Greetings from Twinsburg, OH

I am back in Ohio. I am in Twinsburg for one night. Oklahoma was a blast; I went to see a friend of mine, a lady I have known for about 20 years now. She is a beautiful, brilliant, humble, God-fearing lady, and I absolutely adore her and wish her the best. In many ways, she is a lot that I am not: easy-going, patient, etc. I really loved my time there. She and I and her lovely roomate and her roomate's friend, and another friend of theirs went out to several places: dinner on Saturday at a Thai restaurant, a movie on Saturday night (Grown Ups, with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and the guy from King of Queens - overall a really funny movie, even if a pointless one); We rented 2 movies (The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Maid in Manhattan, which I had seen before, which stars Jennifer Lopez) and then on Sunday we went to church for the church's 4th July celebrations. I met a lot of her friends, all Nigerians: they are a brilliant, dynamic bunch. We talked, we laughed, we argued! It was a typical Naija gathering.

On Sunday, we drove about 70 miles from Stillwater to Tulsa for the Sunday service at 10am. In church, we had a sermon delivered by an energetic Nigerian preacher, who is actually a Schlumberger engineer. He is a very bright man, and his wife, this welcoming, warm and very beautiful lady was just awesome to us. In any case, after church, we went to the Tulsa Zoo ("And Living Museum") where we saw all sorts of animals, took lots of pictures and generally goofed around. I bought some figurines in the zoo, too.

Towards the end, as the zoo was closing, a massive snake crept out of the bush and passed right in front of us. We screamed and ran off in different directions. The snake went back into the bush - it was at least 10 feet long, wide as my knees. I was frightened, and we were all badly shaken. Needless to say, we kept leaping and screaming at every little motion after that. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. On our way out, we saw a man on a golf cart, with 'SECURITY' emblazoned on his shirt. Upon narrating our story of the snake, he assured us that the authorities already know about the snakes; indeed the authorities put the snakes there themselves, to kill rats. He mentioned that they are harmless snakes and "they will not bother you", he finished emphatically. That was precious little comfort. He was very pleasant about the whole thing, and calmed us down as much as he could. After he left, one of us wondered out loud why there had been no warning signs before we entered about wandering (but harmless) snakes. My friend replied that it would probably scare folks away. She was right. I might not have gone in at all if I had seen a sign of that nature. Not after having lived in Ibadan for so long and seeing snakes at a frequency of more than one a week for over 10 years of my life, sometimes finding the snakes upstairs inside the house. A thousand horses would probably not have dragged me inside the zoo.

Sunday night, there was a planned fireworks show, but with the rain relentlessly battering the area, the show was canceled. My friend and I stayed indoors, while her roomate and her roomate's friend went off with their boyfriends. We watched the beginning of Maid in Manhattan and ate Jollof Rice, which she had prepared before I arrived. She is an exquisite cook. We go waay back. Her father taught my eldest sister Chemistry in University. Her father taught my other sister Chemistry in University. Her father taught me Chemistry in University (she and I were in the same class her dad was teaching). Her father and my step-mother were friends before my step-mother passed away. Her father and my father are friends. Her father probably wrote one of the numerous recommendations that my eldest sister required for her application to American universities a decade ago. In other words, we go waaaaay back. She made me feel incredibly welcome - made her home my home; it was tough saying goodbye to her this morning, but somehow I summoned up the courage to do so. She is a true friend, and I am glad that I am in her life and she is in mine.


On the way back, I drove from Stillwater back to Tulsa. I very nearly missed my flight. At the Tulsa airport (which is much bigger than I remembered from 2 days back), there was a long line at the Delta desk - the line had about 35 people, but the line was only moving at a rate of 2 people every 15 minutes. And there was just 1 hour before the flight took off. Do the math. I had arrived so late because a) I had not anticipated that the airport would be so busy - big mistake. The day after a holiday in the USA is always terrible for flying or other public transport, and 2) I had spent quite a bit of time traveling around the city trying to find a gas station that accepted credit cards or cash or didn't require my having to enter the store to find the clerk and pay him for gas and then go back outside to pump gas. Of course, while I was driving around Tulsa looking for a suitable gas station, I was still working on the assumption that Assumption 1 was valid i..e that there would be hardly anybody at the airport, and that the airport was a very tiny one anyway, kinda like New Haven's airport. Big mistake. Upon arrival, there was a) trouble finding the Delta Check-in Kiosk and b) a big crowd of people waiting at said Delta Kiosk, with just a couple of really slow attendants at the Kiosk and no self-service.

Eventually, everyone flying to Memphis (my transit point) was waved to the front of the line and the self-service kiosks were opened up. I made it in time. At Memphis, I had about 30 minutes, so I sat down to a nice meal of fries and crab cakes (which I had never eaten before, but of which I had heard a tremendous amount). And after that, it was mercifully boring - I got to Cleveland, drove to Twinsburg, and voila! here I am: watching youtube clips of Wimbledon, which I completely missed, as I was at work for the first bits of the tournament, and for the weekend matches, I was on the road or in Oklahoma. So I am effectively watching 2 weeks on tennis via highlight reels: of Berdych beating Federer in 4 sets in the Quarter finals, of Murray beating Tsonga and the dramatic point I had read about but had had difficulty envisioning - at 5-5 in the tie-break in the second set, Tsonga let a sitter slide, and the momentum of the tie-break, set and match swung firmly in Murray's direction after that. Of Berdych beating Djokovic in straight sets in the semis, of Nadal beating Murray in straight sets in the semis (some say this was the match of the tournament), of Rafa beating Berdych in straight sets in the finals, and of the comments Federer made about his injury after he was beaten by Berdych. Looks like it was a fun 2 weeks. And of course there is Serena's victory to watch, too: over Sharapova and eventually over Zvonareva.

In other matters, my Ghanaian friend has recommended a good Ghanaian movie to me. It's called Front Door. The recommendation came in response to my unreserved plaudits for Shirley Frimpong Manso and her excellent movies. He tells me that this is the 2nd best Ghanaian movie out there, after Perfect Picture (I don't even agree that Perfect Picture is the best Ghanaian movie, but that is a matter for another day). He also said, however, that it is like the Ghanaian Ocean's 11. I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, since I found Ocean's 11 unwatchable and stopped after about a half hour of trying and failing to follow the plot.

In any case, we shall see. Still on the subject of movies, my friend and I saw parts of "Why did I get married", by Tyler Perry and it was actually quite nice. We could not watch the whole thing as we did not find a website that would stream it fast enough, and the clips uploaded on Youtube are missing several parts; since I want to watch the rest of the movie (I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw), I think I will go off to rent the movie some time in the near future. Once I figure out what my schedule will be the next few weeks, I'll probably find time to watch the movie.

I am going to Arkansas tomorrow, so I need to hurry up and finish this post, probably watch the movie called Front Door, and write down the list of things I need to pack specially for the trip (work-related items). The good news is that I really don't have to unpack at all, since I just returned from another trip today and my suitcases are sitting in my (very dirty) apartment. I am spending so little time in my apartment these days that I might as well live in a hotel. At least for the next week, I know I'll be away until Friday night, and then possibly I'll sleep over at the airport hotel (instead of driving back here at night - after 11pm), and then go to Columbus on Saturday morning, and return either Saturday evening or Sunday morning. I'm still not sure.

Anyway, I have lots of figurines purchased from the Tulsa zoo, had a great time with my friend and made new friends, too.

Overall, a productive weekend, and it was oodles of fun, too!

Take care,
And have a great week!