Of St. Louis, Shoes, Casinos, and Dogs...

Today, I finally am doing it: I'm posting my thoughts. I'm not sure yet how often I'll post here, but I hope it will be frequently. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to make separate paragraphs on this thing.

Ah, I figured it out...Darn html paragraph marks. Anyway, most of those reading here probably have known me for a while. I am a huge fan of DragonballZ and have written numerous fanfictions, all so far at: http://www.fanfiction.net/~sawnya. While I am not as super popular as some other fanfiction writers there, I've become somewhat of a cult classic. I am best known there for the Tayla of Astoria series, centering around an original character and her family and her friends living during the times when Frieza was still alive and terrorizing the universe. (Yes, Vegeta was still working for him). The first book of the series does need quite a bit of redoing, but other than that, and it being very wordy, it's not bad. Since the first book is a 112 chapters long...I hope if you're interested, you'll have lots of free time.

But I'll save my descriptions of Tayla and her world for another blog. Also, I'll touch on my other series involving oddball DBZ character romances. And yes, Roshi finally gets a girlfriend...more details later, or better yet, go read the story!

I do sell shoes for a major department store chain...about to become even more major since another company bought us out. A lot of our customers haven't been happy about it, since coupons won't be quite as frequent, and that our huge shoe clearance (which makes us struggling salesfolk quite a bit of cash) may not exist any more after this one this spring. If you live in Houston, Texas, you'll probably know what I'm talking about.

Selling shoes requires patience more than anything else, and I believe that to be a good salesperson, you should always think about the money and making the customer happy and everything else will take care of itself.

I just came back from St. Louis eleven days ago with my mother. We were visiting my grandmother and her roommate, someone who has been with us so long, she's almost like family. After years of begging, I finally got to go up in the Arch, even though my mother swore that I had been up there as a child (to this day I still don't remember). The ride up to the arch is one of the most unusual ways to go upstairs; because of the Arch's unusual structure, a regular elevator is impossible. Instead there are about five or six "capsules" that can hold up to five people, and you are enclosed in the capsule for the entire ride. It starts and stops along the way, and you can see the long, dark stairways as you ride up. It's definitely not a ride for the claustrophobic, and even I was a bit nervous going up and down.

When I got up to the Arch, it was a little hike to the very top, and I looked out of the rectangular windows (which look like a series of black dashes on the outside), and you can see almost all of St. Louis, even perhaps some of nearby East St. Louis, where I spent my childhood. The old Busch stadium had been torn down (greatly mourned by true St. Louis citizens), but I got to see the half of the new Busch stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals that was being built.

As I stood leaning towards the window, I felt the Arch sway and rock a little because it was such a windy day...definitely not a good sensation, if you're afraid of heights, and even I worried a little. A child or two up there panicked and cried, poor things. Finally, they called for those who wanted to go back down onto the "South Tram", and so I went back downstairs through that capsule again, this time accompanying a young couple.

Downstairs, this being on our last day in St. Louis, my mom, grandma, and I toured the Arch museum, following the Lewis and Clark expedition, which in that museum, is basically a bunch of colored picture of nature from different states that they traveled through after the Louisiana Purchase. The pictures of Idaho and Oregon were especially breathtaking, with the waterfalls and the ocean waves.

Also before the last day, I got to see my uncle and aunt, and I would have loved to see my other aunt and her kids, but unfortunately Aunt "G" has cut off contact with most of us, and we still don't know quite why. My grandma and I tricked my grandma's roommate, JS, into coming with us to a very good barbecue restaurant, where my uncle paid for our meals. JS hadn't been getting along with Uncle "R" lately for unknown reasons, so when she finally realized who was at the restaurant with us, she was polite, but not very happy. Ouch!

If you ever go to St. Louis, the best places to eat, if you like fast food are Steak and Shake and White Castle (gotta love those mini cheeseburgers)...and oh, yes, if you gamble and go to the Ameristar casino, it's worth the money to go to their buffet. The best part of that buffet is that they will make your pasta however you want it. (I ordered mine fettuccine alfredo with broccoli, chicken, parmesan, and mushrooms...wish I had added artichokes, but it was still so good!)

Much of the time there though, we did gamble (yes, I am more than old enough). My mom lost quite a bit of money, but thankfully I only lost about eighty dollars during the whole week were in St. Louis.

Lesson learned: don't get too caught up in nickel and penny slots; you almost never win back the same amount you put in on a single spin. I remember when nickel and penny slots only took up a corner of casinos, but now they almost occupy the entire buildings or showboats; you can't throw a rock in there without hitting one.

Anyhow, it's back to the real world now, and it's been twelve days since I came back home from vacation, back to housecleaning (sometimes ;) ) and tiny paychecks (January is a slow time for shoe sales) and my dogs, particularly my miniature chihuahua, Tony.

Tony resembles the former Taco Bell chihuahua, and his full name is Senor Antonio Fernando. When we are at the computer, he likes to chew on my hair or my houseslippers, so I always have to occupy him with ribs or rawhides. (What is it with dogs and houseslippers?)

I am currently working on the next Hope Never Dies chapter. For those few who still keep up with it, Tayla was last battling Diamonique, and Kekron and Caline had just recently learned of Ruli's death. The Armored Squadron (Coola's Elite soldiers) had just raided one of Frieza's stations and stolen the remaining ki-masking bracelets. Meanwhile, Raditz and Journa are still on planet Feo, where they were taken in by a kindly tribe who feeds and provides them with help for their journey. Journa later learns from Raditz that Feo is one of the next planets to be "cleared" for sale.

Well, I'll be going for now, to see how this first entry looks, but I may post more later. Gooden boden fro noy (goodbye for now in Astorian)!