this is my OK life

Butch Walker. An old crush and an old friend. Prior to my wife and motherhood days, I was a concert photographer. Prior to that, I was a disc jockey and music enthusiast. And really, the disc jockey thing was the result of being a music enthusiast my entire life. My point is that I have been to thousands of concerts in my young adult life. I've met tons and tons of rock superstars and some not so famous who were equally as fabulous.

The latter used to be Butch Walker. He was in a band called Marvelous 3. They played an Edge event back in 98 or 99 at the River Parks Amphitheater in Tulsa - way back before anyone had ever really heard of them. I came, I saw, I conquered - or something like that.

I've never had a problem talking to musicians. I've been friends with enough of them to know they're real people - with a passion for music (like I have). During a meet and greet side stage, I talked to Butch for quite some time. This was before anyone really knew anything about Marvelous 3 which probably made it easier for me to score so much time with him uninterrupted. While I was certainly attracted to him, I was more interested in just straight up talking to him. On tour, most musicians rarely ever want to talk about being in the band. They want to talk about something completely different - and what we talked about were things we had in common. At the end of the day, we exchanged email addresses and started writing to each other for several months.

I really enjoyed the friendship we were creating. I wasn't looked at as a groupie even when we talked about music. We talked about other things happening in our lives and other interests too. But I got in this phase in my life where I didn't want a lot of long distance friendships in my life. I needed more friendships near me. And who was this Butch Walker anyway? Just some one hit wonder who would eventually go back to his life doing something behind the scenes in music when his rockstar days ended? What were the chances I would ever see him again after the fall of Marvelous 3? There would be no tour to bring him back to me. I had my own life going on and couldn't just leave town for weeks to go visit him. I simply stopped writing him back.

That was probably the friendship I regret ending the most. Would Butch remember me now? I don't think he would. It was a friendship of a couple of months that I threw away because I didn't think I'd ever see him again. It was years ago.

For those of you who have never heard of Butch Walker, I recommend you check this out (and this) and then feel free to comment on what a bonehead I was for letting that friendship go. For someone who can't even describe with words her passion for music, he certainly would have made a great friend for me - even if I never did see him again.

Check out this Route 66 Cookbook I picked up at the library today! I'm so proud of it even if it's just on loan to me.

Route 66 history is so big in Oklahoma - especially in Tulsa. Did you know Oklahoma was home to 432 miles of this historic highway? It's second to New Mexico who had the most miles - 487. While Route 66 may have changed over the years, one thing that never took a backseat is the food!

The best thing about the food is that the cuisine would change right along with the scenery. Many restaurants and diners along the highway focused on meals like omelets, biscuits and gravy, burgers, fried chicken, barbecue, ice cream and pie. But the taste of each dish changed from state to state because the cooks would rely on what was available to them. You wouldn't necessarily find anything "fancy" along the route, but what you could find is preserved in this cookbook. In this book are the treasured recipes of men and women who helped preserve a key length of Americana.

Nearby, in the heart of the Red Fork area of Tulsa, Ollie's Restaurant has become a friendly neighborhood retreat with a mom-and-pop atmosphere. Ollie's is about 330 yards south of the first oil well in Tulsa County. It is built from native stone in the true old roadhouse tradition. Decor can be summed up in one word: trains. The old cafe style is enhanced by the railroad motif. Ten running trains, from G-scale to Z-scale, run the length of the dining room and through scale model cities and towns. It was a favorite for Route 66 travelers and is still a hit today with my little girls.

Warm cinnamon rolls at Ollie's come big and gooey with light layers that pull apart. Linda Gray, the owner's wife, says that this recipe makes enough for half a day at Ollie's. Leftovers become bread pudding, and Ollie's favorite tradition.

You may have learned in my last post that I am a fan of office supplies and organization. As a kid, I would frequently role play "office" and "school" because it allowed me to play with folders, notebooks, pens, rulers, etc. As an adult, my escape to serenity involves sitting at my desk in my bedroom/office. When I need to get out of the house and clear my head, I will sometimes drive over to the local office supply store and look around.

To some of you, that may sound a little weird and possibly OCD.

To others, you may think I'm just like you.

If you fall into that second group, you may want to check out this event happening at your nearby Pottery Barn store.

Learn how to select furniture to set up the perfect home office.

Having three children, this question has been asked more than once: "What does Heaven look like?" There are a lot of different answers I've been given when I've asked that question. The answer I give my children? "I don't honestly know what it looks like because I've never been. But I do know it is going to be much better than Earth." Of course, they have a hard time comprehending anything better than Earth right now because they're still kids and everything in their heads is still so innocent.

What if we could create our own personal Heaven based on the things we loved about Earth? If we were able to create what our own individual piece of Heaven would be like... this would be mine:

Everything would be completely organized. Mondays would feel like Saturdays. There would never be chaos. You could come and go as you please. My Heavenly Mansion would resemble a well organized office - something similar to what The Pottery Barn displays in their catalogs (see picture). There would also be my own personal coffee shop inside. There would be no shortage of office supplies. In fact, since I can hop from cloud to cloud, I won't need a vehicle in my garage. Instead, I will turn it into what looks like an office supply store and call it my hang out. Being surrounded by office supplies makes me a happy gal.

Also in my Heaven, there would be angels available at all times to wash my hair for me whenever I wanted (see picture). And my hair would never fall out from too much washing or over-drying. It would always be so beautiful. I'm sure if you have ever had your hair washed by someone at a beauty salon, you'd agree that's probably what Heaven feels like.

I'm pretty sure in my own personal Heaven, I would look something like Gene Tierney (see picture). I would sit around watching old 1950s movies (especially White Christmas) and feel like I'm watching them for the first time every time. I would listen to all of my music on vinyl records. My furniture would be white and it would never stain. I would have windows decorating every wall to allow as much natural sunlight as possible. God would turn off the lights for me when it was time for bed.

I would have a cute 1950s style kitchen (see picture) and would be able to cook with my favorite chefs/bakers like Julia Child, Ina Garten, Alton Brown, Curtis Stone, Bakerella and Anthony Bourdain. Okay, maybe I wouldn't want to eat the meals served by Anthony Bourdain, but he could still be invited to dinner. I do realize most of these chefs/bakers are still alive, but I plan to live a long life and I imagine most of them will be making it to Heaven around the time I do (especially if we're all eating the same things in this life). All of my recipe cards would be written with perfect penmanship.

Of course, I have my own ways of enjoying many of these things Earthly-style while I'm still on this Earth. But when I die, this is what I imagine my Heaven will be like. I can't even fathom a Heaven better than this and that is why I desire to live a life that takes me there. I want to know what it's really like.

If you could create your own personal Heaven, what would it look like?

I realize there are people who can not tolerate clothing or home decor that used to belong to someone else, but I don't mind. I believe you will never find a treasure unless you introduce yourself to a thrift store. There are thousands of treasures just waiting to be found.

There are certainly people out there who have a different opinion of what a treasure is. For me, it's an item that reminds me of something or fills a void of something I've always wanted. Most of the time, it reminds me of an era that I never got to be a part of that I'm fascinated with. There's no time travel available to me, so finding these antiques/treasures are the closet I'll get to being a part of the 1950s (or any other decade before me).

I seem to have this gift of being able to find a treasure in a thrift store if there's one to find. Maybe it's because I've been a thrift store shopper since the Fall of '97. Maybe it's because I have such a passion for vintage/antique items. Maybe it's because I'm so open to owning something someone else wanted to get rid of. Your trash has become my treasure.

Today's treasure? A large yellow recipe box full of 643 Betty Crocker recipe cards circa 1971 (The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library). It cost me only $3. I also bought a cute ceramic bird house cookie jar. If you're just getting to know me, you'll learn along the way just how much I love all things birds. The cookie jar was also only $3 (half price today).