Geaux Tigers

Geaux Tigers

It’s 3:40 P.M. It’s been a long day. I sit composing this in the visitor center at Louisiana State University staring at the gloom. This dismal weather, the clouds and rain, contrasts so starkly with the scorching, tongue-drying heat that blazed as I walked the campus earlier.

I awoke at 7:15 this morning and Dad and I were on the road for the center of the State of Louisiana by 8:15. Only I drove Dad’s Mitsubishi Galant – my Buick LeSabre is in the shop awaiting several hundred dollars of repair work, including a new radiator. Dad dropped me off at a quarter of 10:00 on the LSU campus. He proceeded to take a legal deposition in downtown Baton Rouge. So I proceeded to wander aimlessly around the massive campus for nearly 2 hours. If I could sum up my personal tour in one word, it would be “hot.” At least I could immediately wipe the sweat from my nearly bald head. Heehee.

I started at the visitor’s center and really walked along the extremity of the campus, venturing int to see points of interest and catch some air conditioning from time to time. I still must say this campus is beautiful and I’m falling in love with it – especially the many stately oak trees with massive Spanish moss hanging down, giving that charming scent. Apparently, there is a lot of construction going on at the school this summer.

I stopped inside the historic French House to look around. Now the Honors College faclility, this building, with its grandeur, tiled roof, and singular spire, is a great place for intellectual stuff.

I briefly explained to a janitor I was just a future student exploring. She was friendly and her joviality seemed to harmonize with the stately spiral staircases and wooden floors. I finally found the main lobby. Yes, strangely enough, I had to “find” it. When you first walk into the building, you’re greeted by staircases. The lobby is actually on one side of the building, a symbol of the age of the building, I suppose.

It was quite cool the way I stumbled upon it. I walked down this nondescript corridor that led past a janitor’s closet and the room opened up. Before me was a piece of the past. The room had a feel of artistic elegance quickly lost in the mass-produced layout formulated in suburban homes. A rock-your-socks chandelier dangled from the ceiling, a fireplace beckoned from the side, and a grand piano nestled in the corner. Everything was ornate. The rugs, the paintings, tables, and chairs. It seems like what I’d have expected to see in the majestic ballroom in a southern plantation in a scene from Gone With the Wind. And it was occupied only by me. It felt weird walking out of the building and being greeted by the traffic of Highland Road again.

I continued down Highland, trying to get a mental picture of where everything is, generally. Face it, there are just too many buildings!! I’ve come to use the following as navigational reference points: the Student Union, the bell tower, the Quadrangle, Tiger Stadium, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Kirby-Smith residence hall, and the parade grounds.

After finishing a huge loop around campus, my shirt was sweat-soaked. I’ve never appreciated a library so much in my life … or its A/C, at least. It’s got several floors and all the books, periodicals, and other resources you would ever (or never) want to find. I used one of hundreds of computers dotting the many floors to check the library online system. The girl sitting next to me was giggling at some odd news on a news website … I won’t even venture what the story was about. Too gross.

Finally, just before noon, I went inside the Student Union … the place has got serious vibe issues going on. Whether it’s fast food, bowling, pool, arcade games, e-mail access, hanging out, shopping, or a host of other activities, the Union has got it, for the most part. It’s the campus hang-out, and it’s a cool edifice too.

After lunch, I plopped down into a comfy chair to read the Bible. Then I slept for a few minutes, to be awakened by a cell phone call. I read Fast Food Nation for a while. It’s a book entering freshman like me are required to read for an academic convocation, in which the author, Eric Schlosser, will present a dissertation. It’s really a fascinating book. Example: Did you know that the same science that controls how your cologne/perfume smells is the same science that controls the flavor of your McDonald’s French fries? Furthermore, most of the foods you eat derive their taste from an area of New Jersey that houses several huge food flavoring corporations. Often, the difference in taste of some French fries and some other “healthier” food lies within a difference in the chemicals mixed at one of these flavor factories in NJ. Anyhow…

After enough of reading that, I went and bought an LSU baseball cap at the bookstore for $16. I then proceeded to read various books in the store. Among what I perused: Bill Clinton’s My Life, Time magazine, a book on the war with Iraq, a book on the making of Shrek, a book on Bono, a book on Blink 182, and a couple of Joshua Harris books.

The Harris books were (needless to say) the only edifying ones.

I read this cool part in I Kissed Dating Goodbye that melts the heart of a Christian in waiting (like me). This dude (not the author) was talking about when he was courting this girl, everyone was telling him to kiss before marriage. Even his parents/her parents. But he saved his first kiss for the altar, so that it could be like a gift he presented to his wife on that day they could treasure afterward. He said that it was the most awesome, enchanting moment of his life or something like that.

Then this part of Boy Meets Girl: Harris decided he and his then fiancée would nap together one afternoon in a hammock. It was hilarious the way he described the conversation he was having with his conscience … “sure, I’m getting turned on, but to the pure all things are pure!” Eventually, his conscience won. He got out of the hammock and walked away, telling his future bride, “I’m sorry. I wanted to lie next to you for the wrong reasons.” She replied with a smile, “It’s okay. I love you Josh.” He replied, “I love you too. It’s because I love you that I have to walk away.”

Waiting for my dad in the visitor’s center, I’ve started writing text messages on the cell phone:

“GOD SAVE THE QUEEN (she ain’t no human being.)”
“EVERY LITTLE THING’S GONNA BE ALRIGHT :)”
“BEING SINGLE ~ THE POLITICALLY CORRECT TERM FOR BOREDOM.”

I came up with the last one.


Anyhow, my dad picked me up while I was writing this. Apparently the rain weather mirrors the depo. He took. It was a crazy one, he says. I’ve got a headache ‘cause of my cold ~ he probably has one ‘cause of his client. Anyhow, we’re going to drop off my Sav-a-Center scholarship in downtown Baton Rouge and then we’re heading home.

Oh yeah! And I wanna know when I get the e-mail to my LSU Tiger PAWS account offering me season football tickets for $60!!!!! GEAUX TIGERS!!