Friday, November 30, 2012

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!

I went to visit my friend Lara in Oklahoma City in October. When I arrived, she announced, "Welcome to Oklahoma, where America hasn't quite made it to 2012." Man, I thought, growing up in Ohio, I'd seen America. I was wrong. Oklahoma is about as America as it gets.

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These are outside of the airport and are about 2 stories tall!

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Church's Chicken. I didn't know that these existed outside of Ghost World.

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Lara is a professional baker and she made me a cake for my visit. Macaroni and Pearls is a reference to a purse-making business that we tried to start that lasted about 5 minutes.

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It was a chocolate cake with a hazelnut mousse filling. Omagah!

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Then we went to "Affair of the Heart," which wouldn't surprise me if it's the world's largest craft fair. It was held at the state fair grounds and encompassed about 5 or six convention halls. It was insane. We spent 5 1/2 hours there, bought a crapload of crap, and the people watching was unprecedented (and that's coming from someone currently living in NYC)

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Midwesterners are keen on putting giant bows on their baby girls.

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all of these cocktail rings were mesmerizing.

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After 5 1/2 hours of walking around in my own pair of plastic jelly flops at 5 months preggo, I actually thought these looked tempting.

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If you look at them the right away, their eyes follow you.

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You know what this place needs to tie the room together?  A leopard print cross.

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Snack time. Strudel. It's a craft.

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Educational craft felt boards. These are so much more sophisticated than the ones I ever made at the library.

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Take a good long look at this.

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Ok, so, these are patches that are made of sequins. You glue them to clothing with fabric glue to make "Shirt-scapes." Shirt-scapes. Yeah, Shirt-scapes.

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We need another snack. A giant cinnamon roll will fit the bill.

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We split a pecan roll with buttercream. I could have eaten a whole one by myself, but I didn't admit it.

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It was huge.

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Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle...Rita?

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Challenge: Where would you put this in your home?

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This man was selling visors that had furry hair attached to them to make you look like Guy Fieri. Oh, and chitlins.

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My only regret in life is not getting a photo of this guy from the front.

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Oh, hey, look who got a street named after them.

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Aaahhh, after the craft fair, we visited Womb Gallery, the brain-child of Wayne Coyne.

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You enter through a vagina.

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They were not pink. There was no need to call Yoshimi.

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Outside, they were having a pet adoption festival.

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They had a tent full of kittens!

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Did you hear me?

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I said A TENT FULL OF KITTENS!!!

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I can't tell if I like the catfish more, or the expression on my face.

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Just thought this was cool.

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Lara said we could visit the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I thought I wanted to just drive by. I'm glad she made me get out of the car and look around. It was really beautiful.

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I was in OKC for less than 48 hours. Right before we left, Lara took me to the Stockyards, which is a place where they auction livestock and is basically a mall of animals. They have THE BEST steakhouse I've ever been to there! It looked a little chintzy, but was out of control amazing.

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Steak for breakfast? Yes, please. And it came with everything you see here: Steak, eggs, potatoes, biscuits and gravy and toast. And coffee. I ate all but about 3 bites.

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Just in case you didn't get enough gravy, or you want to add it to something unconventional, you can get it as a side.

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I don't know who this was, but watched us eat.

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The best part was our waiter, Sharp. Yeah, that was his real name. He was amazing and happily posed for this picture with me!

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The Stockyards.

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And right before I left, Pop's had to be visited. They have pop. From all over the world.

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I didn't get Bacon Soda, but I did get an apple pie soda and a butterscotch root beer!

And that's all folks! There's a lot of other places I want to go to next time, like the Museum of Osteology! I highly recommend Oklahoma City for a fun weekend trip!