arrival

The drive to Lubbock was beautiful and windy and full of cliffs and trains. I didn't stop much, but everywhere I did stop was strange and interesting enough that I wanted to explore. I did pause for more than gasoline and junk food to see Billy the Kid's grave, just because a sign in a town I happened to pull off in said it was close. It's actually almost right next to a Mormon church in some town in New Mexico.

I had done no planning and didn’t have a place set up when I arrived. I checked into the Days Inn by the football stadium and started to search. I wanted a place close enough to walk to campus and I didn’t want a roommate. Those were my only requirements. When I found a place I could afford a few streets above campus, a one bedroom back house in a neighborhood called Tech Terrace, I went to check it out. As I walked around the neighborhood, I saw two people holding hands while riding their bikes. There were fire ants and brown pieces of glass on the sidewalk. Most people had their address number painted on the curb, with either the double-T Texas Tech symbol or a cross next to it.

Tech Terrace was divided into a block grid, like many neighborhoods, except it was unique as far as I knew in that dirt roads ran through the middle of each block. Dumpsters and water meters were placed along the dirt roads; so was the house I wanted. It had a red door. It was a strange dynamic to be located there; if I looked in one direction, it was in the woods. If I looked in the other, it was as though I was in a yuppie neighborhood. My perspective of the place changed depending on the direction I was facing.

On the phone the landlord said he was looking for someone “studious” and “quiet;” “not a major partier.” So when I went to meet him I wore my glasses, and that seemed to convince him. By the end he said I was “just the kind of tenant” he was looking for. He checked my references and said he’d be glad to rent to me, but it was going to take a little bit to repair the roof first. It had rained more than usual in the summer, and wet debris from large trees nearby had fallen on the roof. No one noticed right away, and the tree limbs and leaves just stayed there and slowly eroded the roof and ceiling.