Norman, OK 73071

I spent the first week of my break in Norman, Oklahoma, which is where my heart calls home. I know that place inside and out.

One evening I drove past all my old apartments and places of work and such; 'haunting' my old haunts. It brought back a lot of memories. That town is full of me and my life as a young college student just starting off on her own. I'm not exagerating when I say that for pretty much every apartment complex in the town, I could name someone I had known who had lived there. I drove through an intersection and had flash-backs of the time I was ticketed for 'running' a yellow light. I knew names of side streets before the signs were visible. I passed places I'd been on dates, restaurants that roommates and I ate at according to our moods, drove by the church, institute and university and had a FLOOD of memories rush into my head of people I had known and activities I had attended. It was fun to come back to a place that I loved and learned so much in, and to experience so many memories from a different perspective. It was drizzling that night the same way it did the first evening I ventured out to explore Norman after having moved into my dorm at OU, 7-1/2 years ago.

Next to people, the thing I miss most about Norman, and Oklahoma altogether, is food. There are so many restaurants that I love there that we don't have in Memphis. I spent most of the week taking advantage of the opportunity to eat the food I miss, like Ted's Cafe Escondido (went there twice), Taco Bueno (made three trips), Braum's (two runs), Jamba Juice (twice), and Pizza Shuttle & Mazzio's (once each). I didn't get to go to Hideaway Pizza or Toto's this time, and Tony Marbel's has closed down, but I think I got a good food fix. :)