…sippin’ coffee in edmond, ok

i’ve been in oklahoma for about twenty-four hours now, and i’m already in love.

it’s sixty-three degrees outside, and i’m currently sitting in my new favorite coffee shop (vintage timeless coffee on 150th street, edmond oklahoma) enjoying a cup of fair-trade, orgranic brew. this place is really quite cool, and it came to me as a recommendation from terry storch himself. i love the coffee cups. they just have a hodge-podge of crazy coffee mugs they use for in-store drinks. there is a college basketball game playing on a hd lcd in the corner (yes… sports in a coffee shop), and the whole place has more of a trendy bar feeling than a stiff, jazz’d out, retro coffee bistro. free wi-fi is always a plus as well.

having a conversation with the female barista was quite enjoyable. not sure if it’s the job or the people, but everyone i’ve ran into down here is quite friendly. it’s a bit of a departure from the “screw you, i’ve got my own crap to take care of” attitude that seems to prevail in northwest ohio. i’m not ready to say i’m in “the south” at the moment, so i’m not chalking it up to “southern hospitality” just yet.

last night, brent and i were looking for dinner and found our way to los arcos, an authentic mexican restaurant just down the street from out hotel. the recommendation came from a random stranger on twitter who must have seen my post about looking for a place to eat in edmond. i google’d the place once i received his message, and it had a couple positive reviews, so we decided to go for it. it was probably the best mexican food i’ve had to date. my wife would have loved it, my chicken enchilada was absolutely smothered in a creamy white cheese concoction. and not only do they give you chips and salsa for free, but they through a cup of queso into the free munchies mix too.

so far, i’d say this trip has really proved to me the power of the internet and it’s communities. the two favorite places i’ve been so far (other than the memorial of course) have come entirely from recommendations of people whom i have never met face-to-face, and one of which i have never spoken in any fashion to before. i’m not one for the “tourism” track. i don’t want to go to the places the tourists go, i want to immerse myself in the culture of where i’m at, thus i want to eat where locals eat, drink coffee where the locals drink coffee. starbucks and applebees is great for traveling and quick stops, but once i’m somewhere for a few days, i want to know where people really go.

thankfully brent has indulged my “fly by the seat of my pants, take advice from strangers” traveling style.

the barista-lady has recommended us a local authentic new york-style deli for dinner that we’re contemplating. we really wanted to just eat fast food for the remainder of the trip to cut costs, so i’m not sure we’re going to pursue it. that being said, brent’s comment leaving the hotel this morning was “i’d totally be up for hitting los arcos again.” so who knows where we’ll be eating tonight.

today we’ve got some time to kill (hence the coffee house tour). we plan on arriving at the edmond campus of lifechurch.tv at 4:30pm. we’re meeting with the internet campus people for their production of the 5pm service, and then we’re hightailing it to the oklahoma city campus to actually attend a service, check out the kids area, take some pictures, and then off to dallas.

tomorrow is going to be a whirlwind, not a whole lot of time to dilly-dally. we have to be at the grapevine location of fellowship church by 9:15am for a meeting that was set up for us by our web-guy; will (who just happens to be the sound guy at the downtown dallas campus for fellowship as well) with their streambox “king” cody. from will’s email, it sounds like he’s going to answer some questions for us, and then we may be able to sit in on a service from the production booth… which i am PUMPED about. then, it’s off to the downtown dallas location to see a service, and then a late lunch with will.

it should be a really good day. i’m pretty sure we’ve decided on taking off after lunch, and heading back some of the way towards toledo on sunday night. if we can at least make it back to springfield, missouri… it should make the driving on monday a little less annoying. there is a possibility i’ll even be back in town for the national championship game, which would not be a terrible thing at all.

don’t know when i’ll be able to post again. if i’m not too tired tonight, then perhaps i’ll post a few pictures from todays adventure. if not… the i suppose this will be the last you’ll hear from me till at least monday evening. so, pay attention to the twitter feed to the right, as i’ll continue to update that.

oklahoma, you and your people have stolen my heart. could i please get that back before i leave?