Lovin' St. Louis!

For those of you who knew me when I was younger, you'd probably heard me say that when I grew up, I was going to live in a BIG city! That was my dream. I'd gone to Atlanta with my Momma when I was in 6th grade and I was hooked to big city life! I wanted to move to Atlanta, or Chicago, or New York. Walk everywhere, or hail a taxi, or take the "L". Big city life. I was so excited to be a part of the hustle and bustle of a big city.

But things change.

I realized my senior year of high school that I didn't want to go away for college. I needed my parents close. I was so used to my my parents being at EVERY one of my basketball games (Momma was my biggest fan and Dad was my favorite coach). I needed both of them close. So I chose to go to Fontbonne University here is St. Louis and stay close. Because of that, I got a job in St. Louis for the summers and met my future husband, Nick. After college, Nick and I got married and Nick had (and still does) a good union job here in St. Louis so my dreams of moving away for a few years were halted.

Not that I was upset. Not by any means. I wanted to stay here and start our life together and our eventual family. But part of me still missed the idea of living in a big city.

I work in North St. Louis right now. Since I live in South St. Louis, I drive through downtown to get to work. The last few days as I was driving through downtown, I looked at it completely differently. I realized that we do have a "big" city. It's not huge. Not like Atlanta or New York. But it's something. Everyday I drive and see Busch Stadium, and the Arch, and the Riverfront, and Lumiere. It's beautiful.

And South City is beautiful. Nick and I can walk to the Hill for dinner. We can walk to Ted Drewes for dessert. It's perfect for me. For us.

And what perfect timing for me to realize how amazing our "big" city really is! Last night, (I know this will sound corny but...) I felt such pride watching the Home Run Derby on ESPN at our stadium! It was so neat to see all the fans and the players and see our Arch in the background. It was awesome to watch the celebrity game and see all the actors/actresses/musicians/professional athletes that came from St. Louis and the surrounding areas. I love our city!

I'm excited to watch the All Star game tonight. I hope the National League wins this one (it's about time right?) and maybe we'll be lucky enough to go to the World Series again and get home field advantage. Maybe I'll even be lucky enough to go to another World Series championship game! (probably not - but a girl can dream). My point is, St. Louis is a pretty cool place to live and I'm glad my life turned out the way it did. I'm very happy to call St. Louis home with my wonderful husband, Nick, and my perfect son, Dominick.