Dislikes About OKC

Today hasn't been quite as eventful as other days so I thought I would include a fun list. It was close to 80 today which was good. I heard Seattle had very similar weather today :-)

So I have mentioned a few of the things that I like already about Oklahoma (traffic, sunshine, cost of living, nice people, obsessive college football state). How about a few things that I don't like as much:

1) It is windy in OKC. Not as bad as my experiences in Ellensburg (not that I am an expert on E-Burg but I have passed through town enough to know that it can be windy) but much more so than Seattle. Even 75 degree days start feeling like 50 degrees when you go jogging.

2) They still allow smoking in their bars and there appears to be a higher percentage of smokers than Washington. No offense to my smoking friends but I'm not a fan of smoking and wish all of you would kick the habit some day.

3) Almost all of the restaurants downtown stop serving food earlier than Seattle. This is not good when you work past 10:00. Seems like the only place you can walk to from the Ford Center and get a meal after a game is either Hooters or Sonic. One has awful food and the other is EVERYWHERE.

4) Business dress attire is way more formal than Seattle. This disturbs me as I start to think about getting a full time job. You see suit and tie outfits everywhere. Do you really have to be that dressed up to do business? I thought this was the 21st century. Where is Bill Gates when you need him.

5) Red dirt is everywhere. It gets blown around by the extreme wind (see #1 dislike) and gets all over your shoes and my car only stays clean for about an hour. There are a lot of car wash places down here and you can blame the red dirt for that.

6) State Income Tax. I don't really dislike this one just yet as I'm sure it has somewhat enabled me to get better pricing on my car and furniture. My Washington dollar goes farther here. A state income tax is probably a good thing but it just means my paycheck will be that much smaller.

7) Haven't seen too many true grocery stores out here. Seems as though you have to get everything from either Wal Mart or Target.

8) Not as many joggers around here. Greenlake always feels so alive and vibrant with activity everywhere and I like that when I am jogging. Lake Hefner can be lonely and the neighborhoods around where I live are lacking sidewalks. Where is the jogging community??

9) Saturday noon testing of the tornado alarms. I really don't hate these, especially now that I know what they are (it went off last Saturday and I couldn't figure out what was going on). I'm glad that they test them but it is also a reminder that mother nature can play dirty when it comes to this part of the country.

I'm sure I have other things that could be on this list but I can't think of any right now. Enjoy!!