Lubbock, TX – June 1st~7th, 2008
I hate Texas. It’s hot!
Apparently, it just so happens that this week we’re at record high temperatures for Texas at this time. Whereas on the east coast heat is humid, here it isn’t. Of course this is no big relief. The wind blows but it just blows hot, dry air around. It isn’t a Godsend like the breeze of North Carolina in the humid afternoon.
Heat here is strangely tolerable though. It takes approximately two days to get used to. The sun itself weighs heavy on your back. When it says 104 degrees it IS 104 degrees. There’s none of this “feels like” crap. No humidity bogs you down. When you go inside relief is instant. No waiting around for the moisture caked onto your body to dry up – there is none. And with the average AC temp at about 75 to 80 it feels like the southwest’s Godsend answer to the over 100 temperature outside.
I’m staff and a student.
Not really though. As staff I’m currently working on a new web project involving a great deal of my very own photography. It’s a secret. I’d have to kill you. With this project I will be using Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver CS3. So I decided to register for a few free Photoshop courses offered at Tech, something I wish they’d offer at UNCC. So I figure that’s enough to call me a student. Now all I’m waiting for is that student/staff I.D. It’s supposed to come with a bunch of perks.
Bicycles, parking lots, and White Rabbit candies.
Bikes, bikes, bikes, BIKES! They’re everywhere. Seems like everybody rides one. Even the girls do. Which is the biggest surprise. The campus sports its own mostly free of charge bike shop called BikeTech. And at the Rec Center you can rent a bike for free for up to three days with a student I.D. But this is all no surprise considering Texas Tech is the largest campus in the US. As you can imagine seeing all this bicycle related stuff has got me really wanting to go for a ride. And there are tons of abandoned bikes leftover from spring semester just waiting for me to take one.
A bike tagged for removal.
Tech is covered with black-top parking lots. It’s like they see a field and can’t think of anything to put in it so instead of leaving it the hell alone they pave it. Turn it into a desert on steroids which I have to walk across while I’m shooting photos. Not many parking decks here either. Just one on the whole campus.
The numbers even went over 1000 outside of the football stadium.
Dad’s fiancee got me three bags of White Rabbit candy thinking it was Japanese. I like it enough still. So it has pretty thoroughly permeated my past few days. All 120 of them. And I still have a pile of ‘em. Now I’m folding the wrappers into the fun fruits of boredom. Just a thought.
The country goes green! West Texas stays a depressing shade of brown…
For this whole week it hasn’t rained once. The sky has been clear and mostly void of clouds daily. And wind blows constantly. In the afternoon the wind kicks up a dust cloud that literally enshrouds the whole city even blocking out the sun and making the air cooler. Of course then you have to deal with sand blowing in your eyes at 30mph. Which sucks.
For the weekend:
Friday my dad and I got the motorcycle running. Soon we’ll get the carburetor cleaned so it will run perfectly. Saturday and Sunday my dad and his fiancee are in D.C. while I’m watching four dogs and a cat. Spending my free time online, walking to K-Mart for food, experimenting with Photoshop, studying Japanese, watching TV, playing DDR, reading a few books, and really loving Taxicab Confessions.
Most significant experience this week:
Friday. Any of you ever been on one of those catwalks you see suspended way up in the rafters of the giant 15,000 seat auditoriums? I have. One of the perks of being a photographer… I hate heights! Once we got outside on the roof it was one of the best views of the whole city.
Afterwards, while taking pictures in the opposite direction through the windows of the new law building, I enjoyed the company and conversation of a small girl two years my senior with an equally small voice and a contrastingly Texas-sized spirit. As I photographed the Spirit Arena whose roof I had stood on only half an hour before…
A picturesque view from the study room windows closes the day, and the week, on a good note.
Writing from Lubbock, Texas | June 9, 2008
