The Sooner State

Greetings all. Dee Dee and I went on a trip this past weekend to Oklahoma City, to see Dee Dee's best friend from high school, Tiffani, and her boyfriend, James. The journey was long and there were several torrential storms along the way (including frozen cloud droppings that chipped our window), but it was nice to get away. We did many things there – introduced Tiff and James to the Wii, ate fondue, meatsies, chipsies, potions, and drank countless Thin Mint Cookie shots. Yum.

Tiff and James are both ambitious meteorology grad students at Oklahoma University. James spends a lot of his time at the National Weather Center, where all weather prediction and research is done for the entire country. Being inside the building reminded me of being in the Department of Mysteries. Our friends gave us a tour of many secret places, neat magical gizmos, and the Hall of Weather Prophesies. And we saw “Dorothy” from the movie Twister!

We also went to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. They’ve built a memorial where the federal building used to be and a reflective pond where the street once was behind the building. It was a very sobering experience to see it in person. Our friends also pointed out the building’s ruins, as well as cracks in the buildings nearby.

We also toured a little bit of Bricktown in downtown OK City, which is an area of brick warehouses along a canal that has been transformed into a hot spot for restaurants and culture. Even though it was sweltering – in the upper 90s! – it was a blast. So that’s our trip!

Dorothy can fly!
Our wizard friend casting magic weather runes
Each chair symbolizes a lost life and where it was found.
Reflective pool.