As expected... Tired. Exhausted. Weary. Big giant headache.
If you didn't know any better, and I told you today was Darby's fourth birthday, you'd think I meant she was four years old. But no, that would mean it was the fourth celebration of her 8th birthday. We always have two birthdays for the kids. One for family, and one for friends, it helps keep things straight. And then there's the actual birthday, which usually invovles some kind of celebrating, so that's three right there. Well, this year, since we had Darby's friend party on a Tuesday night, two of her best friends, who live in Tulsa, could not attend. We promised them we would make it up to them, so today, after art classes, we headed up to Tulsa for more birthday festivities.
First, it is important to note that we selected 2:00pm as the meeting time at a place to be named in a moment. Well, art classes end at 12:00pm, but 2 hrs is usually enough time to get to where you're going in Tulsa from OKC. If all goes well. While I had packed up everything we needed for the trip the night before, I had some running around to do while the girls were at art class, and I didn't have time to get gas. So after I picked them up and got them cleaned up, we stopped for gas, cash (no more brain freeze! I remember my PIN!), and snacks. Since I knew we were having lunch at 2, we got chips and drinks for the road.
Unfortunately with all of this last minute preparation, it was 12:35 when we finally got on the road. This is the bare minimum needed to get to anywhere in central (near the highway) or southern Tulsa. Also providing everything goes well. I was watching the clock the entire way, and by my calculation, we would make it to our destination right at 2pm if we didn't miss a beat. I had the cruise control locked in at 77 MPH (turnpike speed limit is 75), and we were making decent time. Until the last ten minutes. Which turned into twenty-five minutes.
When we reached the outer edge of the Tulsa metro, it was ten minutes until two. I knew from my past Tulsa experiences that it would take about ten minutes to get to the central part of the city, but I also knew that since we were going just three miles off the highway that we should still be okay, maybe being a few minutes late.
First mistake. Getting off the highway (I-44) at the 41st/Sheridan exit, I made a wrong turn. I turned left onto 41st Street instead of right. I had to drive maybe a half-mile down the road to find a good spot to turn around, as I realized right away what I had done, and that's when I hit the nasty traffic. I don't know what the heck was going on in Tulsa today, but it caused some issues for me. In general, I've always found Tulsa traffic (and roads) to be worse than those of OKC (if you can imagine). Today my personal prejudices about those road conditions were realized. Believe it or not, it took fifteen minutes to recover from my error, to travel the half-mile I drove to turn around, and mile to Sheridan on 41st. It took another ten minutes to go the two miles down the road to our destination. So, it took longer to travel that short distance than to get half-way into the city. Man do I hate traffic.
So we ended up being fifteen minutes late. Everybody was waiting on us when we walked into the doors of... Casa Bonita, or what I like to refer to as El Chuck E Cheese. It's a pretty neat place... good food, tokens, games, tickets, cheap prizes, shows. Kind of like Chuck E Cheese, only Mexican, thus my reference. There are a few distinct items that CEC doesn't have but Casa does, such as "the cave", where we were seated to eat, a piniata platform (which wasn't in operation today), and a full-size, free-to-ride carousel.
There were six kids and six adults, so I'd say this qualified as yet another birthday party for my over-priviledged (when it comes to birthdays) child. In addition to two of Darby's best friends, two of her cousins that live in Tulsa attended as well.
We had all-you-can-eat Mexican food, paid for many tokens, played many games, won many tickets, and walked away with a couple of cheap pencils, erasers, and magnifying glasses via our redeemed tickets. What a deal! And after about two ours, we headed out for more adventure.
You don't think I'd drive all the way to Tulsa to spend two hours there and come back do you?
We went from Casa Bonita to the movies to see the new Disney flick, Teacher's Pet, which was... strange. The kids seemed to like it a lot, but, while I did laugh at several spots, I was surprised to see this movie with a Disney label on it. It was more Nickelodian-ish to me, very Ren and Stimpy meets Spongbob or something, not that it was under water, but in the "feel" of the characters. And there was much singing, which was unexpected.
But wait, we're not done yet. After the movie we went to one of Darby's friend's houses and they had a dance/karaoke contents amongst themselves until everyone was hungry again (if you can believe it). We then proceeded to a nearby McDonald's so that we could eat an the kids could further play, since we don't get up there but a few times a year for all the old friends to get together.
We were very close to spending the night up there as it was after nine when we were wrapping up, but there were complications that prevented us from doing so (which the girls weren't real happy about, they really wanted a sleepover). So, after more than seven hours in T-Town, we headed back to OKC. All the while, ironically, I wished we had stayed in Tulsa, as it was raining, often heavily, all the way to OKC, and I don't much care for that drive in poor weather. But the girls were pretty oblivious to all of that, as they watched another movie, Lion King, on the portable DVD player. As it turns out, that movie is the perfect length for the drive. We started it at the gas station in Tulsa just before heading out, and it literally ended as we pulled into the driveway of our house.
So I'd say I am all birthdayed-out. Hopefully Darby is, too. At least we now have until August (Shelby's birthday) before we have to worry about any of this again.
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