Tasha Does Kansas City, Baby Barf Edition

Weekend before last, I loaded up my little family, drove to our best friends', and made them drive us to Kansas City, MO, for the weekend.

After settling in at the hotel in the bustling little community of Westport Saturday morning, we walked (walked!!!) to here for lunch:

Look! A brew pub! They exist!

Sorry. Not getting out of Oklahoma and away from its crazy beer and liquor laws much, I sometimes forget there are brew pubs out there in the badlands.

While you wait for your food at McCoys - which I thought was very good, by the way - you can elbow other diners in the backs of their heads as you gawk at this:

The guts of a microbrewery! Well, part of them.

Speaking of guts:
My little one's ended up all over the floor, thanks to some fancy-tasting cheese in his mac.

Note to self: In the event you affect yourself and those around you by giving another child its birth, do not travel with it and expect to have time to "relax."

Schooled by motherhood once again.

The rest of us managed to keep our lunches down, thank you very much.

That's Aubrey, Amanda's husband. He likes fish and chips. Apparently.

And who wouldn't?

Even if the fish and chips at McNellie's in downtown Tulsa is better.

I'm pretty sure my little one would agree.

That's him after a few sweet potato fries at McNellie's the Friday afternoon before we skipped town.

Compared to his state of being Saturday afternoon after a bit of the fare at an out-of-town pub:

Homesickness: He's doing it right.

Contest Winner!

I was lucky enough not only to host an up-and-coming Tulsa blogger on this blog yesterday, but to also gather your tales of retail woe as entries for a Jeff Martin book giveaway.


After skimming parts of this book and reading your comments, I'm going to a meanie-head and say: My experiences in customer service were quite pleasant, actually. I was one of the lucky ones. From the time I was 16 until my senior year of high school, I occupied a not-exactly-ergonomic but still cushy chair at the Mazzio's call center here in Tulsa. After that I worked at the Cherry Street location of Panera Bread. Who could complain about talking on the phone, bagging cookies and mopping out a giant oven all day? I'm sure there were days when I could have, but looking back on those years, Call Center Chick and Bakery Girl were definitely O.K. jobs.

Does that mean I've never had one of those jobs that required me to fetch coffee, pick up dry cleaning, reshelve a wayward book of government maps five times in a day, label serials by hand in a hot, dark, musty, forgotten part of one of Oklahoma's largest libraries, refill the paper of every single printer in said library three times a day, or make copies on an ancient copy machine until my ears rang? No. But those jobs couldn't exactly be categorized under such a pretty term as customer service. They were more like adventures in indentured servitude.

Not that I'm bitter.

And now, the winner of a pristine, undefiled copy of Jeff Martin's "The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles!"





Congrats, Amanda! Not only are you my best friend and my son's fairy godmother, but you are the winner of this book! I told you putting up with me would pay off. Now, never enter a contest on this blog again, because when you win, I look like I'm playing favorites, and my readers might retaliate by staging a mutiny.

Yeah. A grizzly mutiny by the other three of my readers besides you who read books. I bet they'd even dress up as pirates. Me timbers, they shiver.

Local Encounters (Plus, a Giveaway)

And now a word from Holly Wall, local journalist (also, but definitely not limited to, here) and blogger behind the newly-launched and much-needed Tulsa Art Blog:

I’ve always been semi-ashamed of my sordid past in customer service. I probably shouldn’t be; I put myself through college and the painstaking months of career-related job searching that followed by providing service with a smile – usually to people who didn’t really deserve it.

Still, before I landed what I would call my first “real” job, whenever someone would ask what I do for a living, I’d find myself hanging my head, mumbling something about “waitress” and then go on to inform him of what I wished I were doing, the more ambitious plans that lay ahead of me.

At the same time, the many years I spent in customer service definitely shaped who I am now, affected my work ethic and the amount of respect I bestow on those clearing my plates at my favorite restaurant. I feel about customer service the way some people feel about the military – that everyone should be required to serve for at least a year.

I have a point, I promise.

I wander into Dwelling Spaces as often as I can, and every time I do, I find myself standing in front of owner Mary Beth Babcock’s collection of local literature. Without fail, I find myself drawn to this little blue book: “The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles,” edited by local writer and retail veteran Jeff Martin.

I make it a point to read Jeff’s contribution to Tulsa People magazine every month, and I enjoy his quick-witted humor, enough so that I’m compelled to purchase his book, a compilation of tales of horror and hope in the customer service industry, every time I see it. I always get preoccupied, though, by whatever purchasing need I find more immediate at the time – Joe Andoe’s autobiography, Louis & Cluck’s latest t-shirt creation, an Ugly Doll for my kid – and I end up putting the little blue book back on the shelf.

A few days ago, I was at the PAC, interviewing the cast and conductor of Tulsa Opera’s Hansel and Gretel, and afterward, I stepped into Dwelling Spaces with the explicit purpose of nabbing my very own copy of that little blue book – and a Valentine’s Day gift for my baby boy.

I picked up the book and was perusing Dwelling Spaces’ other goodies when Mary Beth noticed what I was holding and said, “That’s a great book.” Then, half whispering and half laughing, she not-so-discreetly pointed her finger toward a guy standing at the register and said, “He wrote it!”

As fate would have it, Jeff Martin was standing in front of me, shaking my hand, thanking me for buying his book, which he offered to sign for me. I walked out of Dwelling Spaces that afternoon with a signed copy of “The Customer is Always Wrong,” inscribed with a personal note to a “fellow customer service refugee” and a newfound justification for my passion for shopping locally. If you don’t make it a point to patronize locally-owned businesses and purchase goods designed, made and written by fellow Tulsans, you miss out on opportunities for chance meetings and personal touches you simply can’t get at big box chains.

Experiences like that are invaluable, and that one left me more excited about my purchase than I would have been had I not met Jeff that day. I couldn’t wait to get home and delve into the book. And, so far, I haven’t been disappointed. The stories are hilarious.

Want your own copy of Jeff Martin's "The Customer is Always Wrong?" Leave your own (abridged, please) retail chronicles in the comments.

I'll do a random drawing from the comments left here stamped with a time before 8 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I'll post the resulting winner of a bright and shiny new copy of Jeff's Martin's book, courtesy of Mary Beth at Dwelling Spaces, tomorrow afternoon.

Can't wait to wallow with you in your misery!

Tasha Does Tulsa, Valentine's Day Style

I'm sitting here with a glass of sweet wine, uploading my photos from the evening of my fifth Valentine's Day as a married chick and my first as a mom.

It was a great time. I roamed T-Town not just glad to get out among the living, but also proud to know I had a diaper in the secret compartment of my purse, along with a toy starfish and a binkie. Just in case.

Romantic, eh?

Our first stop of the evening was the cozy little dining room at Biga, a restaurant at 4329 S. Peoria by one of the best chefs in town. We had lobster ravioli and these amazing, perfectly cooked scallops; then, some cannolis. After, a short nap, because that's the only way to recover from a dinner so ever-loving GOOD.

"Hey, honey, wave to the Tasha Does Tulsa readers!" Heh.

So, Skate Date. I was really looking forward to busting it on the ice, but alas:

Ack! The chaos! My agoraphobia! The port I had with those cannolis! It was pure craziness, I tell you.

Oh! Horses. A carriage. No restaurants or clubs within view of the main entrance of the BOK Center. Idyllic!

But what a main entrance it is. Wow.

There's nothing like good coffee to assuage one's sadness at not having the opportunity to embarass oneself by wiping out in front of hundreds of strangers.

Oh, cute little coffeehouse Valentine's cookies, how I loved you. Blue ones, too, even though I didn't quite get the color choice. And that's okay.

I love The Coffee House on Cherry Street.

Apparently, so does everyone else in town. That place was packed tonight.

We ended the evening with our standard rummage through the bargain bins at Borders before heading home for one last game of "chase" with our little man.

I love how that game always ends in the same way.

Valentine's Day 2009: Success! Even if we didn't stay out all night or bring the house down or whatever it is the kids are saying these days.

Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone!

Just For You

Happy Valentine's Day, Tasha Does Tulsa readers!


This picture of these roses is to let you all know that I think about you on long drives. Also, at the specialty cheeses counter. Because that's where I was in the Whole Foods today when I realized I hadn't gotten my mom and Meme Valentine's Day presents. So, while they'll be getting the actual roses for which I had to fight tooth and nail against the Midtown Whole Foodies getting better service because they were buying these suckers by the gross, you all get a nice, pretty picture of said roses.

And isn't that just as good? Because not only can you do whatever you want with it, but a photo never dies.


See?

Hope everyone has a great night! Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Which means DON'T SPEED. But you can definitely wear a matching Hawaiian print with your husband and little sister to your dad's wedding on the family land during June when it's 102 degrees and the humidity is at 98 percent, forces of nature against which even hot-rolled helmet hair lacquered in Aqua Net is powerless. Obviously.

Day After Valentine's Day

If you haven't had enough of the day of love by Sunday, here's a way to get a second dose: 

Tickets to the event, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at Harwelden at 2210 S. Main St., are $50 per person or $95 per couple. Call LOOK at (918) 583-4267 to get set up.

If you know of other fun Valentine's Day weekend events (especially low-cost or free) not posted here yesterday or today, feel free to leave the information in the comments.  

Valentine's Day Round-Up

Want to do something fun and hip with your sweetie on Valentine's Day? Dinner and a movie just not going to cut it? You're my kind of people.

In my opinion, the whole dinner-and-a-movie date is pretty much the worst ever. I mean, think about it. You're stabbing and masticating and otherwise pre-digesting in front of someone you're supposed to try to impress at some corporate food-serving establishment, and then you go sit in a dark box for two hours, saying not one word to each other while you try to guess if it's the right time to start making out.

Now? No? Okay. How about now?

No, thanks. Me and mine prefer Valentine's Day plans a little more, well, off the beaten path. We like to look for fun and romantic things to actually do together.

Everything going on in the name of love in T-Town this weekend that's listed below beats the pants off of the formulaic V-Day date. You won't even need a crowbar to free your shoes from the gelatinous ooze on the floor of some 3,798-screen movie complex. And indigestion from those "house special" empanadas, which you're pretty sure you saw in the freezer section next to the Totino's last week at the Wal Marts? Fuhgetaboutit.

If you like food and wine, head to Stone Bluff Cellars in the beautiful hills near Haskell for their Valentine Weekend Lunch Sweetheart Special. The lunch, which costs $25 for two, includes a half Stone Bluff club sandwich, a cup of Chef Mikael's savory soup and a decadent dessert. The special runs 11 a.m.-3 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday. If you want to make it a party of four couples or more, call (918) 482-5655 to make reservations.

Love to cook, but don't want to spend the evening at your place? Make reservations for the Valentine's Day weekend cooking class with Chef Sean at Cowboy Sharkies, just north of 61st and Memorial. The setting should be intimate enough, since seating at the class is limited to 20. The class, which runs $30 per person, begins at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday night. Call (918) 280-9000 to get set up.

Always wanted to be part of one of those idyllic love scenes on a big, frozen pond, skating along in the arms of your sweetheart as the icy wind gives you an earache? Pine no more. Head to Skate Date at BOK Center. The event, which marks the first time Tulsans will skate on the arena's 17,000-square-foot frozen floor, will be held 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday inside the BOK Center. Concession stands will be open, and long-stem roses and photos will be available in the lobby. Skaters pay $9 (kids and those with their own skates pay $5). After everyone's bum is thoroughly bruised, head outside for a 15-minute horse-and-carriage ride through the streets of downtown Tulsa. Rides are available 5-10 p.m. and cost $25 for a group of four, or $20 for a couple.

Have a wild kind of love? Good for you. Now call 669-6634 for your reservation to Tulsa Zoo's "Wild at Heart" Valentine's Day event. Woo her (or him!) with a decadent evening with fine cuisine and cocktails provided by Taste of the Wild Catering, and take a spin on the dance floor. After, enjoy a twilight train ride. If you're feeling really wild, look for the special presentations by zookeepers on the finer points of love and lust in the animal kingdom. The seduction - yours, not the animals' (I hope) - begins at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night. There is limited space, so call ASAP.

Nothing says love like profuse sweating and rapid heart palpitations - at least, for all you lovey-dovey Tulsa runners out there. Start the day by heading down to Veteran's Park at 21st and Boulder for the 2009 Sweetheart 5K and 10K Runs. There's still time to register, so visit the Fleet Feet Sports Web site to learn more and sign up.

Calling all you lovers who like to play dress-up! Head to the Valentine's Masquerade Ball at The Collective. Get in the doors for $5 (just $3 with a mask or costume - mask-making supplies will be available at the party, so no worries if you couldn't dig one up beforehand) and see DJ Baby Ruthless (Dallas, TX) and local favorites Skeeter, Nutter, Frequency and Emmanuel Rivers. The party starts at 8 p.m. and benefits the American Heart Association.

UPDATE, Feb. 13//Just found another wine event! This one, at Whispering Vines Vineyards and Winery in west Tulsa, involves a murder mystery, with a wine tasting before. The show, which costs about $60 per person and includes dinner, starts at seven. Call (918) 447-0808 to beg for reservations, since my bet is there are only a few seats left.

And Tasha said: Let the lovin' begin.