Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Labor Day Getaway

It's a truth I realized a year or so ago, and as soon as I said it, it was a huge comfort. Life is NOT the day to day tasks that demand so much attention from us that they sometimes seem to be all that we are. Work. Commuting to and from work. Cooking, cleaning, laundry... you get the idea. I definitely fall into the trap sometimes of thinking that my job is my life. That it defines me. I remember how happy I was starting this job a little over a year ago and feeling my life was "better" because this was a "better" job. Better in the sense that I would be happier because it was a more positive job. Helping people, working on a team, working with children. Definitely an improvement over staring at a computer all day working for difficult people on tasks that usually felt insignificant. But now I know, my job does not equal my life. The weekly routine is not all that I am. It's the special moments. The road trips to friends. The hour drive to and from the drive-in on a crisp fall evening. The shopping trips for our "firsts" as husband and wife. This year we will be purchasing our first full size Christmas tree. I'm SO ready! The moments that are usually fewer and farther between than I would like. Those are the moments when I am truly living.

I say all of that to say that it was a HUGE blessing to be able to get away this past weekend. To do some living! Jeff, my oldest and one of my dearest friends, moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma three or so years ago. Brett and I have been talking about going to visit him for probably two years. (It didn't occur to us that first year. Wedding planning kind of consumed us, I guess.) But since then, it has been time and financial obstacles keeping us from going to see Jeff. But I have been thinking for months that Brett and I needed to take a trip. Get out of our day to day lives to remind us what our real life is about. And I miss Jeff. I miss him all of the time. He is special in a way that I don't always know how to describe. He is the perfect balance of kindness and confidence. Never too good to help someone in need, but not a guy who is afraid to call the shots either. A helper and a leader at the same time. A servant leader, I guess you would say. Without a doubt, the kindest guy I will ever know. I can say that with confidence, because there is just no way that anyone out there is equal to him. He's one of our favorite people, and we were thrilled to finally go see him!

And it was such a good trip!!!!! We prefer to take road trips on 3 day weekends. We like to leave after work on Friday and get there, wherever the there is that weekend, late, and then have all day Saturday to be with our friends. Then leave on Sunday afternoon so that we can get home on Sunday night and wake up in our own bed on Monday and have some time to rest before going back to work. That is how it worked out this weekend.

Brett got off at 1 and I got off at 4, so we were on the road by about 4:50. There was quite a bit of traffic in Dallas, and we made two brief stops along the way, so it was around 11:00 when we got to Tulsa. Jeff is a Baylor alum, so he had some friends over to watch the game. They were leaving as we were arriving, but it was nice to get to meet several of his friends. We stayed up chatting and planning for a while and eventually went to bed.

We started our day Saturday by going to Jeff's favorite breakfast spot. I already forgot what it is called, but I had a really good omelet and a biscuit that would make any southerner proud! Then we headed to the Tulsa Flea Market. So. Much. Fun. I LOVE flea markets! Flea markets, garage sales, antique stores. I love them. And this one was so neat. It is inside a giant building on the fair grounds. I don't know what it is called, but it is like the building all of the cars are in at the Texas State Fair every year. Just the fact that it was all indoors made it easy to linger, despite the heat outside. And linger we did! We took our time and went to every booth treasure hunting. We walked the whole room seeing what we liked and then went back for the items that were still calling to us. I bought a huge old frame that I am going to use to hang several small pictures from. Also, an old green chair that is small and metal and missing a seat. It's on my porch and I am going to find just the right size planter to sit in it. I also got an old teal metal fan. SO cute! I have the perfect spot in mind for it. And I got two tiny little Dr. Pepper bottles. We are Dr. Pepper fans. Little piece of trivia for ya there. The bottles are about three inches tall. So cute! And they have liquid in them. I don't know if it is actually DP, but it sure looks like it! And also a hand embroidered place mat. Or at least, it's the size of a place mat. I'm going to frame it and hang it on the wall. It's adorable. Brett looked at several vintage comic books, but didn't get any in the end. Jeff got an AWESOME train set and tackle box. He's a fisherman.

After the flea market, we stopped at a little pizza joint for a seriously good slice of pizza. We each got a different kind, and I can't decide whose looked best! My Canadian bacon was awesome though.

After that, we went searching for a comic shop for Brett. It took some looking, but we found one and Brett found some good books!

After that, it was time to rest a bit. I'm not gonna lie. The boys fell asleep. It was awesome. We just relaxed on the couches for a couple of hours underneath the cool fan. It was so nice.

When we got up, Jeff drove us around the parts of Tulsa that we hadn't seen yet. It's a really neat little town. Kind of like Fort Worth. I can't tell you why, because I know nothing about Fort Worth. But both boys do, and they both said it was like Fort Worth. So there you go. There are TONS of huge beautiful houses built in the 20's. "Oil money" Jeff said. I had no idea oil was big in OK back in the day, but apparently it was. The homes were absolutely gorgeous, and each one unique. Then we headed to Cafe Ole. A really neat Santa Fe style Mexican restaurant. It was just cool enough to sit on the patio and we enjoyed a tasty meal under the twinkle lights. Then Jeff took us to his favorite coffee shop. Shades of Brown. Um, shades of cool is more like it! It's not small, but it's narrow. Small rooms that spread back. The first room was packed wall to wall because there was live music. Several guitar players, a percussionist and a singer playing swing and jazz music. I LOVED it! And Jeff bought me a grasshopper. Like a mint frappaccino, but a way smoother texture. It felt more like a shake than blended ice. So delicious and so refreshing. It was great.

When we got back to his place, we watched an 80s classic that I had always felt weird about never seeing. How is it possible that I, a self professed lover of 80s cinema, had never before seen Planes, Trains and Automobiles? I have no answer. But I can now say that I have seen it. It was the perfect end to an awesome day.

We had planned to go to church with Jeff on Sunday morning and then have lunch at McAllister's before heading home. Our plans changed however when Brett was up all night Saturday with an upset stomach. He finally threw up at about 8:00 Sunday morning and then was able to sleep a couple of hours. Poor guy. Not sure what it was. He had a sauce on his dinner that neither Jeff or I had on ours, so it could have been that. But he felt feverish to me, so it could have been a weird 24 bug that hit at an unfortunate time. As soon as Jeff got back from church, Brett and I said goodbye and hit the road.

To make matters worse, as we stopped to gas up before hitting the road, Brett came to examine our tire (that I had tried to fill, but instead flattened... idiot) and threw out his back. Not kidding. So he already was fighting to stay still and keep from throwing up in the car, and then I broke his back so that he would suffer WAAAAY worse the whole way home. I felt so bad! We made it home and slept 11 hours to make up for our night without sleep. He is getting better but still in pain.

But besides the stomach and back pain, it was a really great weekend. I'm so happy that we made it to see Jeff. I love his house, and I thoroughly enjoyed his town. I know it was our first of many trips out to see him.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend! I am fighting allergies this week and ready for this weekend. Melanie's shower is Saturday and I am so excited. I wish that I had spent more time with Melanie throughout this pregnancy, but we have such different schedules. It makes it tricky. But it will be such a joy to celebrate her baby this weekend.

Peace our playas!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I loved the blog....wish we could do it over again. Thanks for the words- it made my day. I wish you and Brett were coming back next weekend!