Ken Curtis' blog Summer

Sun 10/08/08 13:40

I’m in Canyon, Texas right now. It’s about 100 miles from Clovis, and in many ways it’s very similar to Clovis.

Yesterday, I got into Canyon and rented a motel room and decided to go for a walk. I really like to walk for some reason, and since I got to the States I haven’t done any. Considering with the amount of walking I did on my trip, I was starting to feel confined or maybe a better way to describe it was like I was getting into a rut. I’ve actually been watching tv. :(

So I emailed friends here to let them know that I was in town and then took off for one of my long walks that I used to do when I lived here. What I didn’t take into consideration was how the weather burned me out. When I got back to the motel about 2 hours later I was so tired that I took a nap. Nothing wrong with that except that I told the people that I emailed that I’d call them when I got back… oops, my bad. Anyway, I’m laying on the bed trying to wake up when I hear pounding on the windows and door. I put on my shorts and look outside and Jan, Alex and Mandy are all there. Talk about feeling stupid. :) They were there to pick me up for a party tonight in Amarillo.

They were nice enough to give me a few minutes to take a shower before we left.

The party was fun, it was more of a get-together than what most people consider to be a party. About 14 people all hanging out and playing games. Well, I was the only one that didn’t play any games… I don’t know why sometimes I am so anti-everything… I just didn’t feel like it I guess. We stayed there until about 1am.

It was a good time.

Mandy

This was the team that lost. Notice they’re sporting the “L” for loser?

Today was more of a work day for me… not really work, but more of getting ready to leave for dubai day. In dubai I can’t really find clothes that I like. It seems that everything I find there is all fashion stuff, and if you know me, I’m nothing about fashion. So the last few months in Dubai, as my clothes were wearing out, I planned on when I was back here to stock up on jeans, shirts, and all the other stuff one needs. That’s what I’ve been doing so far today. I may need to make one more trip in a few hours to get make sure that I have enough for another year in Dubai.

Tonight I’m planning on dinner with friends and then tomorrow I’m going to the school to visit with some of my old profs. I hope that they’re there.

One thing that I don’t know if I’ve mentioned or not, is that I’ve been pretty vocal about losing the “sense of home” about Clovis, but I need to mention that it’s not just Clovis. I don’t want to go back to Dubai either. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good time as I did on my travels around the world and I don’t want that feeling to end. The places that I’ve seen, the people that I’ve met, and all the other things that have happened to me have made it the best time of my life. I don’t want it to end… I want to book a trip back to Europe and probably head right back to Venice, and start again.

Sun 10/08/08 13:19

It’s Sunday right now and I’m in Canyon, Texas the city where I lived while I was in grad school. It’s a small city with a population of about 14k people, but is only about 18 miles from Amarillo, Texas a much larger city.

I got into Canyon about 2 yesterday and because I got up late and had to get out of the hotel, I didn’t have a chance to write anything about my time in Clovis until now. If you’ve read any of my other posts you know that Clovis is the one place that I consider to be my home. There are several reasons for my choice of Clovis, it was the first place that I chose to move to without anyone telling me where I had to live, it was where I got my undergrad degree, and it is the place that I feel like I have the most friends. If you have read any other posts you also know how I felt when I got to Clovis last Tuesday. I suddenly had this feeling that I would never move back, that the “home” feeling was gone, or at least overwhelmed from my life in Dubai and the recent travels around the world. Well, that is still the case. I love the memories that I have of my life in Clovis, and I hold the friends there as close as ever, but although it’s still too soon to say with any certainty, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back home.. :(

Anyway, Friday I spent the day with Chris at his shop. He owns a tee shirt shop with a post office attached. He’s been running both businesses for about 4 years and is doing really well… except that he’s getting ready to sell everything and move to Austin Texas. Back in the day, I’d go over and just hang out there, so being able to do it again brought back some great memories. Later in the afternoon Corey, another friend got off work and the three of us along with another friend headed to a bar for dinner and drinks. You have to remember that Clovis is not really small, but it’s small enough that if you went to school there chances are you’re going to know a lot of people, and it seemed that Corey and Chris know a lot of people. We ended up drinking until about 1am and then headed to Chris’ for some home made wine. I got to my hotel about 230.

It was great a time, and I’m glad that I got to do it before Chris leaves for Austin. In fact it may be the last time it happens.

Thu 07/08/08 22:35

It’s Thursday, about two days since I did my laundry (journal post) but anyway I made it to Balmorhea, Texas to get some scuba diving in. I tell you it was just what I needed. About two days with a good friend talking and diving. The water was warm and clear and had all sorts of fish to play with.

You have to imagine this place… actually you don’t because I have pics to upload, but it’s an oasis out in the middle of the desert. It’s fed by springs so the water is crystal clear and warm. It’s also shallow, about 25 feet at the deepest, which is good thing for me since I sometimes have problems with my ears clearing if I go too deep.

Before I went I bought an underwater camera, so in a few weeks probably I’ll have photos of greg and me diving to put up here. I can’t thank Greg enough for first suggesting it, and then taking care of all the small things to make it happen. I owe him and if he ever comes and visits me in Dubai I’ll make sure to make is stay the best.

On the way back today we went to the Roswell Museum. It’s so funny that people still think that a space ship crashed there, but taken with a grin it was a lot of fun. When you go to the counter to get a ticket, the guy asks, “how many humans in your party?” I also heard him ask someone if, “can you prove that your human?” :) Too funny.

Thu 07/08/08 22:22

Okay, so I went and bought a camera before I went scuba diving. I felt that I just needed one since my other one stopped working. The card that had the images on it are fine and now I can upload them. The only problem is the quality of the photos that my video camera took… I can’t complain though, I’ve got the photos and that’s what matters… right?

Wed 06/08/08 08:59

Okay, I’m up and sitting at the laundry watching my clothes wash… one of life’s little pleasures. The clothes in my backpack stunk so bad that I decided to wash everything. J

While I have the time I think I’ll write down my feelings about Paris. This morning I was rereading my journal and was surprised that I didn’t write anything about being there. It could be that I neglected it because I don’t have any pictures to add, or it could be that being there was an accident, or maybe I had other things on my mind… who knows, but I’ll take care of it now.

Paris. I don’t know really have to quantify it. It’s beautiful and seems to have most of what the other cities have, but more of a livability than some of the larger cities like Rome. What I mean by that is there seemed to be the best marriage between old and new, that everyone walks among the city being complimented by the architecture and not overwhelmed with it like many of the smaller, more touristy cities that I’ve visited. Now, I only stayed in the tourist areas so anything that I say is dealing with what I saw. I did see a lot though, I walked for at least 12 hours between the two days I was there and saw all the major sights, less museums, and lots of the lesser known sights.

My camera stopped working somewhere before I got to paris so I don’t have any photos to show on the journal, but my video camera allows me to take photos onto a sdcard, I used the one from my camera, so I have photos, just none to put up until I can get them from the card to my computer. I may go to Wal-mart in a bit to see if I can find a cheap camera before I leave to meet up with Greg. If I can find one that will fit my sdcard I can add the photos in a few days.

The biggest and coolest thing that I was stunned by in Paris was pretty much everything, the Eiffel Tower was remarkable in the day, and at night they light it up to a point that you have to be impressed. The Louvre was huge, it looked bigger than the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. I didn’t go in because I first hate to wait in lines, and second I felt that I wanted to cover as much of Paris as I could before I had to leave. My guess is that in no time I’m going to regret not going through it.

The river Seine is also really romantic, it has the water front walk next to it for most of the city. As you walk along you are surrounded by old walls (mostly) that are constructed out of cobblestone and just above you have old buildings that just add to the ambience of romance.

Wed 06/08/08 04:40

It’s 3am right now and I’m sitting in a shithole of a motel room. I’ve been up for about 30hrs and I’ve been to two continents since I last slept. I’ve seen the Eiffel tower and the dirty dusty streets of this small town, Clovis. Two worlds that are so far apart that I can’t draw any comparisons, only contrasts.

I got into Albuquerque at about 9 tonight from Atlanta, and although I thought that I’d have this overwhelming sense of “being home” I have to admit I feel lonely/empty. There was a brief moment when I was ordering a soda, or when talking to someone at the airline counter that it felt good to be able to speak and to be understood. But after that there wasn’t anything that I felt. Just empty.

I’m going scuba diving in Texas today, but before I do I have to do laundry and to hopefully get a haircut. The laundry is a necessity, but the haircut is a luxury so it may have to wait.

On the list of things that just turned out wrong, Katya (the friend from Siberia that I wrote about) and I have decided not to email anymore. There wasn’t a fight, no real drama, just the distance and differences make it nearly impossible to be anymore that just simple friends…. If you read this Katya, you’re the best and maybe in time things can be different, at least I’ll keep watching my email box for your name. To anyone that reads this and wonders why I would post this on the internet, you have to understand that we’ve already said our good-byes and in the 2+ weeks (18 days) that we’ve only been able to email, we’ve traded 186 emails… she mattered to me, and will be probably the biggest and best thing that I’ll remember about this trip.

So anyway, it’s 330 now and I need to try to sleep, maybe when I wake up I’ll see things a little differently. If I don’t, maybe I can fake it and unless someone reads this they’ll never know what’s going on.

Sorry for the whining, but I told myself this journal was going to be as real as I could make it. The ups, and the downs were always meant to be a part of what I would write about.

-night

it’s now 410… maybe greg will let me sleep on the way to texas.

My name is Ken

Category Archives: Summer – 2008

Canyon, Texas

Chris, Corey, and friends

Balmorhea, Texas

Paris, with pics

some thoughts on paris

New Mexico