We are back in Tulsa. There are some lose ends to tie up in Bedford, but we are here. It’s strange to be back, but it’s good. I have a new appreciation for this little house. It took some abuse from our renters, but it’s on the mend, slowly but surely. What a strange detour that we took only to end up here. It’s not the same place that we left a year ago… well… maybe the place is the same, but we’ve changed. I think we’ve changed for the better. I’m excited to see where we go from here.
Today I was in Dallas in the lobby of a client. I was waiting for the rest of my team from work to show up for a meeting when two guys entered the lobby. They were waiting for a meeting as well. While they sat I couldn’t help but listen in on their conversation.
One of the men was living in Austin, but he was originally from Oklahoma. They were talking about how much the cities around Texas are growing. They were talking about how bad the traffic was getting, and generally the downside to all of this population boom. The man from Oklahoma then said that he was from Tulsa, but he doesn’t get back often enough. He said, “Tulsa is just one of those quintesential small cities that is perfect for raising a family.” This statement blew me away, considering the turn of events in my life right now.
About two weeks ago Sarah and I remembered a conversation that we had before leaving Tulsa. We were not able to sell our house, so we rented it out. Before we left we said that it was really a good thing that we weren’t able to sell, because if things weren’t working out in a year we could just go back.
A year later, things are not working out very well here, and we are going back. I’m so glad we didn’t sell that house! I’ll recap the “year of suck” later, but for now we are heading back to Tulsa. The big house is history, and it’s back to a small, sweet and humble existance.
That man hit the nail on the head regarding Tulsa, and I feel good about this decision.
When the moving van rolled away from our house in Tulsa almost a year ago I had it in my mind that we’d give it a year in Texas before selling the Tulsa house. I figured that this was mostly a sentimental decision. I didn’t want to let go of the house just yet because of the memories. The fact that we couldn’t sell it was actually a relief to me. This would all work itself out though. We’d sell it eventually. After all, we were going to the Promised Land. It was flowing with milk and honey. There was no way that things couldn’t go well in Texas… especially compared to Tulsa. We’d be able to unload the house in a year, after the ice storm of 2007 was a distant memory.
Here we are… a year later and things are not great. The job I left town for has dried up, and we’ve been living hand-to-mouth for the last 6 months or so. The ice storm was replaced by a financial storm that has hit the entire country. I’ve been looking for other work that will support our huge mortgage payment here and nothing is really panning out on a permanent basis. I have a smattering of freelance work along with the half-salary from Brown. We haven’t been able to find a church community where we fit really in. We are either too conservative or too liberal… or just weird. Here we are… a year later and I actually had the conversation with Sarah this morning about the possibility of moving back. Now everything is even worse.
Now I have no confidence in my decision making ability. Lately when I do something that I think is right, it turns out to be wrong. And when it’s wrong, my wife and kids are effected. It’s not just me.
I should have taken the job at the Tulsa World.