Tulsa October 2006 - They weren't Fletchers but they weren't bad

Hey guys – went to the Tulsa fair with my sister last night. Corny dogs weren’t Fletchers, but they were pretty good nonetheless. We played some games – won a couple of stuffed animals – and saw the exhibits. I’ve told ya’ll before that my sister is a great person to know in Tulsa – she knows all kinds of people (a realtor who is helping me find a house – the service manager at the Cadillac dealership – and the maintenance manager at the Crowne Plaza where I am staying). She also had a connection to get us into the fair free (including parking)!!! And remember, I told you a few months ago when I was here she introduced me to a great little independent bookstore called Steves. This is a great store – they sell a lot of local authors and we met two of them at the fair last night. Both really nice guys and they had new books out – both mysteries – one set in Tulsa and one in Porter. I’m really eager to read them.



Remember a couple of years ago when I went to Chicago and told you about a great book called THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY which was about the building of the 1879 World’s Fair and America’s first serial killer, JJ Holmes? Well, a local author has written a book specifically about him. She was doing a book signing at Steve’s a few weeks ago and Cyndee got me a copy of the book. It’s next on my list to read.



Another great person to know when you are away from home is a NURSE. My brother and sister-in-law also live here in Tulsa and, as many of you know, Marlene is Director of Nursing at a prestigious retirement center. I have to give myself a weekly injection (that old bugaboo skin condition I have) and the last couple of weeks I have been having trouble getting the medicine into the syringe. Marlene and I had dinner together tonight and she helped me with it. Showed me some little tips that I didn’t know. We were doing this while waiting on our food and when the waitress came to the table to bring salads, I was a little worried – here we were waving around a inch and half long syringe. I quickly told here we were legit and what we were doing, but she assured us she wasn’t concerned.



I can’t tell you how much I am loving being here – being able to go to the fair with my sister and have dinner with my sister-in-law and run over to my parents a couple of times a week. My sister-in-law is such a wonderful person – sweet, kind, VERY pretty – just exactly the kind of person who you would want around looking after you if you were sick.



And Tulsa is such a neat city – I was so young when I lived here before that I just didn’t appreciate it. As you know I am working downtown and the Williams Center building is a modern building, but there are some awesome OLD buildings here – most in the art deco style. Today I had to go to the IBM building – it is spectacular!!! It even has a 13th floor – that tells you how old it is!!! Had lunch down the street at the Tulsa Press Club in the Atlas Life building. I wandered around in it for a while – came across a barber shop - three barbers, no customers at that moment – they were all just sitting back in their chairs. Really great scene – I’ve got to start carrying my camera with me here. There are some great photo ops.



I had forgotten that Tulsa has tunnels underground – not an extensive system – and I don’t think they are used just a whole lot. They were built in the 20s (google Tulsa tunnel system – there is some good stuff on the net). But, supposedly they go from my hotel to the IBM building, so I tried it out after lunch – got hopelessly lost, but will go exploring again when I have more time.



Things are going well at work. Williams has decided not to fill the position they wanted to talk to me about – they are going to restructure and try to absorb the work in other ways. They are still interested in me for the other position, but it is not one I am interested in. This is OK – I’m not really convinced that I want to give up the consulting work. It looks like this project is going to extend a couple of months, anyway, and I’ll be here through the end of the year. By then I can assess whether or not I really want to work for Williams on a permanent basis.



In the meantime, I got a call from Dollar Thrift today – they are headquartered here. Somehow my name had made it’s way to them and they want to talk to me about a position they have. Again, it’s not something I am interested in, BUT at least I’ve made contact with them. So, I’m getting some networking going which is good.



Well, getting close to bedtime. Am staying in town this weekend and will be home again on Friday, the 13th. Hmmmm……driving home on Friday the 13th and working in an office on the 13th floor – good thing I’m not superstitious!!!