State Project: Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a rental house in Broken Arrow. It is a grade school classroom in a portable building with cyclone fencing on the windows. Oklahoma is a seesaw and learning how to ride.

Oklahoma is being called home early from a friend's house and getting home to find my father has managed to cut open his own knee with an ax.

Oklahoma is half of first grade, the only half I ever did, before moving to St. Louis and starting 2nd grade in January.

Oklahoma is the first time, on the way either to or from college, that I stayed in a hotel all by myself.

Oklahoma especially, though, is a trip to the Ouachita Mountains for a little family reunion. My brother and his family, my sisters and one boyfriend, me and Bix and our kids. Oklahoma is finding a compromise so everyone has something to do, and do it with someone else.

It is a game of Mexican Train Dominoes during which my brother took his teeth out.

It is a hike in solitude.

It is a perfect evening around a huge table.

It is also mourning for the uncle who died days before we set out. It is cigars and whiskey on the porch.

It is the most comfortable time I'd had with my whole family in years. We were all just easy with each other in a way that can never happen when we are each other's guests. Going together to someplace new was key to building adult relationships.

 We will go back to Oklahoma.