A little respite

Just got back from the second annual girls trip with some of my very best girlfriends ever. It was a wonderful weekend, though much too short. It allowed me for a couple of days to not think about the stresses going on around here lately with regard to the question of whether to move the family or not (if you haven't heard about that yet I'm sure I'll post something once we've made the final decision).

This year we headed out west to Lubbock. Now, before you say "Why in the world would you make a girls trip to Lubbock?", just know that two of the four of us went to school there, we had a free place to stay, and I could spend a weekend at a cheap motel on Lancaster Avenue with these women and still have a great time. We wandered the campus, toured around town, shopped a little, ate a lot, drank a little, cried just a TINY bit and laughed a LOT. Here's a few highlights:


The Texas Tech student union had great sculptures outside of it. This one is called "Read Reader" by Terry Allen, but I liked it because it looked like a robot (had to get a picture for Alex).


This is inside the student union. I don't know if it is considered art, but it certainly was cool. All these suspended metal pieces worked as very quiet windchimes with the breeze from the air conditioner.


Here's a detail of the previous picture.


My favorite statue was this one called "Tornado of Ideas" by Tom Otterness. It was a whirlwind of letters, books (actual titles) and little round people coming up out of a building. With just so much detail it was fascinating to look at.


Here's one of the little people found throughout the statue.


Saw this in a mug display at a Tech bookstore. We wondered if the "Doris" mug is a big seller.


While trying to find the Buddy Holly statue we inadvertently ran across Prairie Dog Town. There were probably at least 20 to 30 prairie dogs running around that we could see. Despite this being one of Dad's favorite places to take visitors when my parents lived in Lubbock, Jana and Audra had never been out there.


The Buddy Holly memorial, which we finally stumbled upon by accident. If you ever vacation in Lubbock and want to see it, just know it is DIRECTLY across the street from the Wal-Mart.


The four of us at dinner Saturday night. Another benefit of visiting a college town is that eating out can be very cheap, so this trip we didn't make any meals ourselves.

Two days wasn't near long enough with these dear friends. Jim asked if I was finally all talked out once I got home. I probably am, at least until we four get together again.