Oklahoma City, Oklahoma + Shirley Basin, Wyoming
This is our monthly youtube episode, and while listening is always entertaining, reading is grabby and information, watching as Alison and Lulu react to their off-the-wall days is comedy gold. Lulu curates/crafts the maybe-first-ever Museum Cocktail Crawl, and Alison plans a commune that everyone will be lining up to be a part of!
Alison is obsessed with the fact that when listening to Apple Music, the lyrics are displayed on your phone or other device. Lulu is obsessed with Orlando Talent. She went home to Orlando for the holidays and is amazed at how funny and talented and wonderful all her performer friends are there. Do you feel the love?
Alison is wishing for lip plumper that lasts. There is some confusion as to whether the initial tingling sensation has to continue in order for the plump to stay, and she doesn't feel like the Too Faced lip injection gloss or the e.l.f. plumping gloss she tried have the results she wants. That is probably because what she wants is the permanency of lip injections, without having to get lip injections. While that’s not entirely possible, perhaps she should try our producer Ash's favorite - Buxom Power-Full Plump Lip Balm is a balm not a gloss, so it's an easier every day wear, and it is pH formulated to transform on your lips into its own unique shade. Lulu wishes that she had left $1000 in a pocket of one of her coats last winter. You know how nice it is when you find a $20? But if we are making wishes...why just $1,000? Why not several thousand dollars, or, I don't know, $10,000? Let's be honest found money no matter what the denomination is exciting.
Lulu is staying at the 21c Museum Hotel in Oklahoma City. These hotels are unique in that they have art galleries as major features of their properties. There are 8 in the states, with 3 more coming soon! Lulu booked the 21c Suite, which has 2 bedrooms, and a folding glass wall out to a large terrace. There are soaking tubs in the en suite bathrooms which has most of you sold and booking now, even before you know that between the inside and terrace this suite has over 5,000 sq ft of space!
For her very unique day - just wait for it - she needs to be driven around. So she goes with a 10K Dollar Day favorite, Blacklane, for their black car service and exceptionally attentive drivers. She's going to need a real engaged and enthusiastic driver as you will soon find out. First stop is Hunny Bunny Biscuit Co for some breakfast, whose slogan, "all hot n buttered" has her feeling excited in a foodie way. Lulu is hitting up the Biscuit Bonanza portion of their menu to carbo load.
Inspired by her stay at the 21c Museum Hotel, Lulu has created what she thinks may be the first ever Museum Cocktail Crawl. You heard it here first, folks. Lulu has hired a bartender for the day, and has purchased this vintage set of 12 Baccarat Crystal Champagne Coupe Glasses from Chairish.
First stop on the crawl is the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. After perusing the galleries about American Cowboys and Native American Art, she steps outside for an on-theme Wild Wild West cocktail, a recipe from the Drink Kings. Mixing a Lagavulin 16 yr scotch and Dekuyper peach schnapps with cranberry juice, Lulu reflects on the art of the west while sipping on something strong but sweet.
Next stop is the American Pigeon Museum & Library. Originally this spot was for training pigeons, but now that it is a museum, it features military artifacts from when pigeons were used as couriers, as well as a collection of live birds! For this stop we will be sipping on this Pink Pigeon slushie cocktail by Garden & Gun. Lime juice, sour cherry syrup, amaretto, and white rum are shaken and served over shaved ice, then finished with condensed milk, and a cherry. Lulu is so happy to be drinking a boozy sno-cone, and will be making this drink again at home with her Hawaiian Shaved Ice Machine.
Lulu is feeling good and ready for the third stop at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, where there are plenty of fossils and skeletons and such, and whose current exhibit "A New Moon Rises", was at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space museum. Going with the lunar theme, at this stop we are trying the Moon Cocktail, a stirred concoction created by Death & Co. New York, and featured on Difford's Guide. It's made by combining gin, amontillado sherry, creme de Peche de Vigne, and honey sugar syrup, stirred with ice and then strained into a chilled glass. Lulu's using Steens unpasteurized New Zealand Manuka honey to make that syrup. Okay, likely she'll delegate to the bartender, but you get the idea.
A quick lunch break means trading booze for beef at Tucker's Onion Burgers, where the beef is pressed with onions, and the fries are "serious".
Resuming her museum tour, Lulu heads to the American Banjo Museum, where she learns about the instruments place in the history of bluegrass, folk, and jazz music. She has (or is had by) a Banjo Kazooie bomb shot from Tipsy Bartender, which is a shot of cointreau, orange juice, and grenadine dropped inside a pint glass of coconut rum, orange juice and pineapple juice layered with a mix of vodka and blue curaçao. This is a party in a glass befitting the vivaciously versatile instrument!
One last stop on her museum cocktail crawl, and this one knocks it out of the park. The 99s Museum of Women Pilots not only celebrates the early aviatrixes, but also the female engineers and more that helped bring about the industry. On a female-empowerment vibe after browsing the exhibits, Lulu gets the Amelia Earhart cocktail by Aviation Gin, which if it wasn't delicious has the fact that Ryan Reynolds owns it as a reason for trying it. Combining gin with lemon juice, rhubarb jam syrup, and sparkling wine (Lulu picked her favorite, Lexy's Toast), this cocktail will have you flying high.
After completing the Museum Cocktail Crawl, Lulu crawls back to her hotel room, hanging on to her sobriety and all the wonderful museum memories. One may not feel up for going out to dinner at this point, so she brings dinner to her. Now while the 21c Museum Hotel's restaurant, Mary Eddy's, is on-site and scrumptious, the comfort of her suite is calling her name. In the comfort (and privacy) of said suite, she goes ham on this Holiday VIP Deluxe Gourmet Food Gift Basket, which at over $600 has amongst its 38 items - caviar, summer sausage, multiple cheeses, many chocolate covered and dipped items, fudges, popcorns, and more iterations of the word "cookie" than you can imagine. This was an indulge and imbibe day to be sure and we are HERE. FOR. IT.
Why Shirley Basin, Wyoming, asked Lulu (and everyone)? It's a town that was established in the early 1960s by settlers who came to mine the recently discovered Uranium nearby. The town had a school house and a town store/post office/bank/gas station/mechanic shop as the only permanent structures, and the rest of the buildings and residences were temporary or mobile homes, lining the three streets of the town. Once the mines closed the town population dwindle down, so now the population is zero. Zip, nada, no one.
Where is she going to stay? Well, Airbnb for the win, she is staying in Heward's Fully Restored 1920's Sheep Wagon. There is a full size bed inside, two built-in cold boxes for storing and keeping your food cold, a pull out table that can seat four around it, and a fully restored and operational wood burning cook stove/oven. Let's just hope that "fully restored" translates to "No longer smells like sheep."
While there is plenty of space to sleep and eat and sit, this is going to serve as Alison's office, not her accommodation. Why does she need an office? Well, because she is planning the build out of the 10K Dollar Day commune. Friendship commune, communal living, it's happening folks!
Alison found this helpful article on Commune Life Blog called Four Steps to Building A Commune. She follows it mostly, kinda, sorta...with a little comedy mixed in. Here goes. The article says that Step One is finding the people. Alison reimagines this step with a little more detail and a bit of delusion - invite the few special friends you know you could live in constant contact with, and then invite celebrities you're attracted to that could offer a specific skill.
Step Two is about working on vision and agreements together. Pretty sure the author of that article meant "make sure everyone is on the same page on what living in community means", and "write some by-laws". Alison's step two is more of a make sure everyone agrees on the aesthetic and make sure there is someone to do every task that will be needed. Alison is one for action rather than drawn-out planning, so this makes sense. She would be the efficient driving force behind a planned community.
Everyone is responsible for getting their own Airstream, which you can buy used on eBay at great prices! Just imagine how cute those will look with some potted plants, a couple of adirondack chairs, and a campfire?
This commune will grow all of its own food, so hope everyone is down for a plant-based diet. Alison did allllll the math and figured out that to grow enough produce to feed one person for a year you need 200 square feet. That's it! So we will draw straws for garden tending duties, unless someone has a preternaturally green thumb, and we’ll have fruits and veggies a-plenty!
You may recall that Alison purchased an alpaca in episode "Alpacas and Tech Issues with Maria Flores Ragan", so she is bringing him/her with her to Wyoming. This way we have wool for the colder months. To take care of said alpaca, she bought grass hay (apparently Alpacas eat 1-2 pounds a day), and is going to hav Matt build a fence. A really really huge one, so her Alpaca has plenty of room to roam, but won’t get into the garden. We should name him/her, any suggestions? Alison buys some shearing equipment and a trimming stand so that Ash can gather wool and make textiles for everyone. This seems one of the most sustainable and ethical options for the garments and textiles our community will need, plus it'll be like a community pet!
Step Three is figuring out sources of income. Alison is thinking barter system will work just fine. Done. Step Four is to find a place. This article says that this is the last step, but Alison already started here, with her discovery of the ghost town of Shirley Basin. She purchases the land, and we are ready to start living communally!
For many reasons, one if which is that Alison invited hot male celebrities and is pretending this is an alternate universe where she isn't married, Lulu suggest we call our settlement Loop Hole City. One of the things we will be doing on said commune settlement is making alcohol. Guess that means we need to add a vineyard and a wheat field to our gardening ventures. Alison gets wine-making supplies and equipment which once we get the hang of should allow us to make wine at a cost of $1 a bottle! Alison also purchased this beer making kit, because while she is partial to wine, she wants everyone on the commune to have their beverage of choice. And if we get really good at it, we could sell our Wyoming wines and beers to the masses. Loophole City Cabernet Sauvignon or Loophole City Saison, anyone? Hello, revenue stream!
Now when you imagine communal living, don't you picture a bunch of people around a rough hewn wood table? Us too. Alison found this Solid Wood Dining Table on Wayfair, as well as these wood dining chairs. Just picture all the shared meals, story sharing, and flower crown making that will happen here.
Being out in the middle of nowhere, Alison wanted us to be able to leave to get supplies, sell our wares, etc., so we bought a helicopter off eBay. I think that's everything we need to start a community! Wait, did we figure out how to get running water?
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
The 99s Museum of Women Pilots
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