Texas Tech

Yesterday I went onto campus with mr. z in search of a notary for some of the name change paperwork. Afterwards we wandered around Texas Tech, enjoying the sunny day and the lovely architecture. (Almost) all of the buildings are a beautiful spanish colonial style, with gorgeous tile roofs and ornate details. There is an unfortunate math building designed to resemble a calculator... a tragic carryover from the 80's I assume.

the lanterns along the ceiling are fantastic

but the campus totally redeems itself solely on the basis of this sweet arched walkway along the side of the chemistry building. it is spectacular in every sense of the word. it is difficult to capture just how awesome it is.

a little cross-processing treatment

i can totally picture engagement or wedding photos here. at least, i can picture them in my head. even if i did have models, i'm not sure i have the technical ability to do them proper justice.

a more vintage treatment

there is also this other sweet building, with a rocking staircase that would also make for some sweet portraits. i had to use the fisheye to get the whole staircase in, which is further proof that i need that 24-70. the distortion wouldn't work so well for portraits.

talk about an amazing blue sky!

there are several other spots on campus that would make for some fantastic portrait shots as well. lots of archways and stairs and quaint details.

they also have some cool sculptures scattered around campus, many of which seem to have books as a theme.


this was a life size "man" made of books. there were also giant marble books scattered around a fountain, and a wacky sculpture of tiny characters climbing all over a mountain of notable titles.

Ohio State is a beautiful campus, don't get me wrong. There are lots of very pretty nooks and crannies scattered around (i LOVE the secret labyrinth garden) and some stunning architecture there as well. But Tech seems to have a more cohesive building appearance (aside from one or two wacky structures) and I was pleasantly surprised by how pretty it was.

texas

so i finally got around to going through some photos from the last few weeks. i hadn't realized how behind i was! there's some baby stalking pictures and a few family ones left from the wedding weekend. and now there are texas pictures. now if only i was so motivated to actually write up posts.

so far texas is ok. there's plenty of shopping, and good restaurants. we even went to a really nice wine and tapas bar with some of mr. z's friends the other night. i think that, eventually, it will be a fine place to live. it will just take a little getting used to... and some making of friends. i'm pretty homesick for all my friends and favorite places in columbus right now. but all that "getting used to" will have to wait, as i am off to new mexico to hang out with sister (ok, and do another rotation) for two months.

so let's talk about lubbock. texas. mmkay.

there is definitely some desolate landscape between dallas and lubbock. and some HUGE ass ranches. and horses. and cows. TONS of cows. and a whole bunch of tiny towns that look like perfect settings for events that later become horror movies "based on a true story." i didn't take any pictures because i was afraid to slow down long enough. self preservation and all that jazz.


closer to lubbock, there's cotton, which i have never seen before. i don't think i've seen a cornfield since the far side of dallas at least. but there's lots of cotton. lots.


and there's whataburger, not to be confused with lotaburger, which can be found in gallup, nm. we tried it today, and with the exception of the jalapeños, the burger was unremarkable. i view it much like burger king... tasty fries with underwhelming sandwiches. they do bring your food out to the table, along with a tray of condiments for you to chose from. which is a nice, if somewhat strange, touch.



and of course, there is the famed buddy holly statue. we drove around for a long time looking for this park and "walk of fame" with a giant buddy holly. we finally found a life size statue squeezed in between two parking lots. the "walk of fame" is a circle of plaques mounted on the base of flower bed in which buddy is hanging out. there are all sorts of streets and buildings named for the poor guy. you'd think he'd be in a more prestigious spot than in front of the la quinta hotel. but what do i know? on the other hand, i did find a HUGE pair of buddy holly glasses, but didn't have my camera with me. perhaps another time...


waylon jennings is also on the walk of fame, as is tanya tucker and a slew of other people i've never heard of.


texas is weird. all their stop lights are sideways. there is also a bizarre access road system of getting on and off the highway which i don't understand. and u-turns are legal here, which adds a whole new dimension of fun when trying to turn right on red...


oh! and i almost forgot. there's oil here in texas, which i knew. what i didn't know (but probably should have expected) is that there are oil thingies (rigs? derricks? whatchamacallits?) right in town. this one, at least, is disappointingly small. my dad and i did pass a drilling site, which seemed more impressive but we didn't stop to gawk. mostly because we'd been on the road for a million hours and just wanted to get to our destination.


i've seen plenty of cows but i refuse to take a picture unless its a longhorn. plain cows are boring. i saw a longhorn competition on t.v. so i know they are real... its just a matter of finding one.

drinking in lubbock is such an entertaining idea, that it will get a future post all of its own. and if you are wondering about the house. don't ask. seriously.

true love is...

... letting him take your dog away.

this is nizhoni. (ni-show-nee) her name means beautiful in Navajo. she is so named because she was the ugliest dog we'd ever seen back when sister drove her across the country to leave her at my apartment. we were going for irony.


we were also stuck with nizhoni because our Navajo translator informed us (in a rather annoyed tone) that there is no Navajo word for sloth. its not my fault she looked a lot like this when she first came into our lives.

this is Sid the Sloth, from Ice Age, for those of you without kids or a love of disney/pixar animation

she is also affectionately known as nizhoni-pony, short-round, and chunky-monkey. what can i say, she has put on a bit of weight since her Sid the Sloth days. she is by far the friendliest dog i have ever known, though she can be a bit pushy at times. she is also currently in a bad mood because i trapped her in the bathroom and forced her to take a bath, but most of the time she's a pretty sweet dog.

she's my sweet dog but since mr. z is moving to Texas all by himself on Thursday, i'm letting him take her along for company. it will be the first time since i got nizhoni that the two dogs will be separated for anything longer than a few days, and we're not really sure how the dogs are going to react.

she leads a very difficult and tiring life, clearly

so why are mr. z and nizhoni leaving us? well, for those that don't know us personally, mr. z just took a job at Texas Tech but i have a year of pharmacy school to finish up. Fortunately my last year is all rotations so i can do them anywhere i want. Unfortunately, we did not know where mr. z was going to get a job last fall when i had to submit my rotation requests so i won't be doing them in Lubbock. Instead i will be moving around the country staying with friends and family. after the wedding in october, when I officially move out of ohio, mr. z will keep both dogs and i will rejoin the gang in Lubbock next June.

this also means that we are currently in the middle of sorting everything in our apartment into "things i can't live without and must keep here with me," "things that will be more easily moved by professionals than by me and a very small hatchback car and that must therefore go to Texas now," and "crap that we want to get rid of but that will suffice as my furniture for the next two and a half months." needless to say its been quite the pain in the ass. its also been very distracting, and hence i haven't gotten around to any meaningful blog updates, but i promise there will be some eventually.