My Window Faces the South

What a great feeling, to look out my window and know that beyond the horizon is that good 'ol Lone Star State.

It's been a busy couple of days. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were my first round of exams. I did a lot of reading and preparation, and I think I did really well. I'm anxious to get my results on Monday. I also started a job on Thursday, at the school's Learning Center. I'm tutoring students (once again) in math and Spanish, as well as proofreading papers. My first day I had six students, which made for a really long day with my classes. But it's nice, the feeling of accomplishment has really been helping me out lately.

There are too many fucking white people here.

I met this really great guy Leif, who was visiting here. He's an English professor from Wyoming. He's on sabbatical with a years pay to write a book , and is drifting across the country living out of the back of his truck. He's just wandering from place to place, camping out for a week, reading/writing/thinking, and picking up again. We had wonderful conversations and we traded music.

He gave me Robert Bly/ I gave him Taj Mahal.
He gave me Jerry Jeff Walker/ I gave him Mississippi John Hurt.
He gave me Ramblin' Jack Elliot/ I gave him Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

Today during my run I thought about the past couple months and how they were filled with so much uncertainty. I didn't know what I was doing, where I was going, or what was happening. I'm really thankful to have a clearer answer and some solid direction. I'm really starting to feel like I'm supposed to be here right now, even if I'm not enjoying it here. I wish having visitors was much more feasible.

I need someone to play dominoes with.

Keep on Growing

It's already cold here, and I'm upset with the fact that I can no longer just throw on a t-shirt and my exhausted jeans. I'm sure it will still be hot in Texas when I'm back from Christmas break (ha!).

Classes are going pretty well, I'm actually enjoying being at school. Hopefully that will last. In my aggregate and cementitious labs, we've been doing a lot of tests that have been pretty interesting. Last week we did some viscosity and density tests on some compound mixtures we made. This week we worked with silicates and will be testing compression. Our first exam is next Friday, I'm really looking forward to it. The math work I've been doing has been really encouraging, my comfort level will my mathematics abilities has really improved over the last year or two. My trig professor recommended that I take his strength of materials course next year, I think that might be fun.

I made roasted garlic and grilled pepper hummus yesterday, it turned out to be delicious. I put it on tortillas with some fresh tomatoes the neighbor gave me from his garden. I think tonight I may cook some eggplant.

I'm thinking about performing at a book reading next month at the public library. They are looking for local musicians to perform at the beginning of the reading. I want to see if anyone will do some Mississippi John Hurt with me.

If anyone is interested in playing dominoes with me on Yahoo, please let me know.

Well I'm off to walk Papi.

Photo: Papi.

Paz.

Highway 61 Revisited

At the end of August, I made the trip up to Northern Michigan to dive into a new area of interest. I’m attending a Concrete tech program where I’m studying a materials science. The approved title is "Concrete Technology," but I think that had something to do with the instruction of the contributing companies. It has a lot of aspects of geology, chemistry/physics, and engineering enveloped into one. For instance this semester I have courses over aggregates, cementitious materials, trigonometry, and computer science. I'm learning about different compounds and materials, and how they work together. I also find their potentials. It's mostly applied to the Concrete industry field, but there is MUCH more that can be done with it. 95% percent of students that go through the program take the "engineering" path and apply it to construction and things of that sort. I'm much more interested in the chemistry and geology and hopefully applying it to a type of energy conservation/earth study. That would be great.

Classes are going pretty well so far, I’m taking 17 hours with 2 additional labs. It’s quite a load, but I’m really trying to hit this thing head on. I spend most of my time in the library doing research and writing up lab reports.

I’ve yet to meet anyone up here. But I’m also not that worried about it. I have a really wonderful schedule going: waking at daybreak with Papi, and retiring around ten. The weather has been perfect for walking to school and running for exercise. I began reading my second Ron Rash novel titled One foot in Eden. I read World Made Straight a few months ago and really made me love Ron Rash. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Duane Allman and Tinariwen. I’m listening to T.I. when I’m running.

As excited as I am about this program, I feel really eager to get back to Texas. I’m sure y’all know how much of a proud Texican I am, and I don’t need to go into detail. Of course, I miss my friends and my family.

If anyone is interested in writing me, I’d love to strike up correspondence with you. My address is:

207 Tuttle St. /Alpena, MI /49707
And to the few of you that read this, I’ll be updating very often so holla back.

Paz.