The Sooner Geek

The last half of this year has been odd for me and the Holiday just got me down, we’ve been financially strapped due to medical bills, vehicle maintenance, and previous bad decisions. Thursdays snow storm gave me the opportunity to help some people that were stuck, that otherwise would’ve spent much longer trying and maybe had to leave there vehicle there. Late Thursday I saw a tweet from Sid Burgess, he had set up a Google Map to be used to help Oklahomans in need around the state, road conditions were posted, locations of stranded motorists, and then people started posting their addresses and announcing that anyone in need could have a warm place to stay if they were stranded in their car. I started helping, watching KOCO’s live blog, twitter, searching ODOT’s and the DPS’s sites for updates. What I was able to contribute and what so many other Oklahomans offered and did for people they didn’t know amazed me. It really took away all the down feelings I had about the Holidays. As the updates to the map were made, it got more and more popular, it’s up to well over 50,000 views and climbing, it’s been linked on NewsOK, News9′s site, and KOCO’s live blog. Shawn Wright told me that he saw one of my tweets on News 9 about the map, it’s just awesome how fast it all came together and how many people wanted to help. I stayed up updating it until I couldn’t comfortably read the screen anymore, and crashed for the night. A lot of others put in a lot more than I did, Sid, RB, John, Amber, Jamison, Zach, Michelle, Joe (who registered a url to redirect to the map, I don’t have his twitter or url), and countless others that retweeted, posted information on the map, offered their homes, helped the stranded, etc. A real testament to the Oklahoma community, makes me proud to live here in this state.

This morning Jodi woke me up with a warm breakfast in hand, surprising me. We sat in bed and ate together and then watched some TV while I started working on the map again. We decided to stay home today and get out tomorrow, and since our sleep schedule is so messed up we thought we’d continue the trend and take several hours catching up on rest and sleeping. I woke up before Jodi and decided to cook her dinner to reciprocate, I had to run to 7-11 for a couple things and I wanted to see how the roads were in Norman so I could let others know via the map. I came home and cooked some pork chops, au gratin potatoes, and corn. I woke her up when it was ready. Then surprised her again with a Yoohoo and heath bar (couple of her favorite indulgences). The meals were our gifts to each other this year. I loved staying inside and spending time with her and not having to worry about rushing about to different places for dinner. I reflected about the consumerism  that’s taken over our most meaningful holiday and a lot of us have forgotten what it truly means and have cast aside a lot of our values.

2010 will be a new year, and in that year I’m keeping my goals pretty simple and short.

• Lose weight
• Read more
• Spend more time with family
• Be more financially responsible

I’m hoping this next year will be one where I can really change for the better.