New Job, New City... so Let's Talk St. Louis

So how long does it take for one to find apply, interview, accept a job, prepare a house for sale, move, and settle down for a weekend?

About 3 months, apparently.

BTW, Google "days since april 17, 2014" and you get to a nifty app that tells you how many days.

So anyway, I don't usually talk about St. Louis on here as that's what's Yelp's been for.  Aside from our friends in the area, I'd like to take some time to point out some things that I enjoyed in my 10 years there.

La Pizza / Protzel's Deli / Bob's Seafood

Mmmmmm....

These are the 3 establishments that I will miss the most.  Not because of what they offered, but the people who worked there.  Heck, the La Pizza guys convinced the Bob's Seafood guy to let me pick up 60 lbs of live crawfish on a day they were closed.  That's how awesome they are.  I think I'll be hard pressed to find places comparable.  On top of that, these places were within 5 miles of each other, which leads me to my next point:

Regional Convenience

Sure, you could talk about what other cities have that St. Louis doesn't have, but if it were in St. Louis, it was dead simple to get there.  We lived in a spot where we could get to just about anywhere in the region in 30 minutes or less.  Also, 30 minutes typically means ~20 miles away.  Seriously.  The other day the wife was looking for things within a mile away from our place in Chicago and she was like "that's FAR!"

There's no Mitsuwa in St. Louis, but it might as well be because I have no idea how often we're going to get out that far into the Chicago burbs from the city.

Ok, I'm lying.  We have some good friends who live nearby and we'll likely use them as an excuse to go to Mitsuwa at least once a month or so.

Hometown Pride

To be honest, I think just about every single midwest city suffers from some form of inferiority complex.  Chicago included.  St. Louis is definitely not an exception, but the passion for working towards improving the area is infectious.  The atmosphere in the more urban neighborhoods is leaps and bounds more lively and optimistic than they were even a couple years ago.  The Loop, the Grove, Cherokee, even Downtown, which many left for dead multiple times in the past couple of decades, all have some pretty significant work going on that I was pretty gosh darned excited for.  

View from the top of the City Museum
http://ruff-ranch.blogspot.com/2009/07/city-museum.html

STL is one of those areas that is still transitioning from manufacturing to technology and sciences.  They definitely have some big trials coming up on the jobs front but there're enough skilled passionate people who actually have loyalty to the area itself to establish themselves and make it work.  Square, Woot, and Riot presences past or present were as much personal decisions as business decisions.

St. Louis has been good to us and I have nothing but fond memories of the area.  It will forever be the first place I've been an "adult" at and has definitely shaped my outlook on things.  See you around.