Its a Midwest thang, yaaa'll

Upon opening my Yahoo Home page this morning, I ran across an article citing the 11 Most Dangerous Cities in America. Surprised I was not, that St. Louis earned the top mark. I mean when I lived there, I lived and worked downtown. I borrowed my dad’s Dodge Ram pick-up truck for a week shortly after moving there so that I could haul some furniture. As I was walking to the company parking lot at 4:45PM with a co-worker, he asked, “Where’s your dad’s truck?”

I was shocked. Where in hell was the truck? We went back to the office and went back through some security surveillance tapes of the parking lot, and I’ll be…there was a man that walked up to the truck, confirmed it was all locked up, had the door open in less than a minute, and had it started within 5. No rookie I assume.

The spooky part is that this all went down about 15 minutes before I walked out. What if I’d left earlier when he was mid-steal? Eek, probably best not to think of that. They did find Dad’s vehicle a couple days later in downtown STL’s northern neighbor, a hood named “North City”. It was on fire and stripped of all its parts. The parts my dad so adored. You know, like dual exhaust and chrome everything. Of course this wasn’t exactly surprising either because what do they do in north city? They make a living by running black markets (black markets filled with stolen goodies), roam the streets in packs; daring someone to make a wrong move, and what bad neighborhood is complete without an active drug trade?!

It was interesting to see that the #9 spot was taken by Kansas City, MO. I mean essentially Missouri has an abundance of rural space, lots of lakes, a plethora of sports bars, Imo’s Pizza,  a few major universities, and only two major cities. Its major cities made this list. And you thought Midwesterners were sweet and innocent. Ha!

PASSAGE JUST SUMS IT UP FOR ME....DAILY READ

"Life is short. So break all the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret something that once made you smile." 

Don't you love how this encompasses so much with so little words? I would not be going out on a limb to say that I haven't lived my life unafraid to explore the road less traveled and being a rule breaker has been instilled in me since toddler'hood. I'd also say that I am quick to forgive. I might have to attribute that to being a Sagittarius though. We Sagi's simply don't have the patience to brew in vengeance (we will get mad when our feelings are hurt or neglected, but it’s short-lived as we think of all the things that are more fun to think about). Hmmm, slow kisser? Depends on the situation. I do love truly, but not without barriers…probably one to work on. I love to laugh uncontrollably and it needs to happen more often. Last, I’ll need to work on not having regret for something that once made me smile. I will say I don’t dwell on things I wish didn’t exist even though they once made me happy. I just wish I could make a few revisions to that experience!

In closing, here’s a good one I came across yesterday. For me, this is encouraging:

“Don’t be afraid to give up something good, and go for something great.”

I love all things that are great! Obviously I love great quotes.