Tinted

I had at least a half-dozen ideas for a blog write-up today as I walked from the parking lot, across the mall/parade ground and around the concrete monstrosity of the arts center to my place of employment. They're still replacing steam pipes, so there are detours - chain link fences. I looked at Herter Hall - not a bad building. People always complain about the blandness of the concrete structures on this campus, but here is one that is kind of approachable. If you were a film maker on a tight budget in the 1970s, and you were shooting a science fiction film and needed an exterior shot, this building would do for background. It's that era's vision of futuristic. Large tinted windows with rounded corners set within fluted concrete grids. A vertical stripe of balconies about 1/4 along from the east side.

Distraction #1: architecture

It's Friday in summer. People are casual. Air conditioners humm. People are slacking through long water cooler chats about Friday night party plans, river tubing expeditions and celebrity gossip. The guy over the great wall of cubicledom has his radio on louder on Fridays. He plays soft hits - the aging belly of middle-of-the-road middle age. I just heard Cher, and lemme tell ya, compared to the rest of the stuff that's been in rotation, that chick ROCKS HARD. I left my CDs in the car.

Distraction #2: Kenny Chesney and Hall and Oates.

leftover phrase from my head this morning - "dragging myself up the side of the pit of exhaustion by my finger nails". Yep.