small things...

Tulsa is for birthday lovers

**My heart goes out to the folks who were affected by the recent tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma**

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#1 – Travel somewhere I’ve never been – Complete!

I’ve taken 4 trips birthday trips in the last 5 years – it’s a thing!

• 2011 – Portland, OR
• 2013 – Louisville, KY
• 2014 – Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM
• 2015 – Tulsa, OK

With each trip I’ve been able to either visit good friends or travel with them.  I’ve entertained the thought of a solo trip, but haven’t yet either got up the nerve or found a trip I wanted to take on my own.  That could still happen.

Tulsa was of the visiting-friends variety.  My friend Sara and her family moved from Chicago to Tulsa almost 2 years ago.  Oklahoma and Tulsa were a bit of a mystery to me (and pretty much everyone else I told I was going there for the weekend – Tucson or Texas is where everybody thought I went). But you guys, HANSON is from Tulsa, St. Vincent is from Tulsa, the Flaming Lips are from Oklahoma… I hear Brad Pitt was born in OK.  So stop thinking you don’t know nuthin about Oklahoma.

But here, I will share a bit more about what I learned…

Friday

I landed in Tulsa at just around 11am and headed out the meet Sara and her kiddos.  The Tulsa airport is itty-bitty and easy-peasy. I basically got off my plane and walked down one hallway straight outside. You should go there!

They gave me a quick tour of the Tulsa that lies between the airport and their home.  Their house is awesome and I wish I’d taken pictures of it to share with you, but maybe that would have been weird for Sara and well, I just didn’t do it.  Sara has great taste and lots of art and comfy furniture and the house kept going on and on in unexpected ways til you reached the guest suite (that’s right, uh-huh, you know it).  Yes, a quiet suite all to myself.  I took 2 naps!

After getting a little settled we headed out to lunch at a great little deli – Trenchers Delicatessen.  It’s tucked away at the end of a nondescript strip mall – this place was a gem.  I had the “Dutch Crunch” – a turkey sandwich with avocado mayo, bacon, arugula and swiss on housemade bread with housemade chips. It was dang good

(#5. 12 new restaurants in 12 new towns)

Everything they serve they make in house.  One of the owners was rolling out dough for their breads while we ate.  And they had the best fresh squeezed lemonade I’ve had yet.  I couldn’t get enough. I’d like some right now, actually.

Next stop – The Woody Guthrie Center!

This is a great little museum celebrating the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie and it’s inexorable link to Oklahoma.  There was also a mini Beatles exhibit. (#21 - see an art exhibit once a month)

And look – I learned to play the drums!

hello, drummer-face.

After my rock ‘n roll afternoon I took a nap and Sara and I had dinner at El Guapo’s Cantina and did a little shopping at Dwelling Spaces. 

Saturday

Saturday I woke up and it it was my birthday! I think I did feel a little older. ah well.  I wandered into the kitchen to find a birthday card propped up against the coffee maker.  It was a card from a friend from home…turns out Sara asked some of my friends/family from home and elsewhere to send birthday cards for me to Tulsa.  Sara then had them handed to me throughout the day…one by the coffeemaker, one with breakfast, a store clerk handed me one in a shop we stopped into, one came with lunch and so one…everyone should spend their birthday in Tulsa with Sara and have friends like mine!

Sara took me to do a little shopping and out to lunch.  Where I saw, but did not consume the following weird sodas that I think Tulsan’s drink in secret

Lunch was juicy burgers and tasty fries from HopBunz Burgers on Peoria.  Their fries are made from Maine potatoes…I didn’t know that was a thing, Maine?

My birthday was unfortunately marred by a headache I just couldn’t shake.  Sara had planned lots of treats, but about all I was up for was lunch-movie-nap.  So that’s what we did.

Sara, her husband Ari and I headed out for an early dinner at Juniper – a fantastic restaurant focused on local, seasonal foods.  We started with the charcuterie board and chicken liver pâté, followed by a romaine hearts Caesar salad.  I ordered a housemade ginger ale to drink and had the roasted rosemary chicken as my entrée.  It was so good.

Seriously, if you are going to go to Tulsa – even if you aren’t going to take my advice and stay with Sara and Ari – eat at all the places we ate.  You’ll be a happier person for it.

My flight out Sunday morning was at the crack’o so it was an early night for me. 

I can’t wait to go back and see what else there is to eat and drink in Tulsa!

Thanks, Sara, Ari, Charlie and Lucy for giving me such a sweet and lovely birthday weekend!

Month 2 wrap-up

I hope this was the coldest month of the year (in that I hope it only gets warmer and not ever colder).  It’s this time of the year that I gaze longingly at all of the warm weather items and day dream about sunshine on bare skin. sigh. Next year I’m adding to the list “travel somewhere WARM in February”.  Am I too young to be a snowbird??

What can I do from my list when it’s this cold? 

Well I can always go out to eat.

# 5. 12 new restaurants in 12 different towns (2 down; 8 to go…this is going to be an earlier finisher, I can feel it)

Lyfe Kitchen (Evanston, IL) – Both off on a Friday this month, I met my friend Sarah for lunch at Chef Art Smith’s new(ish) health food joint in Evanston.  Their aim is to make good, wholesome, healthy, local, sustainable food and serve it up fast.  You can find vegan, gluten-free and nut free options.  I of course went for meat on bread – Grilled Chicken and Avocado sandwich. 

It was good, your basic grilled chicken sandwich, but I had order-regret.  They have so many other healthy interesting options!  next time it’s the quinoa crunch for sure.

Bodhi Thai (Berwyn, IL) – Headed down to Berwyn with my friend Peggy to grab dinner before seeing a play written by a friend-of-friends (see below).  Not one to miss out on an opportunity to try a new restaurant we settled on Bodhi Thai.  I was a few minutes from home before I realized I’d forgotten my phone.  I decided to risk it.  We had set plans to meet, I knew where I was going, if she needed to cancel at the last minute – I’d figure it out.  All went well until I realized out that I didn’t know where I was going in that I’d remembered the address incorrectly.  But – shit, I grew up without a cell phone – I know what to do in this situations, you go to the nearest gas station and ask to use the phone book!  Does anyone still have phone books?  the attendant looked at me funny when I asked, but then was delighted to find out tucked under god-knows-what behind the counter.  Bodhi was listed! I had just switched a couple numbers and was just a few blocks away.  It was warm and lovely inside.  A very small restaurant, it was packed at 5:45pm.   

I’d read about the Sweet potato and corn fritters – so we started with those

  (source)

And I ordered my standard Pad Thai chicken.  It was reliably good – but again I had order-regret.  I need to expand some horizons! I need Thai-food inspiration **What is your favorite Thai dish to order?**

#7 – Attend plays

I seem to have left this one open ended…hmmm, I was a little disappointed not to cross if off this month.  But I think I will as soon as I see at least one more play.  This month I went to see a play that was written by a friend of friends – Stephanie Walker.  Her play “The Art of Disappearing” was being performed at the 16th Street Theater in Berwyn.  The play centers on an estranged family who have to awkwardly begin to come back together and figure out how to rely on one another when the mother is diagnosed with early onset dementia.  The story is real and painful and the actors were brave in their performances.  I loved it!  The performance in Berwyn has run it’s course, but check out her website above for any future performances of her work.

22. Learn how to use all functions of my camera Complete!

I found a class last week on Dabble.co that would teach me how to use the manual functions of my digital camera.  I use to know what aperture and f-stops and ISO and all that stuff use to mean back in the good old days of film cameras, but have completely forgotten.  The class was in a little photography gallery in town so I ended up with a two-fer when I stayed to also see their current exhibit.  The instructor would lecture a little and then we would get up and practice changing the shutter speed or the f-stop or both or what-have-you.  A little bit of my glory-film-years came back to me, but mostly I had trouble totally grasping what you do and when and blah, blah blah.  Mostly it’s so.much.adjusting.   And now I remember why automatic is so appealing.  But I did get this one photo I liked. 

This guy was my partner for part of the day and unfortunately I didn’t ask his permission to post this so if I start to feel guilty about it I might take it down.  Look at it while you can!

2. Read 42 books (new book list).  Current count: 8 books. 2 books ahead of schedule

Do you ever give up on books?  I’ve given up on 3 books in the last 2 weeks – I AM PICKING DUDS!  Please send recommendations STAT!

But here is what I did finish in February

““Before that she hadn’t realized how fragile happiness was, how if you were careless, you could knock it over and shatter it.”

This is a beautiful story of how people try to make sense and recover from unexpected tragedy.  hint: no one walks the same exact path.

“I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out, ‘Hey.’  ‘So damn much,’ he says back, only it comes out, “Dude.”  He still won’t meet my eyes.”

A Young Adult novel filled with the lies and secrets that drive wedges between us and how truth can bring you back together.

“Look at Picasso. O’Neill. Tennessee Williams. Capote. Were these shiny happy people spreading sunshine? No. Only the greatest of personal demons can force you to do powerful work.”

A mystery surrounding the death of the daughter of a mythical director of horror films, or “night films”.  The book is epic and fast paced and a good mystery.  Pessl has created a whole body of work for this fictional director which alone is impressive. 

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On tap for March…

• Travel somewhere I’ve never been!
• Hike an Illinois trail!
• Find out if I’ll be getting a community garden plot!