From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

My sister and I went downtown (Tulsa) for the night to try out the new restaurant “Yokozuna” next to Dwelling Spaces (one home of the uber-trendy ‘Don’t Hate the 918″ shirts), and to check out the Ihloff Salon fall fashion show to benefit the Resonance Center for Women.

Yokozuna was all right and I’ll be writing more about it on Tasty Tulsa soon, but to sum it up, the pinot noir was fantastic (never caught the brand), the spring rolls were very good, but the noodle bowls were very bland (until we fixed them up ourselves).

Yokozuna

...next to Dwelling Spaces

me!

Christine

Afterwards, we headed over to the fashion show which was simply a lot of fun with the ‘Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales’ theme – I really enjoyed taking these (many) pictures!

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

From "Fables, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Time..."

Christine & Natasha in Grandpa's Jaguar

1. Natasha, Natasha, Natasha, Natasha, Natasha; my sweetest of sweets daughter.  I’ve been ‘in love’ with people and even music and other media/art, but having a child is the best of all.  You miss them terribly when they’re away, you get scared by their fragility, and at the same time you love them like nothing else and they truly are the most charming people you will ever know.

2. A great family including sisters that I can act totally crazy and bizarre around and they think it’s just as hilarious as I do!

3. A thoughtful husband who shares so many common interests and ideals with me.

4. Fond memories of people I’ve lost.

5. The ability to focus on what I can learn from tragedies and not on the negative (I was blessed with quite the self-preserving personality!).

M Ward

6. Incessant, uncontrollable… well, passion, for lack of more accurate word – I am constantly amazed by some new song, book, personality, color combination, weather, and it goes on and on – like M Ward sings, “God, it’s great to be alive / takes the skin right off my hide / to think I’ll have to give it all up someday.”

7. The fact that I’ve found a church that I actually like (it’s sometimes hard to be a Christian when you don’t like any of the Christian churches that you’ve been to and find some serious flaws in the members as well (and I’m still trying to figure out how much of that is my own problem)) – I recently started going to a small Methodist church and I think I finally feel like I’ve found a church that I feel I can grow in.  I love the social history and focus of the church, they’ve played an active role in American civil rights issues and to this day they are very socially active.  The church I’ve been going to houses our Meals on Wheels kitchen and is very focused on helping the poor in our community.  The are also spiritual without taking the whole of the Bible literally.  (This could be a very very long item and it’s already past midnight so I’ll leave it at that for now).

8 That I was born in the age of air conditioning, pain medication, movie shows, and teh internets! (Though this one could be a blessing and a curse…)

9 That I’ve found a home-based business that has been successful thus far, and that I enjoy (making sites).

10 That I have a nice, relaxed job that lets me wear jeans every day, and hang numerous plants, music posters, child drawings, and various art/craftwork around my desk until the grey walls are almost completely hidden.

Fuji's IJ Roll & Spicy Tuna Roll

11 Fuji’s sushi, particularly their spicy tuna rolls.

12 Iced coffee.

13 Anh Hung Tran.

14 Woody Allen.

15 Michel Gondry.

16 T.S. Eliot.

17 e e cummings.

18 Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

19 Glenn Gould.

Glenn Gould

20 Sergei Rachmaninoff.

21 Frederic Chopin (so in love)!

22 Claude Debussy.

23 My beautiful black Baldwin upright.

24 The joy of playing piano.

25 The feeling of the air moving against your chest while playing the accordion.

26 The Jersey shore and endless summers I got to spend there while visiting family.

27 Tulsa, with the friendliest people, cool architecture, magnificent thunderstorms, Cain’s, and its thick green-ness.

28 The time I got with a truly amazing piano teacher, Claire Jones.

29 Good friends I’ve kept over the years and friends to come.

30 Sonic Route 44 diet Coke with lots of lime.

31 Being born in an era of countless amazing bands & musicians!  

Rainy Fall

32 Rain.

33 Snow.

34 The magic in the perfect speed of riding a bike.

35 Recording devices.

36 Looking out the window of a moving car.

37 The mystical Tahlequah, OK.

38 The dreamy Peggy Lee tune ‘Where or When’ and the perfect snowy December morning I was awoken by that song on the radio.

Peggy Lee

39 The moment that I first heard Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ (in high school right after a breakup with a boyfriend who I had mentioned this song to and who didn’t find anything special about it) and thought that it was so underrated and awesome that I would marry the guy who told me he intimated the same feelings toward the song without knowing my feelings about it (which is a small part of why I’m married to who I am today and whomever reads this first will be the first to learn this)!

Christian Bale!

40 Red wine.

41 Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

42 M Ward.

43 Christian Bale.

44 Leonard Cohen.

45 New Order and They Might Be Giants (and numerous others) for being major players in getting me through high school in one piece!  …But don’t forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you’re older now
And you’re a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you…

46 Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, Wolf Parade, The Fiery Furnaces, and Sufjan Stevens for showing up just when I thought there era of good music of my generation was over.

47 Talking Heads for managing to be so hot and intellectual at the same time.

48 NPR for their ‘driveway moments.’

Carlsbad Caverns + Doll's Theater

49 Caves.

50 National & State Parks.

51 Glorious blank paper and a black pen.

52 Magazine collages.

53 Smalti mosaics.

54 The Golden Number.

55 Hello Kitty.

56 Niagara Falls.

57 Growing up with parents who loved to take road trips.

58 Mojitos.

59 Gardening.

60 The Russian language with which I am enamored but haven’t found the time to get past general greetings.  Strastvitya.

From the Japanese folk tale "The Crane Wife"

61 Folk tales & mythology.

62 Shakespeare (I know, yawn, how quaint) – I like Hamlet and Midsummer’s Night Dream a lot, almost as much as the fact the he varied the spelling of his name.

63 Night swimming and that I was fortunate enough to grow up with a pool with lights and an overview of dreamy, spooky woods.

64 My propensity to daydream.

65 Symbols.

LOST

66 LOST.

67 That I got to major in two subjects that dealt heavily in symbols in mirror opposite ways – Mathematics and English Literature.

68 Dreams (“in dreams, emotions are overwhelming” -Science of Sleep).

69 Gael Garcia Bernal.

Gael Garcia Bernal in The Science of Sleep

70 Motorcycle Diaries (I liked the book and the movie) – even though I don’t agree with everything Che Guevara did in his lifetime, I’ve always admired the humanity of this book and his altruistic spirit – this journey really gives some insight into his life before it the politics (and what led him to that), and his love, respect, and care for the people he met.

71 Dark chocolate with orange.

72 Icicles.

73 Coconut lime verbena body spray from Bath & Body Works which gives me a little extra vigor each and every day.

Arctic Wolf

74 Wolves.

75 Language.

76 Silence.

77 Chinese silk shirts and dresses.

78 A cat who has so much personality that she’s more human than cat.

79 Google Adsense

80 Coffee Shops

Mt Fuji woodblock print by Hiroshige

81 The early Christmas present my husband just gave me – a MacBook – yay!

82 Hobby Lobby so my daughter and I can easily find a new craft project to do any time.

83 Hiroshige.

84 Vladimir Horowitz.

85 Hoodies.

86 Banana Republic.

87 Illuminations Candles.

88 Andrei Tarkovsky.

89 Richard Kelly for making Donnie Darko.

Philbrook's 1st Garden Glow 11-29-08

90 College radio.

91 Starry nights.

92 Connections.

93 Noodle bowls.

94 That I discovered the combination of saltine crackers, plain cream cheese, and green olives.

Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More!

95 The city.

96 The country.

97 Holidays and the events they inspire, like warm lingering meals, The Nutcracker ballet, and Philbrook’s Garden Glow.

98 iTunes Genius.

99 Creepy Cute Crochet for getting me back into crocheting and sparking some ideas.

100 WordPress for being the most awesome CMS and making this easier than it could have been.

101 You!

I started out with THE best coffee I’ve ever had – their Thai Iced Coffee (super strong, just how I like it, and the white cream atop the black coffee when you first get it is just so pretty):

Thai Iced Coffee

My sister likes their Thai Iced Tea:

Thai Iced Coffee & Thai Iced Tea

Then we both get “L8″ – unfortunately I can’t remember the name for it (not pad Thai) :( – but it’s spicy noodles with lime, peanuts, cilantro, and crispy noodles with a choice of meat:

L8 :S - Yummy!

Plus, they’re always friendly and the atmosphere is really pleasant and clean – just perfect!

Heaven

.:POOF does not = iced coffee!:.

As you can guess, it’s pretty strong – but that’s the way I like it. And at 160 calories for a Venti, I can handle having one every morning (as long as my pocketbook can keep up at $3 each).

The Thai and Vietnamese restaurants still have Starbucks beat hands down for the very best iced coffee – but this is my favorite ‘drive-through’ coffee drink.