Cole met us in the parking lot and led us to his apartment. We winced as he opened the door and were stunned to find an immaculately clean apartment with two very normal boys sitting in the living room (the fourth roommate would not emerge from his room for the next two days, to each his own). We warmed to his roommates, Frank and Derek, instantly. They were like yin and yang. While Frank eagerly planned our visit to Norman, OK, Derek played the straight man, reeling in Frank whenever he got too excited. As midnight hit Ch'nel casually mentioned that it was now my birthday, the boys smiled and promised me a fantastic 23rd, University of Oklahoma style. Before going to bed we took a quick trip to Cosmic Pizza (or something or other) for some Frosty Fingers which was frosting covered pizza dough. I miss college.
When we woke up the next morning Cole made us a fantastic breakfast of reheated frosty fingers before rallying the troops. Frank laid out the days plans, which basically was a list of restaurants that we were going to eat at, then ordered us all into his car. After Frank and Cole climbed into the front Ch'nel and I climbed into the back and were suddenly joined by Derek. We had taken his silence to mean that he wasn't coming but by the grace of God he was along for the ride. I say by the grace of God because as Frank was simultaneously driving and giving us a tour of town he was not paying attention to traffic lights. As Frank approached a red traffic light at an alarming speed Derek shouted out his only three words of the ride "RED LIGHT FRANK!". New rule, Frank doesn't drive us anywhere without Derek.
Our first stop was one of the Oklahoma school stores so that we could buy t-shirts at Cole's insistence. I bought a red t-shirt that simply said "Oklahoma". I should note that I bought two souvenirs on this trip, a grey sweatshirt at the Grand Canyon that read "Grand Canyon" and a red t-shirt from Oklahoma that reads "Oklahoma".
After dropping Frank off at work Cole and Derek took us on a tour of the University of Oklahoma campus. I'm a huge fan of tours and it was fascinating what Cole and Derek thought we should see. Our first stop was the top floor classroom where Cole took Cherokee. This classroom was surrounded in windows and offered a stunning view of the area. Derek, an Oklahoma native, noticed that we were shocked to see that the area was so green and tree covered and explained that contrary to popular belief Eastern Oklahoma was one of the greenest areas in the US. Interesting.
Our next stop (via Cole's favorite statues on campus) was the music building. A seemingly small unassuming building which happens to house a giant organ. A nice hidden gem. We carried on through campus, passing by the Presidents house and the art museum (and well endowed statue of a woman that accompanied it) before ending up in a parking garage elevator.
As we stepped off onto the top deck Cole pointed out 'What everyone who comes to Oklahoma wants to see' from this point we could see into the gigantic football stadium that rises above campus. Coming from a small women's college and a small science school, college football was something that Ch'nel and I just did not know anything about. My only college football games were Princeton games, where the stadium is accessible to everyone to walk through or run stairs in. Hanging off the top deck of a parking garage was the only way I could truly grab the magnitude of Oklahoma football. A program so impressive that people literally have to sneak onto parking garages just to look at the field on off days. A program so impressive that people WANT to sneak onto parking garages to LOOK at the field on OFF days. It's both cool and ridiculous.
We met up with Frank again and headed off for lunch at Slim Chickens. The decision to go to Slims was the result of a long argument between the guys about which of the area's local establishments would be best. I always thought the lives of women at women's colleges revolved too much around food...I clearly never went to school with boys.
Side story. As the group piled into Slims I got a phone call from my dad wishing me Happy Birthday. I stayed out in the parking lot and was a little taken aback by the situation. I have never spent a birthday away from home (lame, I know) and suddenly here I am...in the middle of a parking lot, in the middle of Oklahoma, in the middle of the country, far away from my family. Old me would have gotten incredibly sentimental and sad...new me felt free and empowered. I was 23 and I was somewhere my family knew nothing about. This would be a great story about how mature and grown up I was except that, well, my 24th birthday was once again celebrated at the family dining room table. Eh, could be worse.
Back to Slims. I rejoined the group and got my meal of chicken fingers and fries. It was delicious. I don't know why, I don't know how, but it was fantastic. It came with dipping sauces and a giant soda and cost about 3 bucks. I love the non-northeast sections of the US, so cheap. Slims is apparently a chain and I will hope and pray that it comes to the Northeast eventually...or else I might just have to head back to the midwest.
Our day was far from over and we carried on to Lake Thunderbird. While I've been told it's a man made lake you never would know, it spread out across the horizon like it had always been there. After taking in the vista from the dock the boys went down to the small beach and started skipping rocks across the placid surface. I sat on a rock and smiled at the simplicity of it, it seemed straight out of a movie. I could only imagine the look on people's faces if they came to visit me and I suggested that we spend the afternoon skipping rocks down at Lake Carnegie, but here it seemed like exactly what we were supposed to do. So skip rocks we did, I celebrated getting three skips while Derek easily got ten or eleven out of a good stone.
Time seemed to slow down with every skip, it must have been Oklahoma. Nothing moved quickly out here, not even Cole. Here the guy who often ran from his house to our office (a distance of at least two towns and unknown miles) and danced as the Statue of Liberty calmly stood on the shore and tossed rocks into the lake. Here Ch'nel and I, who had raced through the country at a fairly rapid speed in retrospect, didn't think about what time we were leaving or what our plans for the next day were...we'd cross that bridge when we came to it. Right now, the only place we needed to be was Lake Thunderbird.
We packed up the car and headed back to the apartment to relax. Frank, who didn't know the way back, was at the mercy of Cole's directions. When Cole suggested that we turn left Frank insisted on heading straight instead. Luckily Derek, Frank's human GPS system, was with us and without missing a beat he bellowed "HE SAID TURN LEFT". Frank turned on a dime without making a peep and within minutes we were home. He Said Turn Left joined "Might I Suggest the Chicken Waldorf" as phrases that will to this day crack Chiz and myself up and confuse everyone else around us.
Back at the apartment we feasted on some pizza, played some video games and watched the Queen Latifah classic, Beauty Shop. The boys had invited some friends over for the night but we'll get to that in the next entry because Mattress Jousting deserves more than being the closing thought in an otherwise rambling entry.
