it's a hard knock life

My roommate and I bought season tickets the civic center. Our first show was last night: Beauty and the Beast. It was a great show and far exceeded my expectations. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the almost 3-hour duration of the show.

As exciting as it was, most of the evenings’ excitement was not contained within the stage production. It all started when we were trying to park. In order to avoid paying $10 for parking we chose a spot along one of the nearby streets. After Lindsy parallel parked (which was quite a challenge for her) we noticed a random guy walking toward the vehicle. Lindsy locked the doors but I rolled down my window to see what he wanted. He proceeded to inform us that it would be $5 to park on the street and we could just pay him. I stared him down and, with attitude that we all know I can give; I looked at him and said, “You’re trying to charge us to park on the street?” He replied, “Well…uh…maybe this spot is free.” Then he turned around and walked away. I give him credit for coming up with a creative idea to scam people out of their money but these girls were not falling for it!

Once inside we asked directions to our seats and sat down. We were very involved in reading actor bios and pointing out all the cute guys in the show when an usher came and asked to see our tickets. Apparently we had been directed to the wrong seats and needed to move to the other side of the auditorium. No problem. As we were exiting the row I looked at the ladies whose seats we had stolen and apologized. One of them gave me a dirty look and exclaimed, “You tried to steal our seats!” How rude!

Wow…the night was off to a great start so far! During intermission I looked at my cell phone and noticed I had received a text message. I opened up my phone to respond to the message when I heard one of the ushers start to yell at me. “Excuse me miss! You didn’t have that phone turned on during the show did you?” At this point, everyone was staring at Lindsy and me. I took a deep breath and gave myself a quick little pep talk in being polite and responded by simply saying, “No, ma’am.” Then she gave me one of those looks that says I think you’re lying to me and I’m going to watch you like a hawk from now on. Sheesh! Since when is it not okay to check your phone during intermission?

I can’t wait to see what the next show holds for us. And just think…the weird people sitting next to us had season tickets also. We get to sit next to them every time!

I have come to the conclusion that Tahlequah is the armpit of Oklahoma. The city stinks…literally. I went floating down the Illinois River this weekend with a group from church and camped out at one of the resorts nearby. And by resort I mean stinky, dirty cabin infested by June bugs. I apologize if I’ve just offended anyone by my comments but seriously! There is sulfur in the water that stunk so bad I couldn’t bear to take a shower or brush my teeth.

Don’t get me wrong…I had a blast. But every redneck in this part of the country seemed to be on that river this weekend. I came back with a few stories that I’d like to share with you….

• I was the navigator in a van full of people and we managed to get lost on our way to the resort…twice! Sorry guys.

• I had a run in with a tree sticking out of the river. I thought I was going under but my friends saved me.

• There were a few rafts full of people smoking pot. It’s still illegal on the river people!

• A rather large man wearing women’s bikini bottoms was standing on the bank of the river. He felt it appropriate to hoot and holler at us and then moon us. I’ve never rowed as hard as I did trying to get away from him!

• The topless lady. I don’t have much to say about her except gross! I hope she used sunscreen because that sunburn would really suck.

• A random guy with a huge beer bong jumped on my friends raft. He even grabbed a paddle and helped them row a bit. It was very amusing to witness because nobody quite new what to do about him. He eventually jumped off the raft after one of the girls asked him to please stop swearing.

I’m happy to be back in OKC where people are “normal.” I never thought that sentence would come out of my mouth.

Our internet has been down for a week now. You never know how much you rely on something until you no longer have it. I’m going crazy not having access to my email or blogger. Normally, in a situation like this, I would just get online at the office whenever I have some downtime at work. However, my company gives their employees very strict and limited access to the internet. I can get on the local news site and that’s about it. So I’m sitting here with my roommates’ laptop using the wireless network of the University down the road.

I have had to call the customer service department of our internet service provider several times in the past week. Each time I call I’m a little more irritated with them by the end of the conversation. After several phone calls, headaches and one service call to our house it has been decided that my modem is to blame. Apparently it has reached the end of its short two-year life span and I have to purchase a new one.

The other night I was on hold for an hour and was getting more and more upset as the time passed. I knew that if I had to listen to the awful elevator music for much longer I was going to lose it. When the gentleman finally picked up the line again and gave me news I didn’t want to hear I was very short and rude to him and instantly regretted it. This person did nothing wrong to me. The only thing he is guilty of is working for a company that I am no longer fond of. I started thinking about my attitude towards customer service employees. It must be very hard to go to work everyday and sit on the phone with upset customers. I know I’m not the only customer who gets upset when dealing with issues like this. For now, I will have to work on my attitude and patience in situations like this. Hopefully the next time I have deal with this will be a long, long time from now.

Recently, I have found myself in several different situations that have made me sit back and think. Think about life. Think about the person I am. Think about the person I want to be. This is out of character for me. I am not usually one to take the time to step back and reflect on things.

This evening I found myself in a conversation with a friend regarding this very subject. He brought up a few interesting points that I hadn’t thought of and it made me think some more. Lately I have been feeling out of my element and even a little homesick. The last time I was homesick was when I left home for my freshman year of college. I cried and my parents threw a party because they finally had their first kid out of the house. That was awhile ago.

Tonight, however, I had the most refreshing evening. I was almost home when a friend called me out of the blue to just hang out and talk. I haven’t seen or talked to this person in quite some time so I accepted the invitation. I didn’t know it at the time but that was something I really needed. I was able to sit down and relax with a person who knows me really well and just be myself. We laughed at old memories…we discussed serious topics…we caught up on each others lives. It got me to thinking that maybe I’ve just been trying too hard. I will be the first to admit that I’m a high strung person. Getting caught up in the excitement of things is not unusual for me and, as a result, I’ve done and/or said a few things that were probably not the best.

It’s at time like this when it’s great to have good friends. Friends to bring you down a few notches and help you see your mistakes. Friends who will call you out of the blue just to chat. Friends to laugh and cry with you. And friends who make you sit back and evaluate your life.

This weekend was the first annual Riverfest here in OKC. I volunteered to work for a little while but then I hung out and enjoyed the festival with friends. A few of us decided to join in on the dragon boat races. We learned the proper way to row and had a race with another team. We won! After several hours in the blazing Oklahoma sun I came out a dragon boat racing champion and a sunburn victim. I was stupid and failed to apply an adequate amount of sunscreen to my skin. I’ll have to lay low this week and let it heal. This weekend was just the first of three weekends in a row that I will be spending large amounts of time outside in the sun.










On the left is me and the girls getting ready to push of the dock and join the races. The picture on the right is the front of one of the dragon boats. Dragon boat racing is one of the fastest growing team water sports. Anyone can do it…it seems to require little skill and it is almost impossible to tip the boat.

This past weekend was almost more than I could handle. That makes me feel old. I volunteered at the deadCENTER film festival and was able to participate in the parties and film viewings all weekend. I met tons of people and even got a picture with and autograph from one of the directors who came to OKC to show his film. I had so much fun and was busy doing something all weekend.

When it was all over I went home and crashed. After doing my best to catch up on my sleep I felt compelled to get a massage. I didn’t do it but it really sounded like a good idea. I’ve never experienced the pleasure of a body massage before. I’m almost afraid to get one because I know I’ll love it and become addicted. As a substitute, I decided to give my head a massage instead. I have the most wonderful head massaging tool. It’s not really mine…I borrowed (or stole) it from a friend and it’s made itself at home with me. It’s the most amazing thing and I highly recommend that you try it. It's a great, inexpensive way to relax after a long weekend.

Several years ago I was having a discussion with a friend. I don’t remember the subject matter of the conversation but, after making a comment that may have been slightly out of character for a girl, my friend said, “You’re kind of manly, aren’t you?” He said it jokingly and it’s been an inside joke ever since. I have a small complex as a result of that conversation but it doesn’t really bother me. I’m not sure if this friend would say that same thing about me now as my "girliness" has increased quite a bit over the years. More than anything though, I just think it’s funny. I, myself, even bring it up from time to time for a good laugh.

Yesterday something happened that made me go back to that conversation. I got an email invitation to a Bachelor party. As a woman, there are a few things I never expected to experience. Going to a bachelor party is one of them. Maybe my lot in life is to just be “one of the guys.” The groom-to-be is a good friend of mine and I'm not the only female that received an invitation. However, I'm not sure I want to find out what goes on at Bachelor parties (though I'm fairly certain I already know). I may just sit this one out.

My roommates were gone last week. I enjoy having the house to myself but I hate being home alone at night. My imagination gets the best of me and I get spooked and can’t sleep. This last week, however, I did really well. I was able to talk myself into going to sleep every night without any problems. There was only one weird thing that happened while they were gone…

I never answer our house phone when it rings. The only people that ever call the house are my roommates’ parents. Since I know the phone isn’t for me I simply don’t answer it. I know that sounds rude but if the roommates aren’t at the house they can be reached on their cell so I don’t worry about it. While they were gone on vacation our phone rang off the hook. I thought it was weird since they were on vacation with their family. Surely they wouldn’t be calling to check up on me. So I decided to answer the phone. The caller on the other end said, “Yes, hello. Is this Frontier City?” Uh…I know our house is fun but it’s no amusement park! I hung up on the caller. But the phone kept ringing and every time it was someone calling Frontier City. I decided to investigate and looked the number up in the phone book. It does have a striking similarity to our phone number. I really hope people start to dial correctly. If I get many more phone calls I may just start pretending that they have, in fact, called Frontier City and have a little fun with it.