Well for my Accounting Honors Fraternity, Beta Alpha Psi, I have to do five hours of community service each semester. Three of it has to be BAP sponsored, the rest can be any kind of community service. I did my BAP sponsored service at the community food bank. It was rather disgusting. they had us sorting Wal-Mart bakery stuff and Wal-Mart produce that the stores couldn't sell any more. I say sorting, but it was really, get the stuff out of Wal-Mart boxes and put them in unmarked boxes. No idea why we had to do that, but whatever. For my other two hours I emailed my aunt who works as the CFO of YWCA in Tulsa, and asked her if there was anything I could do for YWCA. I suggested photographing something since I did that for one of the events and my sister's nonprofit before. My aunt and the head marketing woman said I could take pictures of the four locations here in Tulsa. I thought it would be boring, but it got my credit and I did not have to do something I did not enjoy.
Well that was my first mistake, thinking this would be uneventful and boring? Yeah right.
I said I would do it on a Wednesday morning, so my aunt could send out an email to the different branches saying I'd be taking external photos and that I had permission, so don't call the cops. I am actually kind of sad, at all four locations no one ever said anything to me. bah. boring.
Went to the first location. Missed the turn off because I skipped a step with the directions on my phone. I should make an important note at this point, I have an iPhone which has a GPS built into it that uses Google Maps. After getting there, I got the pictures taken, not the most photogenic of buildings, and it was wee bit cold outside, but got it done.
Decided I was hungry so I went to Merritt's Bakery for some breakfast, it was quite tasty, love that place, if you are ever in Tulsa, be sure to drop by there. After that, off to Quiktrip for gas. While at QT I was going for the one open spot, when this HUGE dump truck/semi/unnecessarily-large-vehicle that can't see worth a crap decided he needed to backup....right where my nice little Japanese car was. I floored it into a parking spot to get out of the way. While this truck is attempting to back up, for whatever stupid reason, a car tried to get by behind it, while the SUV next to me in the parking spot is also trying to backup, all in this teensy area. I still have no idea how we didn't have a three car accident. By the time I got out of the parking lot with my gas I had nearly been in four accidents. Okey drivers, pah! Us Arkansan drivers no how to drive, okay that is a lie, my driving test consisted of six right hand turns in a residential area. No left hand turns.
At the second location, which is where my aunt works, I took shots of a much more photogenic building, and got to meet the Marketing director. After I finished up there I was sitting in my car typing the next location into my phone GPS. It told me to go west and north and take several interstate/highway/expressways. I usually try to avoid these as I hate the expressway/interstate system in Tulsa since it is confusing and many exits have no names. Well, I took the route on my phone anyway and got to the location....well I went by it....three times and took two wrong turns. For your information, the location was supposed to be right off the interstate. I finally stopped in a big deserted parking lot to figure out how I kept missing the place. I really didn't like this since I was getting nervous, I mean I had seen around 12 police cars in the time I was wandering around. I eventually realized what happened. My directions sent me to NORTH Delaware instead of SOUTH Delaware. Once I realized this, I retyped the address, correctly this time. came up with directions, .4 miles. I thought "sweet, I'm not far from the location" nope, it sent me right back where it had been, to these deserted (I hope) crap houses. Well somehow my iPhone GPS which uses GOOGLE maps somehow had trouble understanding that the word SOUTH is different from the word NORTH. So I went on the browser and found the real location, I knew where it was by looking at it on a separate map, so I did not need directions, well, I wouldn't if I wasn't in who knows where Tulsa. I put that location off for last and typed in the next address into my GPS, making sure it didn't do any funny business with the address. It sent me fifteen miles North.
I eventually get into the general area of the next center and couldn't help but think my phone was screwing around with me again. I was in some city that reminded me of small impoverished Arkansas towns. I had no idea this city, whatever it was existed. In fact I still have no idea where I was. But after driving by the street once (it was one of those annoying cases where you see your street right as you drive by it.) I get to the location. This building took the cake with unphotogenic. It reminded me of the Fayetteville Jail, except plainer and less trees. After taking my pictures, to avoid the crap that my phone sent me through before, I forced it to give me directions to the general area of the final center. And once I was sure I was headed in the right direction, I headed out based on the phone directions again.
Well, my phone wasn't done messing with me. The blue dot telling me where I am was on the right road as I drove. The road I was on was the one by the YWCA but it went through neighborhoods as it led to the interstate. So I am driving along when I notice a speed bump ahead. Actually, it was more like a speed mountain. I think it was just barely under my ground clearance and was five feet in thickness. My car was not pleased by this. Then fifty feet later **whabump** I hit another of the suckers. Barely noticed it in time, luckily it had annoying white stripes on it. I go over three more and then get on a more or less newly paved road. I am driving along when **crakubump** The evil road crews added stealth bumps that blended in with the blacktop and had no markings. I got hit by another of the stealth car destroyers before getting off the new paved area. Then it was back to the marked bumps. All this time I kept thinking that it was weird that this road lead to the interstate. When I hit a deadend, I figured out what happened, I was supposed to be one street over.
When i finally made it to the interstate, I was on the on-ramp getting ready to get over when i realized that this huge semi wasn't slowing down or getting over for me to merge on. That was a bit frightening as I floored it, literally, that pedal couldn't go down any further, and somehow got ahead of the guy before he annihilated me. I think that was near accident I had seen or nearly been in number 15. Okey drivers are TERRIBLE!
My phone told me to just keep going on the interstate until I got to my location. Well what my phone forgot to mention to me was whether to merge right or left as the interstate turned into and expressway, another interstate, then a different expressway. Or the fact that there were detours due to construction!
I finally (read: somehow) made it to the Quiktrip across the road from my final location. I was at the QT since my aunt told me that would be my best vantage point. I got the pictures, saw another six near accidents, I gotta say, at least the Okeys have good reaction speeds. Then I went across the street and parked in the YWCA parking lot and took some more pictures. This location was fun as the house (it was a house, not sure what they do there though) was really pretty and it had a tree outside that was still had orange autumn leaves.
This is where I took the following picture, quite a nice place eh?
As a final note, I have since learned that the reason there were so many police cars at the wrong place where my phone sent me was because I was by the Prison. And what is cool, is that my photos are being used in YWCA presentations.
Check out their website: http://www.ywca.org/site/pp.asp?c=ejIRK6OWG&b=4485239
