Friends in St. Louis

Where does the time go?

I wanted to write about this St. Louis tweet-up when it happened, but instead found myself swamped (in the best of all possible ways) with the holidays, travel and time with our (my fiance and my) families.

One of the highlights of all of that holiday craziness was the Christmas Eve meet-up that so many good friends in St. Louis joined me for at Hartford Coffee Company in South City, St. Louis. Amidst the bustle of the Christmas holiday and with very short notice, ten of my friends made the time to get together with me.

Thank you, @VersaDave, @Nanna_J, @NickGilham, @mamarcus17, @Tojosan, @michaeltomko, @TabithaKMeyer, @STLWineGirl, @Velo_City – and of course, my fiance, Nick – for starting my Christmas weekend out warmly. It meant the world to me to see everyone while I was home!

STLWineGirl and MilliGFunk

I love the Cardinals, I love St. Louis, and I hate cancer. So when I was contacted to ask if I’d help promote an online raffle that The St. Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer has launched, I didn’t have to be asked twice.

The raffle gives you a chance to help the Cardinals kick of their 2012 season, go to an away game with the Rams or win a 2011 Cadillac SRX.

Fly With The Cardinals
Down to Florida for training camp that is. We’ll hook you up with four tickets to a pair of spring training camp games and two nights of hotel accommodations in the sunshine state. Hop in a Hertz rental with unlimited mileage and crank that AC on the way down to the stadium. Best of all, you can hang with the 2011 World Series Champs during an exclusive reception and dinner featuring a Season Preview with Mike Matheny. Rifle through your custom Cardinals sports merchandise package while listening to all the personal stories about that close series victory over the Texas Rangers. If you’re a true fan, you should be giddy with excitement just reading this. Buy in now for a chance to get all your best Cardinals’ swag signed at spring training camp.

Lock Horns with the St. Louis Rams
Are you a fan of the Rams? If you live anywhere near St. Louis, you better be! This is your chance to win an all expense paid trip with a friend to travel with the Rams team to an away game. You’ll be game-ready after flying with the Rams and riding in the official team bus with Sam Bradford and company. You’ll visit the field during pre-game warm-ups and then witness a gridiron battle on the road. This is the Ultimate Rams away game experience. If you’ve got your eyes on this prize, get into the raffle now!

How to Enter
Tickets are just $1 each for sports and $25 for the Cadillac giveaway. Visit www.rafflestl.com/sharetowin to purchase raffle tickets. And remember: proceeds go to local charities!

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About The St. Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer
The St. Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer (STLMGAC.com) is a nonprofit, charitable organization dedicated to raising funds for cancer research, prevention and care.

Sometimes being a blogger is a lonely experience. After all, a lot of us blog from the privacy of our homes. That is why I jumped on the opportunity to attend the Show Me the Blog conference in St. Louis in 2010.

Photo by Kim Wolterman

Blogging conferences might not be new around the United States, but there had not been one in St. Louis before. So I went to the meeting with no expectations, and came away from the day-long event much richer for the experience.

While at first blush some of the panel discussions did not resonate with me (I am not a food blogger, for example), the tips and experiences of all of the speakers were helpful no matter what you personally blog about.

A crowd favorite was the presentation by Melissa Gilliam (@milligfunk). Melissa was discussing blogging for a non-profit, but honestly she had on the most awesome boots! Everyone was talking about them (well, maybe not the guys in the audience), and the boots became the focus of many camera lenses as well.

In fact, for a while the boots were trending on Twitter in St. Louis! I think Melissa was concerned that her boots were more memorable than her presentation, but we reassured her that her content was just as fun and interesting as her footwear.

MilliGFunk's Boots, photo by Kim Wolterman

I began to follow Melissa and many of the other attendees on Twitter, and also Melissa’s A Small Town Girl’s Guide blog. Through the blog I have traveled with her throughout rural Missouri, run along side her as she trained for races, and viewed Colorado through her eyes.

And her blog is where I also learned that our small town Missouri gal was going to become a Rocky Mountain high girl. While sad that she was leaving the Show Me state, I celebrated her new job opportunity and her engagement to the man she loves.

Fast forward to 2011 and the second Show Me the Blog gathering, this time a two day event covering social media on day one and blogging on day two. Melissa was not able to attend due to the distance, but she was never far from our thoughts or conversation.

In fact at the pre-conference mixer on Thursday night, the trivia question was “Who wore the super cute boots at Show Me the Blog in 2010?” We had to tweet the answer and a winner was randomly selected. I am now the proud owner of a new MP3 player, and I will think of Melissa and The Funk’s Boots every time I use it.

Blogging and social media enable us to meet people we would never come into contact with in everyday life. How much our lives are broadened and enriched through this experience!

Kim Wolterman, author of Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)? Researching a St. Louis County, Missouri Home; Keys to Unlocking House History; and From Buckeye to G.I. LeRoy C. Kubler The War Years 1942-1945.

Please visit Kim’s blog at http://writeformation.blogspot.com.

You can also read her write-up about Show Me The Blog 2011 here.

Let’s face it – The stress of these super-close World Series games is a lot to handle this week. Wouldn’t it feel good to get out on Friday night for some good, hard, live rock music? If I still lived in Missouri, I’d be at Off Broadway on Friday night to see Kentucky Knife Fight.

I saw the band for the first time at Off Broadway on New Year’s Eve 2010, and I was impressed enough that I immediately emailed friends in Brooklyn and San Francisco, both of whom work professionally in the music industry, to share Kentucky Knife Fight with them.

So…On our off-night from World Series excitement, go check out some local music at a local venue. Namely, check out Kentucky Knife Fight at Off Broadway. While you’re at it, have a Schlafly for me. I’m feeling mighty homesick for the home state this week, and nothing cures the blues like some good live music.

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Who: Kentucky Knife Fight w/the Upright Animals and John Paul Keith & the One, Four, Fives (from Memphis)

When: Friday, October 21,

What Time: Show starts at 9 p.m.

Where: Off Broadway – STL

My 3 Favorite Men & Me at Coors Field, 2011

I was graced with the good company of several friends who also blog, tweet, and Yelp! about St. Louis-area restaurants; @offeatenpathstl, @4leafclovergirl, @gotarchoptions, @stllegend, @misseinstein007, @tojosan and @nanna_j.

Because I move to Colorado in a week, this dinner was a bittersweet one for me. It’s unlikely that I’ll have dinner with my St. Louis friends again before I hit the highway for the day-long trip to Colorado Springs.

Bridge has a big city meets country cabin kind of feel on the inside. Dark hardwood floors, and a beautiful bar with floor-to-ceiling shelves of wines and beers behind it, give the bar a polished and contemporary feel. Chandeliers made of tree branches and a lofted dining area make the space feel cozy and warm.

Our group was seated quickly and easily just before our 6:00 meetup time, and drink orders at the table ranged from my own Argentinian Malbec to a green apple cider and various beer selections from my companions. Having forgotten my own camera, I didn’t try to take pictures of the wonderful vegan bread and oil that were served prior to our entrees.

The menu was – surprisingly, considering the restaurant’s location and trendiness – reasonably priced. I ordered the Cuba, Missouri sandwich as a tribute to my Small Town Missouri heritage, and it was wonderful. In between two fresh buns were mojo roasted pork, ham, emmenthaler, pickles and mustard. On the side were St. Louis’s own Billy Goat Chips. All of this for $8. (For the record, the Malbec I ordered was also $8).

The space was a little bit loud, which made conversation at a table of eight guests nearly impossible. The service was great though, and the  manager stopped me on my way out to make sure that I had been pleased with the meal. He also gave me a tip-off that Bridge will be featuring a new menu soon. If you live in St. Louis, it might be worth checking out.

Bridge remains one of my favorite St. Louis bar destinations for its huge selection of imbibements. Bridge serves more than 200 beers, 55 of which are on tap. There are also more than twenty wines by the glass and over a hundred total wines.

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Bridge Wine Bar & Tap House is located at 1004 Locust Street in St. Louis Missouri. For more information about Bridge, visit their website.

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From the evening’s other blogger guests:

Tojosan’s Blog Post
Tojosan’s Photostream
Nanna_J’s Photostream

(Check out this YNPN post about the need to fill my position and a colleague’s.)

YNPN was formally organized and opened to new participants at around the same time I arrived in Missouri in February of 2009, and I became involved immediately. From helping to create and later maintain the organization’s social media accounts to writing content for the YNPN blog to helping to organize events,  my involvement with  YNPN has been a great experience. I’ve made valuable connections in the St. Louis nonprofit sector through my involvement with YNPN, and I’ve had fun in the process.

It’s time to hang up my YNPN hat, and I’d like to help YNPN fill my role on its marketing committee. I wonder if you know someone in the St. Louis area who is interested in spending a few hours each month volunteering their time and marketing skills to help this great St. Louis-area nonprofit young professionals group.

If you’re interested in learning more about YNPN, leave me a comment!

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YNPN on Twitter

YNPN’s call for new committee members

Small Town Girl’s Post on Mentorship for the YNPN Blog

This event was special for me because my beau, who lives out of state, happened to be in town. When we arrived at Nebula Coworking – a seriously rad coworking space - near Cherokee Street in South City, St. Louis, we were warmly greeted by Angela and asked to write our name and our blog’s URL on a “Hi, My Name is…”-style paper label nametag.

MilliGFunk, photo by Nick

I did exactly as instructed, my clever, clever boy toy got…well…clever. Nick isn’t a blogger, so while my name tag said, “@MilliGFunk” and “SmallTownGirlsGuide.com”, here’s what he wrote on his name tag:

"What Blog?" photo by MilliGFunk

Once everyone arrived, Angela introduced herself and explained that this course would be a wine tasting only (not a food and wine pairing), and was designed to be a sort of a Wine 101; an introduction to generic styles of wine rather than a tasting to highlight particular wine makers or vintages.

Angela gave us a handful of tips on handling wine, including tips on wine storage. She explained that wines should be stored in a dark, temperature-controlled environment like a closet or a wine cooler,and that wines shouldn’t be stored in direct sunlight.

STLWineGirl's Will Write for Wine, photo by MilliGFunk Photography

Wines shouldn’t be stored in a room where temperatures tend to fluctuate, Angela explained. And do you know which room in your house has temperatures that change the most in any given day, month or year? Your kitchen! What does that tell you? Don’t store you wine in your kitchen, silly. Store it in a room were temperatures are more stable.

And for those of you wine your wine collection sitting on the top of your fridge? For shame! It’s all kinds of hot up on that fridge, so go right now and move that wine someplace cooler.

Speaking of moving wine, wine doesn’t like being moved around a lot. What does that mean? If you’ve got a cross-country move planned, maybe you should invite all your closest friends over to help you drink you wine. Okay, maybe that’s not necessary, but your friends would probably appreciate the invitation, and there is a chance that your wine might go bad in transit.

Another tip Angela offered was the 30/30 rule for chilling wines. Red wines should be put into the fridge to chill roughly 30 minutes before you’d like to serve them. Whites, on the other hand, should start out chilled and should be removed from the fridge 30 minutes before you imbibe.

One of the things I didn’t know before this class was exactly why it is that a server will let you taste a small pour of the wine you select while dining out. It’s not so that you act hoity-toity and return the wine if you don’t like it. The only time it’s okay to send the wine back is if the wine is “corked”; in other works, if the wine has turned bad in the bottle.

Here’s where it gets neat, IMHO;  the restaurant doesn’t take a loss on the corked bottle. They sent it back to the distributor, who sends the restaurant a new bottle. And the wine maker replaces that bottle for the distributor. The lesson here is that if you’re poured a glass of wine that’s gone bad, you can return it without feeling guilty, since the restaurant won’t be hurt in the pocketbook (and neither will your server).

Missouri Rose, photo by MilliGFunk Photography

Through the course of the class, we tasted a Sauvignon Blanc, a Chardonnay, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Missouri rose, discussing the basic characteristics of each wine. Angela provided us with a helpful glossary of terms often used to describe wines, and I got the impression that all 20 of us in the class learned at least a few new things about wine.

Angela was one of the first friends I made after moving “home” to Missouri two and a half years ago.  I genuinely enjoy her classes, and I think she’s building a good business. Her mission is, “Creating a personal experience with food & wine that is approachable & accessible”, and she’s done this and more in each of the wine experiences I’ve shared with her.

Thanks for another great class, Angie!

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Sharing this class were: @cityjars, @MoEats, @kimberly9938, @ironstef, @maddie_em, @katiethatcher, @goblueELTblog, @mamamarcus17 @stlsouptonuts, @citydiva, @deliciousstl, @4leafclovergirl, @stlveggirl, @hannahviolin, @eatlocalstl and @howmomrolls

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Other bloggers’ write-ups on the Will Write for Wine Event:

Bridget McGuire’s Filling Station

City in a Jar

Every Little Thing

Hannah Violin

Michelle A. Marcus

Tony Loves Food

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To learn more about STLWine Girl, visit her online!

This event is open to any St. Louis area food bloggers or social media friends who’d like to join us, but it would be helpful if you would RSVP by commenting here that you’d like to attend. If we end up with more than just a small group, I’ll make a reservation for our group in advance.

What: A Blogger’s Dinner Meetup
Who: St. Louis Food Bloggers (and Social Media Friends)
Where: Bridge (1004 Locust Street, St. Louis)
When: Friday, August 12th
What Time: 6 p.m.

R.S.V.P. by leaving a comment

While I’ve only had the cheese plate and drinks at Bridge, I really enjoyed the restaurant’s wine and beer selection and its interior decor. If you’ve not eaten at Bridge yet, please consider joining us for this Food Bloggers’ Meetup.

Lou Holtz Speaks in St. Louis, photo by Small Town Girl

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a day-long event in St. Louis where I was able to see, among others, Lou Holtz, speak. Holtz is the former football coach at Notre Dame, so being neither Catholic nor a big college football fan, I was sure how much of what he had to say would be relevant to me or applicable in my life. Mr. Holtz was a good speaker with a great sense of humor though, and I found myself relating well to the points he made.

My mom used to tell us that no one permission to ruin our day unless we allowed them to. Maybe Mom should be traveling the U.S. and speaking to stadiums full of people, because Mr. Holtz stole my mom’s advice when he said,

What’s your attitude when people say negative things? Don’t let them ruin your mood. You’re in control of your mood. The choice you make about your attitude is the most powerful choice you have.

Mr. Holtz asked a question that really hit me in the gut. His question wasn’t about attitude, but was about failure and success.

Can you live with failure? If not, you’ll need to make the sacrifices necessary to succeed.

We live in a world right now that teaches kids to expect immediate gratification and that it’s normal to feel entitled to things or achievements. We’re afraid to let children lose, so we only play games with them that allow each kid to be a “winner”.  I’ve run three half marathons now, and not once have I seen every runner win a race. As far as I can recall, only one runner wins, and the others finish. That one runner earn the extrinsic reward of the extra medal while the rest of us understand the intrinsic value of training for and running in the race.

Training for each of those half marathons has helped remind me what sacrifice means in context of my own successes. In order to train for races, I need to sacrifice junk food, late nights out with friends and long mornings of sleeping in on the weekends in favor of getting rest, fueling my body with good foods and waking up for weekend long runs.

I make those small sacrifices because the short-terms pleasures of a night out, a sugary snack, or a lazy morning in bed mean less to me than that single longer-term goal of running my 13.1-mile race. We can’t achieve big successes without the willingness to make sacrifices along the way.

Mr. Holtz’ reference to sacrifices didn’t hit me in the gut because of  my running though – I’m already making the sacrifices I need to make in order to reach my running goals. His question resonated so strongly with me because it inspired me to ask myself all over again (because I’ve already been asking myself this a lot lately), What successes do I want in life? What are my life goals? and What sacrifices am I willing to make to achieve those successes?

Looking to the future and laying the groundwork for achieving big life goals means sacrificing the comforts of holding onto past hurts and past failures. When you’re running in a race, you can’t allow yourself to consider the possibility of failure; the only option you allow yourself is success. The same has to apply in real life, but in real life it’s exponential tougher than in a 13.1-mile race.

While I consider what Mr. Holtz asked us about sacrifices, failure and success, I want to leave you with one last idea he shared with the audience. Mr. Holtz suggested that we add value to the lives of the people around us.

There are two types of people. There are those people who lift up and those who pull down. How can you make sure that you’re adding value?

Mr. Holtz had three suggestions regarding adding value:

1. Do What’s Right.

If you do this, Mr. Holtz explained, people will begin to trust you.

2. Do Everything to the Best of Your Ability.

This proves your commitment to excellence, according to Mr. Holtz. If you do things your best, people will not only trust your actions, they’ll trust your commitment to achieving great results.

3. Always Show People that You Care.

People want to be taken care of. If you’re a manager, an executive, a parent, a friend or a husband or wife, you have people counting on you to be there to support them when they need you. Show the people around you that you care about them every chance you get.

Mr. Holtz didn’t use his time at the podium to offer a brand-new, ground-shaking, all-curing piece of advice. He didn’t hand the audience a quick fix or try to sell them on some new product or software system. Instead, he reminded us of basic tenants that most of us learned from our parents; that our attitudes define us, that hard work requires making sacrifices, and that we should leave the world a better place than we found it.

As I begin a new week here in small town Missouri, my internet is slow as molasses, I’m tired from working part of the weekend, and my allergies are going berserk thanks to the trees, weeds and flowers that are blossoming around me in rural Missouri.

It’s a perfect week for me to refocus myself on the basics that my folks taught me growing up and that Mr. Holtz brought to the front of my mind this week during his talk. I’m ready to work hard, be positive, and make a positive impact on the lives of those people who are in my sphere of influence. What will you do?