Monday Mug Shot

Starbucks Mug
St. Louis, Missouri

This is half of a pair of twin mugs that were purchased in 2004. The other half is in Sikeston, Missouri. It’s kinda like those hearts that say best and friends and each friend wears one, but for these two people, coffee mugs are SO much more fitting!

In 2003 after my Mom’s funeral, Kelly stayed an extra week to be with me and make sure I was okay. During that time we had many hours of reminiscing about Mom and about the bonds that years of our friendship had made between us. In the past couple of years, we’d had long phone calls when I had man trouble, when she’d had a house fire, we’d been together when she came back to Michigan when her Dad was very sick and for Mom’s funeral. We realized that our friendship, based on similarities and differences in our personalities and enriched by wonderful experiences when we were younger, had reached the point of holding each other up in bad times more than anything else. While grateful that we had each other for the bad times, we decided we needed to create some new good memories too! Before Kelly went home, we decided that in the spring, we’d do a “just us” weekend.

In April, I flew to St. Louis and Kelly drove up to meet me at the airport. The first stop was Starbucks in the airport for what Kel’s hubby refers to as “a five dollah coffee.” Carl just doesn’t understand the power of a really good cup of coffee on coffee loving women! We got our drinks, a latte for me and a caramel machiato for Kelly and sat down, smiling, hugging and planning the next two days.

We were eating dinner at the Bissell Mansion that night for the murder mystery dinner theater. We’d both requested speaking parts in the audience participation play. So of course, the first stop was the salon at Union Station Mall! We had to be pampered a little and look good for our scenes! I got a manicure while Kelly got a cut and style. After primping and stopping at Starbucks for another five dollah coffee, we went browsing at some of the Mall shops, then went to check in to the hotel.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn in a room with a spectacular view of the Gateway Arch. We unpacked and talked and got out the map to Bissell Mansion and talked some more, happy laughing girl time. It was awesome!

We got dressed and made our way to the dinner theater. What a fun dinner! The show was called The Ghosts of Casablanca. Kelly was Marlene Ditch-Rick, Rick, of course being the club owner. I was Rick's jealous lover, Yvonne Mee. We totally hammed it up! Kelly was sultry and mysterious and I was shrill and accusing Rick with a french accent! At a table of eight people, 6 new friends by the time the salad course was over, which was a good thing for me! Yvonne Mee was found dead just after the salad course! I needed friends! I especially needed friends because most of the audience, including me, thought Marlene was the killer! Imagine, killed by my best! “Zat Hozzy!”

But as it ended up, it was another jealous would-be over looking to frame Marlene. I don’t remember who he was framing her because he was in love with. Maybe it was me, everybody “vonne mee,” right? hehe

After dinner we went to a pub for drinks, laughing at the fact that neither of us went to bars anymore. But it was nice to act like a kid again. Then we returned to the hotel and did honey and oatmeal facials that we’d bought at the mall earlier. We made a point of taking pictures of each other with our hair in towels and goop on our faces. Too much fun! It ended up being a late night before an early morning.

The next day, we started the day with coffee at Starbucks and went to the Gateway Arch. The line to go to the top of the Arch was so incredibly long and we’d both been before, so we decided to check out the museum a bit and go to the oldest Catholic Church west of the Mississippi. It’s beautiful old church! We went in after mass, but as it was Palm Sunday, we got palms to take home and we both lit candles for Mom.

We returned to the Union Station Mall where we took some pictures and had souvenir pictures done with graphics and the Arch in Spring backdrop. Then we went to the Mall Starbucks for coffee while we decided on where lunch would be. That was when we each bought one of these mugs. An identical souvenir from our trip. Every time I drink from this mug, I think of Kelly! And I do drink from it often! It holds a heck of a lot of coffee! But it still isn’t big enough to hold all the smiles and good things of that weekend. To hold all of that, it takes 2 mugs!