The Red Cross

After a week of sleeping late, blissfully spending my days putting my little home together, and going anywhere I pleased in the middle of the day, I have returned to the life of the employed.

However, I want everyone to go back with me in their memories to when I first blogged about moving to Tulsa and said, "...maybe I'll find a sweet non-profit to work for..." Well, folks, that dream has also come true. I was hired by the Tulsa Chapter of the Red Cross. I get to spend my days processing donations and directing the money into the proper disaster funds. The excitement level is similar to my previous job (ahem), but now I am busier and I get the satisfaction of knowing my number crunching means something to needy people.

Plus, if disaster strikes, everyone gets shuffled around and goes into superhero mode. So I could be asked to gather volunteers, or hand out food, or field phone calls, or clean up debris, or anything. That possibility excites me, too. Not that I'm hoping disasters happen to people just so I can feel good about helping, of course. But since they do happen, it will be nice to be able to do something.

Anyway, I've put in three glorious, non-profit filled days and am just so pleased about the organization, my coworkers, what I get to do, how close it is to our house, and just everything about it.

Sorry. I'm finished gushing about it now.

Alas, for the days of Crest Foods...

Josh and I are on a quest to find a new grocery store now that we're in Tulsa. All you OKC folk are lucky to live in the land of Crest Foods, and so far nothing here seems to compare.
However, I did have an interesting encounter at Reasor's today. I had just stepped into the hair product aisle when a stranger said, "Excuse me?" I turned to him and he informed me, "I am a painter, and I just wanted to tell you I think your hair is beautiful and I am going to incorporate it into a painting. The way you did it is just lovely." I said thank you, and that was all. He left, and I thought, "Gee, I guess I should braid my hair more often." Yep, just a braid. Apparently a very effective braid, though.

In other news, our so far unmentioned trip to Chicago and Portland was awesome. Again, in convenient highlight form for you:
1. Pickle and Tabby were awesome hosts, have a supercool apartment, and live down the street from a sweet independent coffee shop.
2. Charles' wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. Quite a few people took full advantage of the open bar, giving us a couple very funny stories.
3. My mom's new oven makes a noise identical to the sound of Mario breaking open a coin box.
4. Seafood is delicious. Tillamook ice cream is delicious. Papa Haydn's is delicious. McMennamin's is delicious. Elephant ears are delicious. Et cetera - I don't think Joe and Meg will eat again for a month!
5. Free $30 bottle of wine from Nehalem Bay Winery. Go if you happen to be driving up the 101 between Tillamook and Cannon - it's fantastic!
6. A broken airplane meant we got an extra day in Portland and were able to hit the REI used gear sale and the Saturday Market after all.

Thanks Oregon friends for a great time - we'll see you in December!

My Life List

People have these lists of things they want to do before they die, right? Ya know, things like "go skydiving," or "see the pyramids," or "climb Everest." I've noticed that these lists exclude things like "get married" and "have a family." I guess those things go without saying in most cases.
Anyway, excluding the aforementioned "givens", I could only ever think of one thing that I would regret never having been able to do: see James Taylor live in concert. This was a major lifelong dream that I never thought would really work out.
You can probably guess where this is going: Last night Josh took me to see JAMES TAYLOR LIVE IN KANSAS CITY! Best. Concert. Ever. We were seriously only ten or twelve rows back. The music was phenomenal. That man can sing. He's got soul - and a nice sense of humor. He played almost all of his greatest hits album, and almost all of his new album. It was beautiful.
But now I don't have anything left on my life list. I guess it's all down hill from here.