Thank you to Robert Burns for the wonderful line "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" in his poem To A Mouse (1786). The loose translation "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray" is the perfect description of my trip to Tulsa.
I should have known things weren't going to turn out right when my plans changed from the get-go. I was originally planning on waiting until my wife left for work, dressing, putting on my makeup and nails, and heading due north to Tulsa. Well, that didn't go as planned as she was feeling ill that morning and the threat of her returning to the house hastened my departure. I hurriedly dressed in my clothes for the trip and left without putting on my makeup and nails. I had everything already in my car but because of my premature departure, I had to go to my storage building to finish preparing. That delayed my trip by over an hour and put me in a hurry to get ready. I was wearing my black slacks with my beige and black cap sleeve blouse and black blazer. I also had on black pantyhose and my black patent cross strap heels. Sorry, no pictures! I actually looked OK, but the rush to get out of town left me in a funk. The funk got even worse when I crossed the Oklahoma border. I was planning on stopping at Choctaw on the way up there to try and increase my cash, but as soon as I crossed into Oklahoma, the rain started. Knowing that the rain would delay my arrival even more, I decided to forego the casino and head to Tulsa.
I got into Tulsa at about 2PM and decided to go check in at the motel. I stopped at the local car wash and removed my nails and makeup, put my tennis shoes on instead of my heels, put a hoodie on over my blouse, and checked in. Since the event I was attending wasn't until 5PM and was only about 10 miles from the hotel, I decided to get everything unpacked and put up before I left. Big mistake!
When I returned to the hotel that night, I could not help but notice that this wasn't the best part of town and that the hotel was directly in the flight path for planes taking off from Tulsa International Airport. Needless to say, I got very little sleep that night.
The next day, I met up with a couple of my friends and spent a few hours with them. They were staying at the Embassy Suites and had a pull out couch. They asked me to cancel my reservation and take over the pull out. This was a hard decision for me, because they do not know about Janet and staying with them meant no more Janet for the rest of the week. I ultimately decided that my safety was more important than dressing, repacked all my stuff (therein lies the reason for the previous "big mistake" comment), loaded up my car, and headed to the Embassy Suites.
That put the nix on any dressing until Sunday for the return trip home. I stopped at a car wash on the way, dressed in my green, blue, and purple colorblock dress, tan pantyhose, and navy patent high heel pumps, and headed home. Remember the quote at the beginning of the blog? The whole trip ended up being that way.
Halfway through the trip, I was drinking my soda and spilled half of it all down the front of my dress, soaking my dress and hose. I stopped at a rest stop, cleaned up, put on a new pair of hose, changed into my black jeans and blue oversized sweater with the same navy patent heels, and continued towards town. Because I had to change, I was still confident, but not as confident as I wanted to be. I decided to stop into Choctaw on the way home to try my luck and boost my confidence a little.
I forgot it was Sunday, and as I pulled into the parking garage I realized I might have made a mistake. How wrong I was! Anyhow, I changed into my black patent 2 1/2" heel pumps that are much easier to walk long distances in and walked inside. That is when all of my confidence issues changed. I was in the casino for an hour. I was not read, I was not bothered, and I ended up with the same amount I started with. I was SO glad I did that, because it was a huge morale booster.
After Choctaw, I decided to stop into a strip mall in a city north of Dallas to do some shopping. Another game changer! I stopped into the Rack Room shoes to see if they had any shoes I liked. Did they ever! They had a pair of black patent peep toe stiletto heels and a pair of black patent low kitten heel slingbacks that I fell in love with. I had to have them. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money, so I left without buying them. Not to fret--this story has a happy ending that I will get into---tomorrow!!
The fingers are exhausted after this post, so until tomorrow--have a great day!
