Oklahomans take their weather casters very seriously. So seriously in fact that there's an official tornado watch drinking game asociated with one of them, Gary England

That's all I got.

Awesome. Awesome night.

A lunchbox is a specialty drink served at a notorious OKC bar called Edna's. It consists of a shot glass, frozen into a beer mug, a shot of amaretto, filled with Coors light, and topped with orange juice. Proceed to chug. It is absolutely delicious and I cannot think of a finer summer treat. Expect for maybe the bloody Marys I've become a damn expert at making (olive juice, people!).


This is probably my favorite image of the past few days. It's Chelsey, acting like some sort of bizarre dinosaur, her high school BFF Murf and a very, VERY important neon sign. (Cat: "I know someone who's related to the family that owns Coors. Chelsey: "He needs to come visit. With beer.")


There's still a lot I don't understand here. I'm still jobless. And there are huge chunks of myself clinging desperately to New Mexico and all the fine people in it. The actual act of starting over is the hard part. Moving here, being here, that was the easy part. Creating myself here is more difficult than I ever imagined.


But with some new friends, some old friends and some lunchboxes, I'll get there eventually.

East Jesus Nowhere.

Guess what! More blogging about weather!

OKC got about 3 inches of rain in twenty minutes on Friday night. Streets were flooded, cars were stalled out, all out mayhem ensued. I still found the courage to brave Tropical Storm Benny (since it was the second of the season and I watched Benny and Joon today) and go to drag night at the Hi-Lo. Good decisions all around.


Rain dance.

Bigger pictures of the torrential down pour if you care.



This video is priceless for several reasons: 1) Chelsey's sound effects when she splashes the water. 2) It's a pretty accurate representation of what happens when I start freaking out over the weather; Cat: "There's a tornado!" Chelsey: "There's not a tornado."

I wish I could say I was doing more with my life than freaking out over weather. But here's the thing: my rent's paid up until July. Job searching is much harder when that's taken care of.

Do the right thing.

Look who survived her very first tornado warning.

Sirens went off at about 10:30, as Chelsey and me were watching Twilight (I know, I KNOW). I promptly freaked out, Chelsey laughed, and we turned on the weather, which told us the "tornado activity" was in the southern part of the city, almost 20 miles away. No matter, between the wind, the rain and the radar, that crap was scary.

Video of the craaaazy lightning:


It didn't effect Chelsey at all. I don't know, I guess it's a regional thing. I can eat anything spicy, but Chelsey's not scared of tornadoes. Yeah, same thing.

Still no hot water. brb, braving coldness in the name of clean hair.

Driftwood.

So, last night me and Chelsey went out for $7 All You Drink Killians at her favorite bar, the Hi-Lo. When we left, it became clear that the wind was getting pretty intense. We went to Whataburger and the lights started flickering, which made Drunkie Cat assume that there HAD to be a tornado somewhere close by. We get back to the condo and what do we behold, but:


God hates Fords.


Yeah, that's a transformer and a power pole through a Mustang.


Completely destroyed that car.

The good news is I live with Chelsey and she's super good at storms in Oklahoma:

Look at her already clearing the damage!

It reminds me a lot of this glorious photo, taken on the Gulf a year after Katrina:

LOLing in the face of destruction.

The bad news is the storms are only supposed to get worse. They're talking about flash floods, 80+ mile an hour winds, baseball size hail and dare I say tornadoes until the early hours of the morning. So, I'll probably be spending most of my night listening for sirens and hiding in my bathtub. I remember when Albuquerque had a tornado watch about a year ago and thinking it was super cute. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. But here, dudes, I've never seen clouds so low. I'm trying hard not to freak out, but it's scaaaaary.

More awesomeness: That power pole that killed the Mustang also killed most of the electrical in our complex. We didn't have power for 6 hours this morning and we won't have hot water until mid-day tomorrow. This is unfortunate because in my drunken excitement over taking pictures of the carnage last night, I slipped and fell on a puddle of some sort of goo (which I am now reading was probably coolant from the transformer). And when I mean fell, I mean I was leveled before I even knew what had happened. Pretty sore today. And sticky from transformer coolant and the Sprite I dropped when I feel. I could really use a shower. It would be pretty awesome if I got called back for a job interview tomorrow.

Also, little sister qualified for the FINAL of the 100m hurdles at the NM High School State Track and Field Championships. She raced in the prelims today and had the 5th fastest time in the state. She's only a freshman!

Days turning into nights.

Selections from the Cat Vanderpool American Gothic series on outdoor furniture:


Chelsey and myself celebrating the splendors of moving: the Pier One discount section, new coffee makers and tea pots.


Me and Momma celebrating her 24th Mothers day as my Momma (25 if you count the one in utero. In case, you have not formally met the giant orangutan, her name is Suzanne. YES, obvious Kevin Smith reference, but this is taken from Mallrats, not Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. She dates back to the Hallmark year and is the largest, single purchase I made the entire time I worked there. Her and Russell Stover jelly beans (be still, my beating heart!).

I've lost my voice again. My Dad's convinced the El Rey has given me some sort of mold, which I don't entirely rule out, seeing as I don't seem to get sick until I work there for a night. I'm presuming it's allergies; it has to be by this point. I've been sick for the better part of two months. Definitely some unique symptoms, though. I'm considering going to a free clinic in the next few days just to make sure, you know, Swine Flu hasn't mutated with Haunta Virus and created Haunta Swine. (NAME YOUR BAND RIGHT NOW.)

MOLD:

Yeah, the Rey's got some of that.

You know what else had some of that? The house on Princeton after the roof collapsed. Man, I really loved that house. But post-roof collapse, I got in the habit of sleeping with a blanket over my nose and mouth (something I still do) just because I was so scared about what I might have been breathing in. And now that I look back on it, it really is a miracle me and Kenneth didn' get some kind of bizarre disease. OR MAYBE WE DID and it's just been dormant all this time. In my lungs, hanging out, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Point is, contemplating lung-mold is much better than job hunting.

I left Oklahoma and the sun was out. I went back to Albuquerque, watched Flood the Sun release a CD and kick off a tour, did some minor car repairs to my stupid-crap battery, worked a shift at the Rey (O'Niell's staff came in and they were awesomely generous tippers. Thanks for remembering me, ladiez!) and bought my mom a McFlurry. 48 hours later, I come back and we're back to low clouds and thunderstorms forecasted for the next week. Unbelievable. It does keep things cool, though. It's not that I mind the weather, I always loved rainy Raton summers. It's just that I'm completely not used to it. Humidity is a beast this desert gal is not yet prepared for. I'm glad I have a temperate May to transition me into the muggy summer.


Lake Hefner is a 2580 acre impoundment completed in 1947 and operated by Oklahoma City. Water is bought into the lake from the North Canadian River and from the Canton Reservoir in Blaine County.

It is also a mile and a half from condo. Hello hello, summer.

Pay the phone bill.

Raton's cute. I got a text message from Mark about a week ago, telling me he interviewed someone from Raton in his office. I didn't quite know her, but as it goes with people from Raton, I knew of her. Anyway, I get a message on facebook from her yesterday telling me about meeting Mark and that she went for another interview at the tech company I worked for when I started high school. Whaaaat? Congratulations New Mexico, you've done it again.

Speaking of, headed home tomorrow. Flood the Sun's releasing a CD and kicking off a tour tomorrow night, I'm working at the Rey on Saturday and somewhere in there, I need to burlesque a bit with Sarebear. Quick trip, but a necessary one.

Oklahoma's still treating me well. The sun FINALLY came out yesterday; the first time I'd seen it for longer than five minutes since I moved. I've located a Bank of America, a Walgreens, a Target, a gas station, a liquor store and a Taco Bell. All in my neighborhood. You know, the basics. No jobs yet, but Chelsey's still nailing it.

I miss desert air.

Leaving you with nothing.

New roommate Chelsey is proving to be the new queen of one liners:

Cat: "Is that the bag of Garrett's stuff?" (Stuff that needs to be returned to an ex-boyfriend)
Chelsey: "Yeah. I wanna pee in it."

And on a separate occasion:

Chelsey: "All I can think about when I hear the Postal Service is a fat, naked man." (I could explain the context, but quite honestly, I think it's better if I don't.)

Today, I successfully navigated myself to the neighborhood mall, then to the Pottery Barn inside the mall. On the way out, I found a lady's credit card and spent 15 minutes trying to find an information desk to return it to. Once I was done, it seemed pretty pointless. If I lost a credit card anywhere around a mall, I never would think to call the mall and see if anyone returned it. But, I've got no need for bad karma at this point. I also went to Walmart, which is nearly across the street from the mall, but it takes 20 minutes to get there. Once inside the Walmart, I spent 20 minutes looking for Laughing Cow Mini Babybel semisoft cheeses.

Anyway, spent most of my day looking for things. But once I found them, I felt pretty good about myself. My feet are shaky here, and I miss knowing where everything is. But today's moderate excursion made me feel like I was making progress.

The weather outside is weather.

I live in Oklahoma now.

I've been busy since I've been in Oklahoma. Wednesday: I got in, narrowly outrunning a huge rain storm and getting pulled over by an agent of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. Apparently, I was "drifting off the road". My true crime, I'm sure, was carrying a mattress and having out of state plates. Lesson #1 about Oklahoma: They have a Bureau of Narcotics that gets enough money to hire agents to patrol highways. Thursday, I went with Matt to Tulsa to watch him record some vocals with the infamous Stephen Egerton and saw a midnight showing of Wolverine. Friday, I went to an MC Chris show, then a drag show, and then a house party where there was a 3 month old cocker spaniel puppy. HEART MELTED. Today, I saw John Moreland and the Black Gold Band play at the Oklahoma History Center. Somewhere in there, I found time to unpack my life into a new room.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to think about leaving. I feel a little delicate, a little like I'm just waiting for the brick wall. I haven't really gotten to the point where I'm missing things a lot, with the exception of Kyle. Miss him like deserts miss the rain. But all in all, this move feels really calculated. Almost routine. I'm not sleeping well, my body misses desert sleeping. This humidity is a lot harder to take than I remember. And it's not even summer yet.


It's been overcast and rainy since I got here. Everything's so incredibly green and clean-looking. The clouds are ridiculously low all the time. It's compacting, but it's still got that midwestern feeling of limitless at the same time.

New roommate Chelsey is an absolute dear. She loves Oklahoma so much, so she's not only making a special effort to show me around, she's also sympathetic about when I do miss home. And our place is great. Pictures to follow shortly.

No job yet, haven't been looking too hard. I'm sure when that freakout comes, it'll be massive.


I've got a giant oak tree in my new backyard. When the wind blows, which is pretty often, it sounds nothing sort of magical. My only regret is that I can't climb it.