Overholser

My blog is turning into a photo blog!  I do have one crazy story to share about our old church, but I'm waiting on confirmation of one critical detail.  How's that for a teaser?!

We have quite a few lakes and ponds and rivers and streams and such in Oklahoma.  We aren't exactly the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but we do have a lot of water.  Here are some pictures from Lake Overholser that I took over the past few weeks.  Click the pictures for a better view.

The river/drainage from the dam

Open the gates!

Overholser Dam at sunset

Amos took a picture of me...up to no good...

Sunset

Sunset, with a water tower off to the left

Overholser Dam

Beautiful

Cottonwoods, much?!

Overholser Dam

Some nice weeds

Chocolate and rain

Today's cooking adventure:
Boston Cream Poke Cake, using these directions but recipes from my Joy of Cooking cookbook

Now Amos and I are sitting on the porch, reading books, listening to the rain and thunder.

Odd

Here are some strange things about Oklahoma...

There are LOTS of drive-through restaurants.
Panera Bread, Subway, even donut shops!

A lot of men have long hair.

There are no helmet laws.
If you are riding a motorcycle, you have to wear some type of glasses or goggles, but you don't have to wear a helmet!

E-cigarette stores are on almost every street.
I don't know why, but e-cig stores and "vapor lounges" are very popular here.  There are also cigarette butts everywhere.

Lakes and ponds are ubiquitous.
I don't know where all the water comes from, but I like it!  I also like all the pondlife.

Center turn lanes/suicide lanes are rare.
The vast majority of streets here in OKC don't have a middle turn lane.  People just stop in the left lane and put on their turn signal.

No one runs when it is raining.
When it rains, there is no hurrying to the car, hurrying to the house, hurrying to the grocery store entrance; people just stroll along at their regular pace.

People spit in public.

People really like their rims.
There are suped-up cars everywhere, even Suburbans and old Lincolns!

There are no dog poop pick-up laws.
Dogs just go wherever their owners let them, and no one picks up after them.

Discarded mattresses and box springs are everywhere.
Twice a week people take their garbage out to the curb, and mattresses and box springs are always included.  I'm not sure if a sleep store had a huge sale or what!

Dolese

I discovered a park with a lake just a short way from our house, and I love it.
Check out the pictures.

Turtle!  My favorite park creature. :)

This looks like the perfect camping spot.

Weird, cool, knobby roots

A tiny turtle on the pipe and several tiny turtles in the water

Goose parents and three small fluffs

Memoria de Cinco de Mayo

I'm not a fan of Cinco de Mayo.  I'm not sure what is being celebrated, and I don't like mariachi bands; mariachi music sounds like Polish music, which, coincidentally, I don't like, either.  The only redeeming factor is the food.

For the past nine years, Cinco de Mayo has also conjured up a college memory from freshman year.  On certain days of the week, I would eat lunch with my friend Sherrie, fellow teacher ed major and later roommate at aptartment 29.  On this day, we were eating Mexican food in the caf, serenaded tortured by the sounds of a mariachi band.  The band had been hired for the Cinco de Mayo themed lunch, which was actually happening on Tres de Mayo (I think our school was trying to save money by having the band come on a different day).

Sherrie and I were talking about our P.E. for Teachers class or finals week or something like that, when our attention was arrested by Caleb*, an upperclassman.  He appeared next to me holding a glass vase with a Gerber daisy (decorations for the lunch), and as he looked at me he said, "I just wanted to let you know, the beauty of this flower is nothing compared to you."  Caleb set the vase and flower on the table, I said a very pinched thank you, and he walked back to his table.

Awk-ward.
Awkward.
So awkward.

Sherrie and I now had something new to talk about.  What did he mean?  Was he serious?  Was I supposed to take the flower with me?!

I was bothered by this interaction for several days.  I saw Caleb around campus, but he never said anything.  Once I saw him walking along, throwing a football with some friends, and I decided just to ask him what the Cinco de Mayo flower had been about.  He said that it was dare from his friends.

Okay, not as nice as a sincere compliment, but at least I didn't have to be paranoid any more, and I was very glad I hadn't taken the daisy with me!  I was glad that our paths rarely crossed after that.

------

I was a sophomore in Israel when Cinco de Mayo came around again. While there, I heard that one of the girls from my freshman wing was dating the same Caleb.  "Weird!  Remember what happened on Cinco de Mayo last year, when..." I told Michelle, who had also been on my wing that year and had heard the story.

Sara and Caleb have been happily married for several years now, and I am stuck with an awkward memory from when I was an eighteen-year-old freshman.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  At least I have a funny story, even if I don't like the holiday. :)


(Yes, his name really was Caleb; if you do something dumb, you forfeit your name change, haha!)