Getting Lost

It is very hard to get lost in a town that you are so familiar with. One of the things that I love about CU is that it feels like home. I’ve been here so long that I’ve been to all parts of it, and I feel like I know (or know of) a lot of the people. The useful thing for me with this assignment was not getting to a place that I had never been, but to instead see if I could lose myself in a space. I chose to go to the Campus Rec Building and spent most of my time in the lobby area.

After grabbing a banana and Diet Coke at the little food shop, I sat down in a chair over looking the basketball courts and the running track. The noise of the air handling was loud enough to drown out any other noise or conversations from other tables. It was a little annoying at first, but soon the sameness drifted into the back ground noise. The I could watch the runners. The set up with the track circling above the basketball courts is the same as my jr. high school. My mind quickly went to those memories. Running and running and eventually walking just to finish out the time period. The shake of the track as the class keeps going around. The fear of falling, of the whole thing falling down. At the rec center, I could see the lights in the gym swaying as the runners circled the track. This produced a ocean like abstract pattern on the ground. The back and forth were like waves on the basketball court below.

I also enjoy people watching. There were around a dozen people running around the track at a time. The guys all had short hair and knee length shorts and the women had long hair tied into pony tails and wore shorts or Capri workout pants. There was only one guy playing shooting on the court. He was short and kind of awkward. He was wearing black socks with his tennis shoes and shorts. He spent most of his time practicing his dribbling, which he wasn’t good at. Many times, he dribbled off his foot and have to go chasing the ball as it rolled away. When he was taking shots he wasn’t very good at that either. Again it was miss a shot chase the ball type of thing. It was fun to watch.

It was interesting being in a place that is different than my normal routine. Memory brought my mind back to my teens. Watching the people running in circles and lighting was hypnotic.  Not sure I would want to do any projects based on the experience, but it was good to get into a different head space.