Living on Tulsa time

It's really odd to be back in Tulsa.

The wedding is Saturday, but I flew in on Thursday evening. There's a couple of things I need to take care of stateside, so I figured I'd take the extra day for some errands.

I drove past the campus on my way in from the airport. It was unbelievably surreal. It felt like there's still a part of me home there, but the rest of me is settled so happily in Vancouver. It felt like 100 years since I'd been there last. Graduation feels like a long distant memory.

I've traveled thousands of miles and moved my life to a new country since then.

That's crazy.

It's crazy, right?

Who does that? Who just moves to a new country IMMEDIATELY after graduating college. Not even taking time to breathe or adjust. Simply high-tailing it out of there.

Things are slower in Tulsa. The world is a little smaller there. It's a great college town and a great place to raise kids. It's a place many people I know are happy to live the rest of their lives. It's one of the largest cities in the States, believe it or not. Still growing, with a vibrant music scene and more young adults every day. But it's definitely slower. It's a life that allows for vacations and family time. It's a nice life.

It's calming to be back, if only for a few days.

Wedding bells

Ross and Britelle got married!!! It was beautiful, romantic, wonderful, and overwhelmingly happy!

It was great to be there for the big day! Britelle looked absolutely stunning in her dress, and Ross and the groomsmen looked dashing in their suits. The dresses Britelle picked out for her bridesmaids flattered each of them very nicely. The moms on both sides were positively beaming, and everyone seemed to get along just fine.

They had these adorable pint-sized jam jars with little purple birds, their names, and the date printed on them. They each had Hershey's hugs and kisses in them, and were presented in a big apple basket with a label instructing each of us to share hugs and kisses! It was precious.

The two are pretty well traveled, and had family and friends coming from all across the world, so they used an amazing world atlas as their guest book! Max and I found the page with Vancouver and signed our names! It was really fun to be able to sign somewhere out of the country (if only by 30 minutes!). 

The church they held the ceremony in was positively gorgeous! Huge stained glass windows depicting several Biblical stories. A large front altar with choir rows. It was stunning. They offered communion to all the guests, which I thought was really special. The bride and groom stayed at the front, so all the guests came up and took communion along side them. It was amazing. The song choices were beautiful. They had friends from the orchestra playing most of the music, with a trumpet piece from one of our friends, Keysto, for their recessional. The whole things was incredible. I cried! Max didn't cry, but couldn't stop smiling! 

The whole thing was simply unbelievable! I'm so happy for the delightful couple! Their relationship is really a blessing to this world and an incredible inspiration to those of us lucky enough to know them. Their love has withstood the tests of time and distance, and has only grown stronger. They love truly and honestly, and I know they will do great things together.

Take flight

This flight attendant has it out for me.

I have no idea why. I boarded the plane in an orderly fashion, didn’t hold up the line, quickly and manageably stowed my items in the overhead bin and pulled out my tablet. Yet she keeps making faces at me.

It might just be her face. You can never be sure with flight attendants. Some of them just have this look about them like they hate all people and all things but they do this anyway, so you’d better just put up with it. It’ll be easier on everyone that way.

Thankfully she’s the first class attendant, so I don’t have to actually deal with her. Not that I would antagonize her or anything! I actually try really hard to be nice to all strangers. You never know what kind of day or week someone’s having, and as someone who has had some really crappy days and weeks, a smile is a lot easier to deal with than a jerk. Hell, a smile from a stranger can even brighten one of your darkest days if it’s just the right smile.

Anyway, I’m sitting in that first row right behind first class. I never realized how tough a place this was to sit. You get to see, hear, and smell all of the goodies but you have no direct access. Then the cranky flight attendant comes and closes the MESH CURTAIN. How is this supposed to help? I can STILL see, hear, and smell everything, now there’s just a rude piece of see through fabric between the two sections. I really want one of those blankets. It’s unreasonably cold on this plane and a blanket would just be a nice touch. I usually travel with a pillow and a blanket, but since we’re trying to bring the cats on the way back, I tried to pack as light as possible. This has just left me cold and almost as cranky as cranky flight attendant.

The prerecorded welcome to the flight shpeal came on and told us that we would be free to retrieve items from the overhead bin. I, along with several other passengers, took that as an indication that we could do so NOW. No. This was not the case. I glanced over and cranky pants was trying to burn holes through me with her eyes, the intercom phone in her hand. “Ladies and gentlemen, the seatbelt sign is still on. This means you must remain seated. We have NOT reached our cruising altitude. The captain will turn off the seatbelt sign when we HAVE reached cruising altitude.” I believe that’s what she actually said. What I heard was “Sit your butt down. This is not the day for this shit and you need to put your ass back in that chair before I throw it off this plane.” I returned to my seat without making further eye contact with cranky pants. This was when she came to section me off from the rest of the civilized group of passengers.

Well. At least I have headphones.