I’ve been reading wiki about Tulsa and it seems to be such a distant time and place. I’ve been back several times since moving to Austin and I’m an outsider with no ties to it anymore. I can barely remember what it was like to live there for four years. I’m sitting here looking at a panoramic photo of Tulsa, and I can’t think of anything I ever did that was uniquely Tulsan. Did I just rot in front of the TV after work each day?
The notable things I do remember about living there:
- My group of friends, which ran 20-30 people thick at any given time.
- My eighty mile out-and-back bicycle rides to Keystone Dam.
- Many hours spent cycling along Riverside.
- Spending lots of time at Ryan’s house hanging out and/or helping remodel and/or destroy things.
- Trying to balance running a business along with full time school at TCC and TU.
- Living with Courtney, then CJ & Jess.
- Hanging out at Eric’s house, and/or going out with Colleen to Sutures, 71st Depot, or Full Moon Cafe.
I did so, so much driving when I lived there. Outside the random roadtrips to South Carolina, Wisconsin, and then my practically regular commute to Kansas City every other weekend, a lot of driving was for work. Regular weekly trips to Stigler to check on the office. Frequent trips to POP sites to check on gear. I traded in truck #1 (a ’97) at 130,000 miles. Truck #2 (a ’00) got traded in at 80,000. Truck #3 (the ’03) had 50,000 when I moved to Austin. That comes out to 260,000 miles in seven years. Nearly 40,000 miles a year of driving. That’s down to 22,000 miles per year since I moved.
Frankly it’s all a bit depressing to think about. Did I just not do all that much on my own and whittle away my early 20s? I will have to think about what I’m doing now to make sure in five years I can answer “what the hell did I do in Austin” with some level of memory and accomplishment.
Work seems like it consumes so much of my life. When I ran the company, I was always plotting, putting out fires, worrying about this or that. Giganews was great in that I could stop thinking after 6 PM and walk away. The work I left could easily be picked up the next day. Now I’m back to plotting and scheming how to make things better at the current job. I can’t walk away after 7 PM, it’s a series of problems that keep eating at my mind.
