Farewell to a ballpark

Tuesday afternoon, a friend of mine called me to ask if I wanted to go to the Cardinals baseball game instead of meeting her for dinner like we had planned. I said, "Are you serious?!" A co-worker had given her his tickets. I couldn't believe my luck. I had just been thinking a few days earlier that it was sad I wouldn't be going to another game before they blew up Busch Stadium. Now, with just seven home games left (if you don't count post season, of course), I suddenly had a chance to say goodbye.

It was surreal to see a portion of the new stadium from the walkways of the old stadium. They have it partially lit so that you can see it and it just didn't look real. It looked like it was a movie set. The new stadium doesn't have as many seats as the old stadium, but it looked like it was so much bigger.

I will miss the old Busch. It was a unique structure. All you had to do was see a picture of it and you knew which stadium it was. There's no stadium like it in the major leagues. It's different. The new stadium looks like all the new stadiums. It's supposed to have a retro feel to it, and it does, but it could be a stadium located anywhere. Nothing about it says St. Louis. Old Busch with its circular design and its ring of mini arches at the top just said St. Louis to me. And soon they will be blasting it to smithereens.

Name this Blog

Help! The name of this blog is about as lame as it can get. Stacey's Story?! What's up with that? Couldn't I think of anything else? Well, I actually did think of other names, but they were already in use. I was going to call it "A Journalist's Journey" (see my first post for more info), but that was the name of someone else's blog and I don't consider myself a journalist anymore. Then I thought about naming it after my favorite poem, "The Road Not Taken," but that was also the name of a blog already. Then, I thought I would try "Stacey's Journey," but that was taken, too.

So, help! Help me name this blog. Comment to this post with your suggestions. I'll keep thinking about it, too.

Hurricane rant

I spent all week watching coverage of Katrina's aftermath. As I watched all the devastation, I became increasingly frustrated and angry with our government. I kept asking, "Why aren't these people getting the help they so desparately need?" "Where are the supplies?" "What is being done?" "Why is this getting so botched up?"

We are supposed to be the most powerful country in the world and this is how we mobilize after a natural disaster? Why wasn't a plan put into place before the storm hit? We knew the storm was going to hit. Why didn't we have personnel and supplies ready to go and mobilize immediately after the storm hit? Why the delays? What is wrong with this country? If this is how we respond to a natural disaster, just think what our response would be if, God forbid, terrorists set off a dirty bomb or some other major attack.

My heart and prayers go out to all the people affected by Katrina, all those people who lost everything. I wish the country's response wasn't so unorganized and messed up. I hope we learn from this as a nation.

Click here to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.