The Real 40

I relish the walk to and back from the Garrigus Building, part of the Agricultural Sciences complex at the University of Kentucky. The 15-25 minute trek I make down (then back up) South Limestone is arguably one of the best experiences I take part in at UK. How lucky for me is it that this experience occurs twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays?

I have an Agricultural Economics class from 12:30 PM to 1:45 PM each of those days. The class itself is enjoyable enough, considering what it is. It appears it could become even better due to new faces that I've begun to converse with - a girl by the name of Ginger Waters and a fellow who called himself Jordan when I asked. Each seem like compelling people that I look forward to getting to know better.

The professor is also likable, at least in my opinion. I think he recognizes that his material for the class isn't the most entertaining, but he goes about teaching it in exuberant form. I admire his passion. The fact that he's a fellow eastern Kentuckian might grant me some bias towards him, as well.

The increasing enjoyment is only a minute part of why I enjoy the walk so much. The health benefits factor in, obviously. It's aided me in learning the ways of the city streets - when it's okay to cross when the light says stop, and when it's not. It sounds pathetic, I'm sure, to many "city folk", but the only street I ever had to cross was the one between Sheldon Clark High School and our football field. I don't even know if that's a street.

However, the greatest part of the walk is that it takes me back to the days when I would sit on the school bus in the mornings and escape into my iPod in my attempts to drown out to the obscene rants of Johnny Jones, Samantha Casto and her sister Jessica, and Vicki Williamson - the "cool kids" on my bus. My 60 gigabyte baby would get me through countless mornings; some mornings it was the only thing I woke up looking forward to and would end up being the best part of the day. This occurred often in the "Heather days".

Alas, I finally got a car passed down to me and my driver's license this past summer, and the days of riding the bus were over. So gone, too, were my AM love affairs with my current country, alternative and comedy favorites. I had a CD player and a radio, but the effect wasn't the same. I couldn't get lost in the words like I loved to before - that is, if I didn't want to crash my vehicle.

That brings us to the present. I didn't bring my Jeep with me to UK, and I'm not very partial to bikes, so walking is my primary means of transport. Walking requires far less attention, at least for me, than driving. Just as I did during my first few years of high school, I have turned to my iPod for protection against the outside world during my freshman year of college. Only this time, the hours are later and the "cool kids" are sounds of the street: cars passing by and honking absurdly, construction that cripples the commute at times, and fellow pedestrians that share the sidewalk with me.

When those headphones are in my ears, though, I'm the only man on the concrete. It's just me, my thoughts and whoever the artist or artists I've chosen to spend my time with.

Today, I spent it with Tracy Lawrence

I let "Texas Tornado" sling me back into middle school, when I first started digging into his musical repertoire. I think the feeling some people get when they first listen to The Beatles or Bob Dylan, musical legends by many accounts, is the same feeling I got when I first discovered many of the country artists I listen to so frequently today. Tracy is one of those singers. I remember thinking of Lauren Kirk back then when I listened to this; I crushed on her like a fiend for quite a while before high school. Disturbing at its worse, spectacular at its best - which was always in my mind, haha.

"The Cards" took me back to the most frightening time of my life, or at least what in retrospect is what I'd call the most frightening time - back to the "Heather days". Luckily, to a good aspect of them - all the letters we would use to write back and forth to each other. Back to cute little aliases we bestowed upon each other - Princess CrUX and Prince Batman - which I still sign my blogs with, mostly out of habit. Back to self-decorated borders with improvised images that would outdo the greatest artists of all time. Back to "I'll love you forevers" that turned out to not be the case, and it's good that that they didn't.

"If I Don't Make It Back" and "You Find Out Who Your Friends Are" propelled me into images of a hypothetical future and reflections of all my friendships that have been formed in the past few years, and hopes for the ones that are forming and will form in the years to come. I've got a good feeling about who my truest friends are. There are some I keep in very little touch with that I care more about than ones I talk to everyday. It would maybe surprise some of them to find out how important they really are in the grand scheme of things - but they're all valuable, regardless, and they all have love going their way from me.

Intertwined with these lyric-induced projections were thoughts of my own. The most notable one was a song idea - my third of the week. Lexington has ailed my creative lapse that existed back home in respect to lyric writing. I welcome it with the greatest appreciation. Expect "Sugar" to be making its way to your eyes in good time, readers.

I can't remember each song I listened to. The above is just a list of highlights, the ones that triggered the most inside of my brain.

Today was a Tracy Lawrence.
Tuesday was a Brad Paisley.
Another day was a Josh Turner with some Patton Oswalt.
Next Tuesday might be a Relient K with a dash of The Maine or Trace Adkins.

I'll have to wait until how my feet feel when they're hitting the pavement to know for sure.

Prince Batman, AWAY!!!
Joshua Aaron Moore