Why Oklahoma ain't so bad.

Oklahoma and New Mexico are pretty similiar. Why?

One. They both hate Texas. That's a biggie.
Two. They're both home to legendary space chimps.
Three. Whenever someone says, "I'm going to Oklahoma" or "I'm going to New Mexico", they both get the exact same reaction, "Why?"


Being raised in New Mexico makes you see things differently. There's a beauty in the desert, but rarely is it the kind of beauty you just see, it has to be taught. It's a gradual appreciation. I've said it before. Learning to love home, especially New Mexico, is something you're only able to achieve over time.


New Mexico is my home and it always will be. My mom has lived in New Mexico for 31 years, and still she refers to New Jersey as her home (Jersey is also a lot like NM, but that's another post and a lot of Bruce Springsteen). New Mexico will be the same for me, I can already tell you that.


Home is healing. There's a big part of me that can not wait to come home, see my pink sandias and eat some Frontier. But, a part of me is so ready to leave it. That's what this trip is all about, seeing other people's homes and figuring out what makes them so excellent.


I took an instant liking to Oklahoma. I remember my skirt sticking to my legs and my hair poofing up instantly. Southern hair has nothing to do with Aquanet, it's all about the humidity. It just feels different here. That's the thing you'll notice driving across Texas from NM to OK, every time you get out your car, it's just a bit more humid. That's how you know you're close.


That and the sky.

Brian, the old trumpet player from Third Grade Scuffle told me once that he's never seen a bigger sky than an Oklahoma sky. I looked up and knew he was completely right. Oklahoma is open space, rolling fields. It feels so continous.


Oklahoma's got a completely different kind of history. The other day, Matt took me out to his family's farm for band practice. When I asked him about it, where it came from, and how long his family had owned it, he said, "Well, there was kind of this land run in 1889..." Something about that, knowing I was standing on a piece of land someone ran for and it's still in the same family really interested me. And yeah, I know all about how messed up the whole thing to Native Americans, but that was part of it. I've never been awed by standing on a piece of history the way that farm did.


But, what all of this has been taught to me, you see? Oklahoma is another place you must learn to love. But, once you do, it's in there.

In that, I think you can argue that every place is like that. Location is almost irrelevant, says the girl who grew up in Raton New Mexico and bitched about it almost every day. But, as I tell people now, who ask me about growing up in a small town, "Well, you can set shit on fire anywhere."

Just as much can happen to me here as anywhere else.


There are two things born into Oklahomians: hating Texas, and loving OU football. Oh, football. It's my secret reason for loving Norman, just as it was my secret reason for loving Friday nights in Raton. Sure, it's dumb. Sure, there's drug use, assholes, and probably a complete waste of time. But, here's the fact of it, something in that stupidity makes people passionate. Middle-aged men who care about nothing actually care about OU football. Even more than that, that silly little football field is a unifier for an entire state. Truth be told, that's pretty impressive.


With OU football, there happens to be this fantastic, little university (Matt told me the other day that most people in Oklahoma don't even associate OU football with a college. It's just football.). The University is almost a mirror of UNM, with nearly the same student body population (except it's a whooping 82% cacausian here). The big difference: funding. That silly, little football team, with all their ticket sales and hoodie sales rakes in millions of dollars each year. All of which must be shared with the University. And let's say it's yielded some lovely results. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful campus.


You see, it is beautiful here. Sometimes, you have to search it out and sometimes it's right in front of you.


Oklahoma makes me happy. It's not something anyone else can understand, just like most people would ever understand while such a cruel city like Albuquerque could be my comfort zone. But, a person's relation to space is completely relative, no place is universally adored. I kinda like that, having my own secret havens.



This whole thing excludes western Kansas, of course. There is nothing good about that place.

That place can suck a space chimp.