There's a reason it's the most dangerous city in the country...

I love St Louis, I really do. It's one of few places that I'd seriously consider "settling" at this stage in my life (which is a very weird concept on its own - perhaps I'll write about that at some point). While it's got lots of charm and fun stuff to do, there's also a certain je-ne-sais-quoi quality about it. You can meet some pretty um, interesting, people - especially if you spend any amount of time in the city itself. For example the charming man who proposed to me (my first and possibly last proposal) on Grand Blvd my freshman year. I was walking back from brunch at Gries on a Saturday morning wearing gigantic pajama pants and a hoodie. He asked if I'd marry him. I said, "No, thank you."

Anyways, this past weekend I was back in the StL for wedding planning adventures, and came across another classic example of the type of charming men you can meet in StL. I was on the shuttle bus from the airport to the off-site rental car place, and there's a rather skeevy looking man at the front trying to talk to the shuttle driver. This guy is probably in his 40s, balding, greasy, thin hair combed over - a real looker ladies, let me tell you. He's asking the driver if he knows of any good clubs in the area, clubs with good dance music and an older crowd. Because you, his chances go way up with an older crowd. He's not interested in a college bar, because with the younger girls he just doesn't stand a chance, he needs a slightly older crowd to up his odds - wink, wink. Two women, maybe about 40, are sitting directly across from me, and we're all giggling a bit and looking at each other like "this guy is PATHETIC." As creepy as this guy was, I very much appreciated that he was seeking out the clubs with older crowds. The last thing I want is to walk into a bar and find him hitting on me or some poor girl my age.

So then I'm in the rental car place, getting my car, and he's talking to the next agent over from me. He asks if he can have a black car, because that's clearly going to help him get laid. She offers him the choice of 3 cars, and he says (skeezily of course), I don't know, which one do you think is the coolest? The poor woman kind of mumbles and tries to point each type of car out in the parking lot around the building so he can decide for himself.

I just wish he had turned and asked me so I could have told him just how gross and creepy he was.