Oklahoma.
To me, it is home. My dad was born here, lived here with my Uncle Joe in the summertime, my little sister was born here, my son was... I was raised here since I was 2! This place might have tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, blizzards, drought with fires, ice storms, ridiculous heat. 120 sometimes... ridiculous winters... oh hey -25 windchill. Oh, don't forget the bipolar mother nature who seems to be on her time of the month 365 days out of the year here. 87 degrees one day, 30 and snowing the next. We will have all 4 seasons, in a 24 hour period. No joke. It's home though. We might always complain about how dreadfully dry and muggy it is, and how you can cut the air with a knife. We also complain when it is freezing with no ice or snow, or when we get a so called "blizzard" when we get a dusting. Even when we do get real blizzards and by hour 6 we want to strangle most of our family members. We enjoy our crazy, awesome home.
Red dirt music, red dirt roads, floatin on the river... or taking the trucks, jeeps, four wheelers out to the river, sand dunes, muddy back roads. We love it. Well, I do. I get excited hearing about rain. Knowing I can go get stuck out in some mud, or get extremely dirty from it spraying everywhere. I cannot wait to show my son! This is how your momma and her friends all had fun. Being with one another. Bon fires, music cranked up, singing like a horrible hopeful on American Idol. Cruising down Route 66 from Small Town USA. Calf Fry, Jake FM, Two Stepping. All of it. Oklahoma is Home. I love it.
Grapes of Wrath, Oklahoma!, Cars... We are in movies, musicals you name it. The porche from CARS. (disney/pixar) is about us. We are more than you expect. Our state song is from the musical, Oklahoma! Grapes of Wrath. Dust Bowl startin here.
OU Football baby! We are number 1. My team anyways. We are a competitive state. OSU and OU go at it once Football season starts. There is only ONE Oklahoma.
Don't forget to Thunder Up. Especially in Loud City, Thunder Alley, your workplace, all around the nation, anywhere. We have the best team ever. EVER. Suck it Lebron. :)
Bible Belt, Lord have mercy... We don't care if you are gay, we don't care if you love a hooker, we don't care if you are Atheist. We learned to love one another in church regardless of people's flaws. From Southern Baptist to Greek Orthodox we have em all. Now, if you are coming from outta state and wanna buy liquor on certain holidays. For example, Christmas, New Years, 4th of July, Thanksgiving or Labor Day. Ain't gunna happen, Jack. Better buy before 9 pm too. Oh, and our beer content sucks. 3.5%. Anyways, saying Bless your heart. Is the sweet way of saying F**k off or you should just shut up, you are an idiot. Trust me, I use it a lot. Sometimes we use it in a serious way, saying it like we mean it. Like, Bless your heart, sweetie. Hope ya get better. We mean it in that context right there just like that. We care for you.
Deer, Turkey, Duck, Boar. October 1st should be a Holiday here in Oklahoma. More people get excited about Deer season than anything. Some people live off of it. Your first kill. The adrenaline rush seeing a buck out in the distance usually tailing a doe or two. Right outside your blind, tree stand, or you walk upon it. Even if you come home empty handed. You are the happiest just going out to the woods, not a care in the world, dressed in your coveralls, thermals, or just some camo attire. If you cannot tell the difference between redhead, realtree, or mossy oak, some people here will stare at ya in a bizarre state of mind. Yet, no one cares because you are wearing the shades of the gods.
When a disaster happens here in Oklahoma or anywhere.. Our hearts are filled with care and worry. April 19, 1995 a man, named Timothy McVeigh bombed our Murrah Building downtown. Killing 163 people. Many children were lost, many parents, just loved ones in general. Every year when that day rolls around... our hearts become heavy. I remember exactly where I was when it happened. My momma was in the kitchen. I was watching Nick Jr.. Face was on TV. Something started shaking our house. My mom called my dad, turned it to the news and started crying. Everyone back in California was calling to make sure we were okay. I remember driving downtown to see the building. How horrific it looked. I was not even 5 yet. I went to the memorial museum in July of 2011. Right before my son was born. I won't lie, I got teary eyed. How can someone do something like this? Why do people do things like this. And he was an American. Which made it even worse. Our community always comes together at a time like this to comfort one another.
Tornadoes. May 3, 1999. Running from the tornado to Chandler, OK. to hide in a basement of a church there. My grandma showed up to our house here in OKC from Chandler and my dad said we gotta run. We didn't know if hiding in our bathroom cabinet and tub was enough to save us. Granted it was going to, but, living here, the paths change CONSTANTLY. We got a storm shelter not too long after that. Moore was flattened that year. Stroud had their biggest business demolished. A tornado warning and/or watch has been issued every year I have lived in Oklahoma on my birthday. June 13th. The most recent tornadoes... May 20, 2013... All I remember is staring at the TV going Oh my god. And texting my boyfriend saying oh my god. oh my god. It's worse than May 3rd. You couldn't get ahold of anyone. People at work lost their homes, someone couldn't find their brother (but did eventually, thank god.) Friends lost their homes. But, they were alive. The biggest impact, was crying hearing that children were deceased. Drowned or killed by the twister. Kids. Who had their whole lives ahead of them. I came home from work and held my son even tighter that morning. Thanking God he was here, and in my arms. Because, some people couldn't get to hold their loved ones anymore. My best friend was a first responder. He was deployed to the elementary school, Plaza Towers, where he had to see things no one should EVER have to see. I know I couldn't have done that. I would have had a mental breakdown. Then yesterday. May 31, 2013 Mass flooding, Damaging homes, going through the I-35 highway lifting cars a bit off the ground, scaring people, no doubt, flooding cars, sitting in the shelter for an hour and 5 minutes. You know when Gary England takes his jacket off on News 9 it is serious, and about to get real. If Mike Morgan wears his bedazzled ties that some blind lady picked for him. You know it is gunna be one dramatic evening of events.
Okies always will rise together. We are like a phoenix, rising out of the ashes and the ruble to become stronger and better than ever. More glorious than before. We will heal. We are one. A community. A family of a little over a million. We are Oklahoma Strong. I might wanna pull my hair out living in the nation of crazy and awesome. Politics make me wanna move sometimes to Australia or Scotland. But, Oklahoma is home. I always find myself back here. I might move away one day for good. I will always come back though. The red dirt on my skin, the river flowing as my blood, and the wind in my hair. Oklahoma is love, a family, happiness. We make you feel at home if we just met ya, and we will invite you with open arms. Come visit this place we call home.
xoxo
Kylie
To me, it is home. My dad was born here, lived here with my Uncle Joe in the summertime, my little sister was born here, my son was... I was raised here since I was 2! This place might have tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, blizzards, drought with fires, ice storms, ridiculous heat. 120 sometimes... ridiculous winters... oh hey -25 windchill. Oh, don't forget the bipolar mother nature who seems to be on her time of the month 365 days out of the year here. 87 degrees one day, 30 and snowing the next. We will have all 4 seasons, in a 24 hour period. No joke. It's home though. We might always complain about how dreadfully dry and muggy it is, and how you can cut the air with a knife. We also complain when it is freezing with no ice or snow, or when we get a so called "blizzard" when we get a dusting. Even when we do get real blizzards and by hour 6 we want to strangle most of our family members. We enjoy our crazy, awesome home.
Red dirt music, red dirt roads, floatin on the river... or taking the trucks, jeeps, four wheelers out to the river, sand dunes, muddy back roads. We love it. Well, I do. I get excited hearing about rain. Knowing I can go get stuck out in some mud, or get extremely dirty from it spraying everywhere. I cannot wait to show my son! This is how your momma and her friends all had fun. Being with one another. Bon fires, music cranked up, singing like a horrible hopeful on American Idol. Cruising down Route 66 from Small Town USA. Calf Fry, Jake FM, Two Stepping. All of it. Oklahoma is Home. I love it.
Grapes of Wrath, Oklahoma!, Cars... We are in movies, musicals you name it. The porche from CARS. (disney/pixar) is about us. We are more than you expect. Our state song is from the musical, Oklahoma! Grapes of Wrath. Dust Bowl startin here.
OU Football baby! We are number 1. My team anyways. We are a competitive state. OSU and OU go at it once Football season starts. There is only ONE Oklahoma.
Don't forget to Thunder Up. Especially in Loud City, Thunder Alley, your workplace, all around the nation, anywhere. We have the best team ever. EVER. Suck it Lebron. :)
Bible Belt, Lord have mercy... We don't care if you are gay, we don't care if you love a hooker, we don't care if you are Atheist. We learned to love one another in church regardless of people's flaws. From Southern Baptist to Greek Orthodox we have em all. Now, if you are coming from outta state and wanna buy liquor on certain holidays. For example, Christmas, New Years, 4th of July, Thanksgiving or Labor Day. Ain't gunna happen, Jack. Better buy before 9 pm too. Oh, and our beer content sucks. 3.5%. Anyways, saying Bless your heart. Is the sweet way of saying F**k off or you should just shut up, you are an idiot. Trust me, I use it a lot. Sometimes we use it in a serious way, saying it like we mean it. Like, Bless your heart, sweetie. Hope ya get better. We mean it in that context right there just like that. We care for you.
Deer, Turkey, Duck, Boar. October 1st should be a Holiday here in Oklahoma. More people get excited about Deer season than anything. Some people live off of it. Your first kill. The adrenaline rush seeing a buck out in the distance usually tailing a doe or two. Right outside your blind, tree stand, or you walk upon it. Even if you come home empty handed. You are the happiest just going out to the woods, not a care in the world, dressed in your coveralls, thermals, or just some camo attire. If you cannot tell the difference between redhead, realtree, or mossy oak, some people here will stare at ya in a bizarre state of mind. Yet, no one cares because you are wearing the shades of the gods.
When a disaster happens here in Oklahoma or anywhere.. Our hearts are filled with care and worry. April 19, 1995 a man, named Timothy McVeigh bombed our Murrah Building downtown. Killing 163 people. Many children were lost, many parents, just loved ones in general. Every year when that day rolls around... our hearts become heavy. I remember exactly where I was when it happened. My momma was in the kitchen. I was watching Nick Jr.. Face was on TV. Something started shaking our house. My mom called my dad, turned it to the news and started crying. Everyone back in California was calling to make sure we were okay. I remember driving downtown to see the building. How horrific it looked. I was not even 5 yet. I went to the memorial museum in July of 2011. Right before my son was born. I won't lie, I got teary eyed. How can someone do something like this? Why do people do things like this. And he was an American. Which made it even worse. Our community always comes together at a time like this to comfort one another.
Tornadoes. May 3, 1999. Running from the tornado to Chandler, OK. to hide in a basement of a church there. My grandma showed up to our house here in OKC from Chandler and my dad said we gotta run. We didn't know if hiding in our bathroom cabinet and tub was enough to save us. Granted it was going to, but, living here, the paths change CONSTANTLY. We got a storm shelter not too long after that. Moore was flattened that year. Stroud had their biggest business demolished. A tornado warning and/or watch has been issued every year I have lived in Oklahoma on my birthday. June 13th. The most recent tornadoes... May 20, 2013... All I remember is staring at the TV going Oh my god. And texting my boyfriend saying oh my god. oh my god. It's worse than May 3rd. You couldn't get ahold of anyone. People at work lost their homes, someone couldn't find their brother (but did eventually, thank god.) Friends lost their homes. But, they were alive. The biggest impact, was crying hearing that children were deceased. Drowned or killed by the twister. Kids. Who had their whole lives ahead of them. I came home from work and held my son even tighter that morning. Thanking God he was here, and in my arms. Because, some people couldn't get to hold their loved ones anymore. My best friend was a first responder. He was deployed to the elementary school, Plaza Towers, where he had to see things no one should EVER have to see. I know I couldn't have done that. I would have had a mental breakdown. Then yesterday. May 31, 2013 Mass flooding, Damaging homes, going through the I-35 highway lifting cars a bit off the ground, scaring people, no doubt, flooding cars, sitting in the shelter for an hour and 5 minutes. You know when Gary England takes his jacket off on News 9 it is serious, and about to get real. If Mike Morgan wears his bedazzled ties that some blind lady picked for him. You know it is gunna be one dramatic evening of events.
Okies always will rise together. We are like a phoenix, rising out of the ashes and the ruble to become stronger and better than ever. More glorious than before. We will heal. We are one. A community. A family of a little over a million. We are Oklahoma Strong. I might wanna pull my hair out living in the nation of crazy and awesome. Politics make me wanna move sometimes to Australia or Scotland. But, Oklahoma is home. I always find myself back here. I might move away one day for good. I will always come back though. The red dirt on my skin, the river flowing as my blood, and the wind in my hair. Oklahoma is love, a family, happiness. We make you feel at home if we just met ya, and we will invite you with open arms. Come visit this place we call home.
xoxo
Kylie
