Livin’ on Tulsa Time

I love this place. I love Oklahoma. I really do. Okies really are the salt of the earth. I have encountered nothing but loving people here.
I work with some really awesome people. I was lucky enough to have some really awesome neighbors and friends. My job at Youth Services has been an incredible experience.

But its time to go. I have a feeling another ice storm is coming. tis October and its already getting pretty cold. I either have to commit for the winter, or leave.

Commitment means buying an actual bed, possibly even a car, lots of winter gear, a television, record player, things one buys when they settle down.

I just can’t do it here unfortunately. Too many ghosts, and I just can’t
handle another winter here. Mentally I just don’t have it in me.

But its been such a great time and knowing that my time here is limited gives me back the freshness I had when I first got here. There is the desire to soak every moment up.

I’ve gotten to see a couple of Thunder games, spent some time in Norman, and OKC….
its been such a myriad of emotions….

having seen a friend in SF for the first time in a year and a half, she wanted to know what had changed me so much….she said I seemed much more solid……so what happened?????

Life……pregnancy scares, domestic violence, busting my ass day and night to get stuff taken care of…..a couple of books later, a couple of tours later, wandering the streets of Portland, trying to find my way back home……..

there is this saying among blues musicians, a term for paying your dues called “getting some mud on you”

I really know what the blues is like now……..I know firsthand how delicious the combination of country music and stake is.

I’ve seen some “hard hard places” like in Joni Mitchell’s “Help ME.”

Its been great. Living life…..I knew there was a reason to move here, and no matter hwo hard it got for me I stuck it out here until the same voice that told me to move here, was telling me to leave.

I’d been working waaaaay too much to compensate for my home life. Once me and the first old lady split, the job was the only thing keeping me here was my job.

When I got back from Toronto this July, I got really depressed and it was tough to even be home. I worked all night, slept all day and then wrote all night….i was very productive, but it was tough being at home….
coming back to my sleeping bag and beat up computer…..

So it is time to switch gears.
Move to Oregon, start a country band, do some Tai Chi, record a comedy album…….time to move on.

A couple of midwest gigs left, and a few more things to do before I go……….it’s been a really good trip… and if the day comes and its time to come back……well I’m okay with that too.