I’m not a gambler. My version of gambling is – do I have to shave my legs today? What are the odds of my pant leg hiking up, so anyone will notice. So, with that mindset, I went to the casinos this weekend.
My husband’s cousins from Texas came to town and we tried to show them a good time. The first day we took them to Bricktown and walked until our feet were screaming. The cousin’s Fitbit said she had the best day ever! We rode the water taxi, visited a winery/tasting room, roamed the Festival of the Arts, ate too much, got sunburned, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. 
The second day was once again wineries in northwest Oklahoma. We tasted and purchased a lot of Oklahoma wines. I was amazed at some of the wineries that showed up in the middle of nowhere and were wonderful. My husband’s family is originally from the Fairview/Isabella area and we went to the old cemetery where the cousins used to be dragged by their mothers when they were boys. We found lots of headstones with names they recognized. It’s a tiny rural cemetery and a pickup pulled in and a woman got out. “What are you doing?” she asked kindly but firmly. Turned out she was a shirt-tail relative we’d never met. 
Today it is casinos in the Ponca City area with a steak dinner promised. On Saturday after the Bricktown tour on the way home to Enid, we stopped at Lucky Star Casino near El Reno. Big gambler that I am, I put a $20 bill into a slot machine. I managed to bet on it for about an hour and came home with a voucher too small for anymore bets. Oh well, I could have bought more wine instead of pugging the machines, but I didn’t. I was on vacation.
We promise not to eat so much today. We might not last at the gambling casinos. The cousins are high rollers unlike my husband and me and they are used to the life style. But I could feed the machines $20 bills, or I could hand them over to a winery and put on weight. Either way, it will be fun just because of the company. 
We are reconnecting with family after almost 30 years and we know we don’t have as many years ahead as we did behind. We’re making the most of the adventure.
Wish me luck at the casinos today and I’ll try not to eat and drink as much today or get sunburned. But those casinos can really make the Fitbit happy. Some of them are huge! Maybe I’ll get a little exercise.
Victim mentality
I’m clearing my life of unwanted clutter and offering up new and inventive ideas this year.
My mother died of cancer 18 years ago, one day before seeing her great grandson born. She tried desperately tried to hang on to see that little bundle of joy, but nature had other ideas. The next day I became a grandmother. I couldn’t attend the birth because I needed to help my dad, who had Alzheimer’s and heart disease, plan a funeral. That morning I put my husband’s pickup in a ditch when I hit the only patch of ice in the whole town. They say things come in threes.
I had a great time at the Meet the Artists! event at A New Chapter Bookstore and Café yesterday. Music by Chloe-Beth, coffee and tea from the bookstore and even cookies! From 4-6 the public shuffled in and out and were entertained by the music of Chloe-Beth (much of it original). Families came and brought the kids. The relaxed atmosphere brought music and literature together in a cozy environment. Friends bought books and drank coffee and tea and enjoyed the early spring afternoon. 
Enid has a lot to do for a small town and plenty to get involved in; some for pleasure others for need. The Garfield County Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) hold an event each year on the Courthouse square. The wooden children in the picture represent the 246 cases of abused or neglected children in Garfield County reported to authorities each year. Many are never reported. The numbers incline or decline depending up on the year, but Enid is not a metropolitan city and Garfield County is not an especially large county. I think that number is much too high, but CASA is working hard to reduce it. My husband and I adopt one of these wooden children each year and dress it, take it to the Courthouse lawn with all the others and hope that the money collected will be enough to help with this worthwhile project. 
I recently met an incredible talent right here in my own hometown. Chloe Beth Campbell (stage name Chloe-Beth) has a voice like an angel. She writes and performs her own music and released her first CD on her 18th birthday titled Remnant. She has gigs all over town – and some out of town – and I am sure she will go far in her singing career.
I’m still cleaning white woodwork. The more I clean, the more dirt I find. Cobwebs love the lattice work. Eventually, cleaning will have to be painting, though I try to deny it. The white, while clean and crisp, only remains that way for so long.
Sitting out here on the prairie writing stories, I’ve made some friends in California. Thursday March 15, 2018 at 7:00 PST (9:00 CST) I will be a guest on The Writers Block radio show.
Yesterday was the second annual Enid Author Fest at the downtown library. Over 40 authors were in attendance and there were panel discussions with the authors, readings by the children’s authors and even Doc, the reading dog, made an appearance. (Doc can’t read, but he loves someone to read to him. He has his own story time at the library on Tuesdays at 4:00, come read to him!) 
Saturday, March 3, 2018 over forty of the state’s finest authors will converge at the Enid Public Library. The festival, in conjunction with the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County, Friends of the Library, and Enid Writers Club, will host the second annual Enid Author Fest! Festivities begin at 1:00 at the downtown library 120 West Maine and end at 5:00. The public is invited to meet and discuss all things literary with the local authors. Their books will be available for purchase at tables set up in the downstairs area.
