Sunday, November 21, 2010

Things I Miss!

After spending a week and a half in the Northeast (CT, NYC, Boston) there are definitely some Northeast things that I miss now that I have been back in OKC a week. I had tears in my eyes while sitting on the plane at Logan getting ready to fly back west. So here are the things I miss (besides the obvious family and friends):

Rude people: Now this is an odd one since I didn’t like them when I lived in the Northeast but after 4 months of people at the airport asking me where I’m flying and people on the elevator asking me how my day was, I was feeling a little Stepford Wives. How refreshing when the woman working the counter at Alamo in Boston started barking policies at me and didn’t give a shit where I was going or how my day was.

Good radio stations: As soon as I got in my rental in Boston and turned on the radio; I knew I wasn’t in Oklahoma anymore. No country stations, or gospel music or people complaining about the government’s war on religion. No ads for classes on the Constitution. Hey Oklahomans, you would have received a free education on the Constitution if you hadn’t dropped out in elementary school.

Jesus free cars: For an entire week and a half in the Northeast, the only Jesus sign I saw was a bumper sticker on a car: “When Jesus said love thy neighbor, I think he meant try not to kill them.” Far cry from the cars here that not only put Jesus bumper stickers on the back, but actually paint Jesus signs right on to the car!

5 more weeks until I get back to normal again!

Monday, November 1, 2010

An Inconvenient State

I write this at 39,000 feet up in the air and Oklahoma City at my back! Getting out of the airport this morning I was reminded at just how inconvenient it is to live in OKC. The airport is somewhat small which would normally make flying easier. I guess if they had more than 5 security lanes for the thousands of people this morning or if security would drink a little coffee in the morning to get themselves moving a little quicker, that would be true. As it was I got to the airport an hour before my flight, snuck over to the alternate security not everyone knows about and STILL walked on to my plane just 15 minutes before take off. Surprisingly enough 4 other people walked on after me.

So what other inconveniences do people in OKC willingly live with besides almost missing their plane every time they fly? Pretty much getting anything is also difficult! I tried to order a cheap IKEA love seat for my cheap OKC apartment but shipping on a $150 item was $320 bringing a cheap love seat to over $500 with taxes…and they needed an entire month to get it to me. I guess they planned on getting it to me via covered wagon. A quick check of the delivery expense for the same love seat to CT came up as just $99 (bad enough!) When I questioned a co-worker about it, she one upped me with a tale of a Crate and Barrel couch that would have cost her around $500 to get to OKC. Instead she got a pick up truck, drove the 3 hours to Dallas, got a hotel room for the night and drove her couch back 3 hours to OKC. No inconvenience there! Dallas is also the place to go if you want to do any real clothes shopping and have 6 hours to spend in your car to do it. The shopping I got done in Dallas last weekend could have been accomplished with a 20 minute drive to West Farms in CT.

Oh people in OK will brag about how low the cost of living is and how great it is that there is no traffic and how they could never live somewhere else but the lesson of this story is that sometimes it pays to live near some shit. At least in CT I can have an entire living room set delivered to me in two days for $75.