Oooook-lahoma!

I'm writing my first post on this, my brand new Coffee House Blog, from my daughter Jessica's home in Oklahoma, where I'm visiting. My native habitat is the very rural southern-tier of New York state, in a dairy farming town where there are more cows than humans, so I'm used to country. But it's very different here in a lot of ways. I would not, for example, have expected to see a bison grazing along the side of the road at home. We don't have prairie dogs at home either, and our longhorns are strictly on ranches, never roaming wild and free on the prairie-lands like they are here. We don't even have prairies. (Lots of forests, though.)

Jessica, Brett, and Benny on Mt. Scott

I'm relishing every second of my visit with my middle daughter, who is also my personal assistant, cover artist, ebook formatter, PR specialist and all around right-hand-woman. We have a special bond, Jessie and I. We think alike.  Several times since I've been here, we've both dropped the same bad pun at the same time, making her poor hubby just look at us and shake his head. She's been here in OK since February and will be until late October. I miss her terribly when she's away, but being married to a military man, this won't be the last time. Thank goodness Ben doesn't mind lengthy visits from his mother in law. (He told me once that he feels like he won the mother in law lottery. I want to have that printed on a T-shirt!)  They have three gorgeous sons, Benny 7, Braden 3, and Brett almost 2, and another boy on the way in September. I'll definitely be back down here then. I've never missed a grandchild's birth and don't intend to start now!

Ben and Braden on Mt. Scott

Even with all the bliss, I miss home. I don't do well away, don't sleep well, don't work well, don't workout well (or at all) and just gradually feel my energy stream weakening bit by bit. I'm like a vampire. Need to sleep on my native soil. I miss my fiancé like I'd miss a limb. I miss my bulldog. And the mastiffs and the cats and the house. But it's going to be hard to leave. Little Benny has been sleeping with me every night I've been here and his little heart will be broken when I have to go. I get weepy just thinking about it.

When are we getting those transporters Gene Roddenberry created for Kirk and Spock, anyway? I want to be able to beam back and forth in about 3.5 seconds!

As I write this, Oklahomans not far from where I'm sitting have had their lives turned inside out by severe storms and a string of tornados, which missed us where we are.  I hope to organize a fund-raiser for them as soon as this trip is over and I'm back home at my desk. More on that later. Meanwhile, I'm beaming love and prayers for all those impacted by the storms. I'm with you in spirit, and you are very loved.

And now the boys are waking up and it's time to go bask in them a little more. 🙂