Living Where I do.

I love my neighborhood for a lot of reasons:

We live one mile north of downtown OKC - It satisfies a portion of my urban loving self.

We live three blocks from a park - Not just a playground, a real live park on a whole city block complete with sand volleyball, a gazebo, and trees.

Our neighborhood has sidewalks! - Non-OKCers are probably like "big deal." This is huge in Oklahoma City. Like a huge rarity, and a huge perk.

Our neighborhood has gigantic trees, old houses, diverse residents.

There are even bike lanes...

Which leads me to today's highlighted "why I love where I live" reason: I went out and about twice today, and I rode my bike both times. I LOVE [super love] that this neighborhood affords me the chance to get places sans car because of its proximity to a majority of things I need. I'm not talking about a leisurely ride around the hood. Josephine [my bike] and I went to OCU, where I spent a few hours studying up on some things. After dinner tonight, I wanted to make some cookies, but I was out of canola oil. No problem. I pedaled to our neighborhood grocery store and got what I needed, plus some olives because they were on sale and Cora loves them. A few days ago, I rode to the downtown library. Pure bliss.

Now I just need to figure out who to contact at Chesapeake about building a bike lane up Western so I can get to Whole Foods without fearing for my life - at least a lane between 50th and 63rd as I can go through neighborhoods to get to 50th. [Most of OKC is not pedestrian/bike friendly. People and bikes out and about are like foreign language around here.]

A while ago, I was in a suburb just north of OKC, and I saw a billboard advertising a new housing development that said "[I can't remember the name of the neighborhood] isn't downtown, but neither is your family." I've been trying to figure out how to elaborate on this...I keep coming up empty. I suppose it comes down to a perpetuation of fear of people. At any rate, I love living where I do. I can't imagine anywhere else in the city feeling more like home. It suites me. It suites me very well.

Here is a link to a photo album containing images of the area of OKC we call home: Modern living. Really old houses.

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