My friend Dith (yes, I do call her Dith. Let's play guess what name that's short for) is a photographer like myself. A few weeks ago she and I had made plans to photograph downtown, but it happened to be 95 degrees that day. Yesterday we finally had a free day together. Wait. Okay let's be honest, most of my days are free, but she happened to have a day off work. We met at her house in the morning and I brought a lot with me. The number one thing we wanted to try was my wedding dress in a non-wedding setting. I had an idea for the Zoo and she thought that sounded great...
I woke up at 715. Snoozed until 725 and then showered, did makeup and hair, and got all my stuff together to head to Dith's house. I stopped for coffee- mmmm "Mighty Mocha" at QT, and made it to Dith's house at 905, a full ten minutes early! My GPS was great, especially since it has been gay and not working the last two weeks which is UBER unhelpful when you'd like it to get you somewhere. I don't like the new Australian guy's voice that I downloaded the night before, I'm going to have to find a better one. So for now I resorted back to "John" or whatever the male US voice is. He still can't say "Manchester" or "1E". Ischester. Oneeee. So amusing.
Dith just moved in with a friend who's getting married next summer. The girl bought a beautiful and very big condo on Lindell. It's so pretty inside, she's a nice decorator. Dith says she's super sweet, I didn't get to meet her because she was out of town for the holiday weekend. After looking at all the clothes I brought with me (a full suitcase, two full hangers, and a bag of shoes) we chose a plan of action. I put on the wedding dress and assorted accessories with my red ruby slippers as shoes and we went to the zoo.
We took some pics in front of the monkeys, then in front of some flamingos and then we went to the Butterfly part of the Insectarium. And the guy working there saw us photographing and trying to get close to the butterflies, so he started bringing them to me. He'd catch them with their wings together, and bring them to me to see if they'd sit on my hand. But apparently the sunlight today made them extra active and we had a hard time getting them to sit on me. And then, he brought me two that had just come out of the cocoon so they were still drying out and were very calm. They sat on my hands and were so big!! Oh it was so neat. Their little bodies were super fuzzy and looked so wonderfully soft. Their wings are different patterns on each side, did you know that? I totally didn't. The bright colorful stuff is on top obviously, but they still had a pretty shimmer underneath.
We got photos of them on my shoulders, on my ring hand (gotta show off the ring) and even on the back of my dress on the buttons. It was so totally cool, and then the one on my shoulder began to crawl and it took all of my modeling skills to not giggle as it tickled my neck. We were photographing a serious pose with the other butterfly on my other shoulder/hand. So this one had to be ignored and I had a hard time pretending it wasn't happening. Eventually he crawled up into my hair and I'm pretty sure Dith got a photo of it hanging off the end like a barrette. Freaking awesome. I was sitting in sunlight with giant flowers behind me, plus my bright white dress, and eventually they were all around me. People kept staring at me. One little girl came up and asked quietly "Is that a wedding dress?" And when I responded, "Yes it is" she said, "I KNEW IT!" and then she ran off. The worker guy was such a good resource, I wish I knew his name and I'd send him a card to say thank you. He apparently just got married too, at the zoo (which is super expensive) and they had photographs in the Butterfly house as well.
After that, we changed (I into a black dress and Dith into a new shirt because by then we were both sweaty, silly warm butterfly house) and went to the Children's Zoo ($4 a person). Now here I knew there was an area of fountains that shoot up out of the ground and how fun is that to play in? So I did. Lol. I even sat in the middle of them. But it was still cuter to watch the babies play. They had more fun than I did.
We decided we were done with the zoo and I air dried as we walked to the car. The dress was two layers, the top one very thin, so it dried quickly which was nice for Dith's car. Carting that suitcase all the way up the hill to our free parallel parking spot totally sucked. And halfway we saw a wooden staircase put into the side of a hill, and Dith made me climb to the top to pose some more. I gave her attitude, and I didn't fake it. I was like, "Argh! I'm tired and hungry and you're making me model again"- this I said all with my eyes.
She bought me lunch. We went to Kayak (?) which is a hippie coffee joint across from Wash U, but the food was good and I didn't have to pay. And that part was great. Then we went back to Forest Park to another fountain that people play in, it's right across from the Boathouse. I changed in the car (I'm just not one for modesty, I moved fast and I had a bra on. Who's to see?) into jeans and a bright top with a hat and sunglasses and we photographed dry for a bit. Then she said, Okay well get in.
Hesitation.
I mean sure, there are kids playing in this fountain and the water is clear.... but still. I hesitated. So I stepped in and we photographed just kind of wet and then I went for it and sat right on top of one of the mini water fall things and from there it was over. I never did get too far in, but I did pour water up on the bottom of my shirt and made my hair wet. Which gave me great wet ugly hat hair. Let me tell you how pretty that was. -_-
By that point we were tired. The crowds were horrendous, the parking was nonexistent, and the traffic was slow as turtles. Eventually we did make it back to her place, and I made it back home with the help of my GPS. Which by the way is GREAT when you're like me and can't even turn when it tells you to. It readjusts very quickly and helpfully. I'm so directionally challenged. Of course, this is why my parent's bought me the GPS in the first place.
Anyway, kudos to the tomtom.
But the day didn't end there, oh no no no. Then i made it home for dinner with my family at 4, Showered, dressed, and went to my favorite in law's house and ate dinner again at 7, and eventually made it home about 10pm.
And while the day was super long, it was super fun.
