I headed to Southeast Oklahoma this weekend to visit a friend’s place near Lake Texoma. 5 pm on a Friday afternoon is the worse time to start a road trip. It took me twice as long to get from my interstate entrance to south of Norman than is typical. I was expecting a long and frustrating drive. Google Maps predicted a little more than two hours.
I hit two areas of road construction on I35 south, but the rest of the way pretty smooth sailing. I fought a bit of a cross wind at times. I was especially nervous when passing a truck pulling a camper trailer. They have a tendency to swerve and fishtail a lot. The highlight of the road trip was driving through the Arbuckle Mountains. They are beautiful. I crested the top and had a wonderful view of southern Oklahoma at sunset.
After I turned off the interstate, I was on driving along a four-lane state highway, with gentle hills, occasional stop signs and pasture/farm land. I felt like I was back in Indiana driving to Gramma’s house. The road slimmed to two lanes with increased hills and turns. I hit several small towns – some that surely only had one traffic signal.
I turned onto yet a smaller road that traveled along side a train track. It was relaxing ad exhilarating at the same time. I finally arrived at John’s house on a dirt road with a gravel drive.
After a light dinner, we sat the porch. It was so peaceful.
Saturday morning I was able to sleep in then enjoy coffee on the porch while watching the birds. I even saw several humming birds feed.
John and I drove further south to Ikea to pick up a few items but came right back. The evening included more relaxation with more conversation with food and drink. We watched a storm roll. The temperature cooled considerably but the humidity was unbearable.
Sunday morning was again lazy and uneventful. I drove home around noon; thanks to lighter Sunday traffic, the return trip was right at two hours. The afternoon and evening events included cleaning, paying bills and general laziness. This was a very nice weekend.
I’m trying not to use the word exciting any more! A friend pointed out how often that word is used in everyday conversation and in professional situations. At NPAC, I heard artists, attendees and exhibitors galore throwing the word about without a second thought. Surely, we can elevate our language to a higher, more descriptive level. Exciting is such a generic word and can easily be used in place of citing specific information.
1. “We have an exciting convention scheduled.”
2. “Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?”
3. “I’m so excited about this concert season.”
Boring! Let’s try this again.
1. “We have informative sessions and great networking opportunities available at this convention.”
2. “What do you have planned this weekend?” or “Do you have anything interesting scheduled for your weekend?
3. “I’m looking forward performing Bach’s B Minor Mass this spring.” or “We were honored with an invitation to perform Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Philharmonic in October.”
I’m challenging myself to cut this bland adjective from my vocabulary. If you catch me saying it, don’t let me get away with the offense.
I’m unhappy with the way professional musicians, conductors and especially choirs are portrayed in movies. Summer blockbuster movies budget in the 100s of millions of dollars but it seems they hire character actors or extras to play the string quartet at a wedding, a conductor of the symphony or a choir director.
Case in point. I saw Get Smart tonight. It’s a great action/comedy movie and very entertaining, however I was annoyed at the end. (Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the movie!) Our heroes end up at Disney Concert Hall in LA trying to deactivate a bomb. The concert in progress is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, fourth movement (Ode to Joy theme): cut to the conductor. This guy looks like a cross between Albert Einstein with this crazy white hair and the old man from Best in Show and he’s just flapping his arms around completely out of sync from the music.
The choir had about 40 singers - not nearly enough to balance with the full forces of the LA Philharmonic. The choir was dressed in the worst Baptist Church choir robes complete with stoles. This a far cry from the standard professional concert black attire.
The movie industry seems to put a lot of effort into research and attention to detail; just watch the DVD extra features on just about any new release. I simply wish an industry that works so hard at entertaining and spectacle would put that same amount of effort into making the professional music part of the cinema actually professional and legitimate. I’m happy to serve as a consultant in effort.
This was a busy weekend. I worked a half-day on Friday then ran some errands. We met up at Newt’s house later for some food and filled up our go-cups. We met up with everyone else down on 39th street for the parade. Unconfirmed rumors indicated the parade didn’t receive a permit and therefore had to stop at every red light along the route! We had a good time watching the crowd and taking pictures. There are always very interesting things to see on this particular weekend. Case in point:
Our group stood around on the street for a while, went to Braums for a quick refresher to eat then headed over to Angle’s. It wasn’t as full as last year and there was no free beer, but we managed to cause a scene anyway. The evening ended with the obligatory stop for greasy food at our traditional place What-a-Burger. We crammed 8 people into a four person booth. Here I am viewing the 361 photos Brad took. (Most of them aren’t going to be found on this blog…)
Saturday wasn’t nearly as eventful. I had a casual lunch at my favorite place: Saturn Grill. It’s a great place to people watch, especially around 12:30 or 1 on a Saturday. Jason and I ran to the mall and a few other stores. I picked out a new shirt and got new pillows; he got new curtains for his bedroom. I made an appearance at Robert’s (his parties are not to be missed) then met up with everyone else for part two of the festivities. It was a much less exciting event, so say the least. Still nice to hang out with everyone. Some people take themselves way too seriously though. Perhaps people think that about me/us but it’s not true.
Sunday included a visit to the visit to the festival park; 15 minutes was enough. We also took in an evening showing of Get Smart. Good movie and quiet entertaining. I don’t, however, feel any more proud today than I did previously.
Leane and I found these hot ACDA hats while working at the Lawton office in May. Let me know if you want one; I can hook you up.
My apartment has a large walk-in closet off the living room and a smaller closet in the bedroom - a good amount of storage space for a building designed in the 30s. I have always wanted to turn the back room of my apartment into a giant walk-in closet, but can never decide on the layout and can’t determine where to put the rest of the junk I’ve been holding on to for no apparent reason. Yet, I still wanted to get my clothes together in the same space.
After pondering (for several months), I decided to add a new rod to the larger closet. I ran up to Home Depot to pick out the rods and get the necessary 1×4s for wall support. Evidently I didn’t measure to wall because the boards were way too long to fit in the space. Thanks to Brad for being Mr. Handy-Man and trimming the boards! Thirty minutes later: more space and a great feeling of triumph. Now, several days later, I can admit relief that the rods remain in place - nothing fell down!
Last Sunday we inadvertently ran into a “parade” of elephants, horses and ponies on our way to dinner. They had just finished a show at the arena and were headed home for the night. It was unexpected and quite entertaining.
She has been hanging out on the red dining room chairs lot lately. I like them, but never found them overly comfortable.
My flight today from DFW to OKC was delayed 15 minutes for some “routine maintenance to check the plane’s pressure.” I couldn’t find a seat so I just sat on the floor near the gate. Several other people were there along the wall. I was leaning against a vending machine listening to my iPhone. I saw a flash of light, looked up, and saw a woman turning and walking away very fast. I think a woman took my picture.
Why would she take my picture? I thought indignantly.
I almost walked over there to confront her and demand that she explain and erase the picture, but she was gone. I sat stewing until they called my boarding group. I gathered up my bags and stood up. It was then that I noticed I was sitting next to a cosmetics vending machine. It was one of the new giant machines that sells larger, more expense items (I’ve seen them carrying Sony products, iPods, and now cosmetics.) On the side of the machine was a life-size photo of a model sitting on a stood.
I started to laugh out loud. I’m pretty sure it looked like the model was sitting on my head! Now I wish I had a copy of that photo.
