stayed open until 6:00 am.

I'm the dork on the right

Passed out on the way home

This is where I will never forgive Shannon for all the drinking she pushed me to do. Apparently, she was telling the bartender to do doubles for me, while she sipped on beer. I felt fine, until about.... well, I honestly can't remember anymore. I remember dancing with my head in her crotch, but I can't remember walking out to the car (in the rain?) and riding 40 minutes back home. I do however, remember stumbling through the front door and racing for the bathroom on the first floor and puking out my vodka cranberries down the toilet. I have never vomitted from overdrinking. NEVER. Until I met Shannon of course. I felt completely disgusted and in so much pain. The next morning, I still felt sick, and worried about my plane ride later in the evening. We went out to eat, but I couldn't muster enough courage to eat more than a few bites of my honey glazed chicken. I had hoped the white rice would help, but it only made me feel sicker. We went back home, where I finally had the chance to take a nap during my action-packed weekend.

Shannon took me to the airport amidst the light snow falling over St. Louis, and I came back home around 9:30 pm. What happened later that night was totally unexpected.....

[to be continued]