This week was the last home game for Texas Tech this football season. The game was at 11 in the morning, which usually isn’t fun to start off but by the time the game is over you’re happy that it was an early one. I didn’t get to tail gate this game because I wasn’t there early enough, so when I got there we went straight into the game. I assumed we weren’t going to do too well, since this season has been tough on us. With that last loss to OSU and the loss to A&M before that, I was trying to be optimistic but wasn’t going to get my hopes up. So, when we started the game off with a field goal I was pretty excited that we were holding our own. And when we kicked their asses and won the game 41 to 13 I was ecstatic. It was the best last home game we could have asked for. Last year when they beat us and ruined our season, they played “Jump Around” by Kriss Kross and went wild, so this year we got to do it back to them and make them suffer. I’m glad that all the senior foot ball players got to leave their stadium for the final time with a win, instead of leaving defeated and upset. It was a great game and I am so glad that I have gotten to go to all the games this season, win or lose. I can’t wait for next year’s foot ball season to start!

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Another bar that I think is really cute is called Gas Light in Lubbock. A lot of the bars here aren’t really pretty on the eyes, and the people in charge of this one have really taken the time to make sure it’s comfortable and looks really nice. They have a few areas where you can sit on big leather couches, so it’s very comfortable to relax after a day of work and have a drink. They also have a selection of cigars for sale in the bar, so if you like to sit down and relax and smoke a cigar this is a nice place to go. Their drinks can be pretty pricey, and most of the specials just cut a dollar off certain drinks on certain nights. They often have life music, and small bands will perform in the front room or single people will sing and play the guitar. They have a big front room, with all the couches and a lot of tables, and then they have a separate back room. They also have a beautiful patio area, that looks over a lake. There is another bar outside that serves drinks for when you are out on the patio. One of the best parts of this bar is that they have waitresses. You don’t have to get up and wait at a crowded bar in line to get a drink, you an just order from your waitress and she can take care of it for you. I like going here, but only when I don’t mind spending a little more on drinking. I think this is a good place to take a date, it’s very dim and romantic and they serve small appetizers if you just want to take someone out for a drink and maybe have a snack.

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On 19th Street close to Memphis there is a little restaurant called Jazz. Before I was 21, a few of my friends and I went here to eat dinner. One of my friends was taking a class called The History of Jazz, and she was required to go there once a month and watch a jazz band play. We decided to make an evening out of it, and all go together and eat some dinner. I absolutely love the food there. They call themselves a “Louisiana kitchen”, and they serve food that is Cajun. The atmosphere is what makes this place one of my favorites. It just has an older feel to it, all made of wood and really small and close together. I love bars that have little original things they do, and here people sign their names on dollar bills and then hang them around the restaurant, so you can look around and see peoples’ names that have been there or the pictures they drew on the money. Every week they have a live band play really good jazz music, so you can go in there and eat dinner and get a live show at the same time. They are getting more popular and have opened up a few new stores, but Lubbock is where it started. When I turned 21, we would go in there and eat and they have a good selection of bottled beers and a few selections on draft. Their happy hour is Monday through Friday, 3 pm to 6 pm. I would say this is a good place for a group to go and hang out, and also a good place to take a date.

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I have to say that my favorite sport to watch is definitely football. Since I’ve been living in Lubbock I have gone to almost all of the Texas Tech games at home. When I was a student we just needed to have our IDs to get in and we could sit anywhere in the student section, so we had to go early to get good seats. Now, I am graduated. I can’t just use my ID to get into the games for free anymore, but Derek’s parents have season tickets so I have gone to every game but one this season at well. I hope that no matter where I move to I can still make it to all the Texas Tech football games. I mainly enjoy watching the Big 12 Conference games, because those are the teams that we have to play. My main football focus seems to be the NFL. I love the competitions we have in my family, and since I want to win I need to follow and watch all of the teams playing in the NFL. We don’t have any games with college foot ball, so it’s not necessary that I watch all the games, even the ones I don’t care much about. If I hear of a good college game that I wouldn’t normally follow I like to watch it, because I just like to watch any foot ball. But with the NFL comes the competitions, and with the competitions comes the money and victory against my family!

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My cousin Riley lives in this new living complex called The Cottages here in Lubbock. It’s pretty close to the Texas Tech campus, just a bit east. It is on the bus route to campus as well, so if you don’t want to walk or ride your bike you can get a ride on the bus to school. Well, they are really nice looking and have a well-put together feel from the outside, and the insides have nice features to them as well. The floors look really good, and they have nice decorative crown molding and little details that really makes it look good. BUT… they have a lot of other issues from what I’m hearing. I’ve heard a few stories of things going wrong in them, and one in particular that scared me. Someone who was living on the second floor had some kind of leak problem, and their ceiling actually fell through and ruined everything in the apartment. In my cousins apartment he is always have trouble with the plumbing in him room, most of the time it isn’t even working and it might as well be like he doesn’t have a restroom. On a side note, he went potluck with his room mates and they are awful. They are always having parties on random nights during the week, they broke his big screen TV and wont pay to repaid it, and they are always eating their food. And, through all this shit, he isn’t supposed to “break his lease” and move out to go somewhere else. He plans on staying there for yeah with some different room mates he has already signed a lease with, but they were making it kind of hard for him to move out. He finally got it all settled now and is getting out of there and into another cottage, thank God. I think this place is just like most of the living places here for college kids, made too fast and not too personal. They’ll do what ever they can to ensure they make money and don’t care about the satisfaction of their customers.

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When I lived on campus at Texas Tech, our dorm room didn’t have much to help in making food. We ha tiny little fridges and most of us had microwaves in our rooms. But, most of the food that comes from microwaves isn’t healthy. I had been used to having a lot of my meals home made, and suddenly that wasn’t even an option. But, in between my dorm and the boys dorm was a place called The Market that connected us. That place pretty much saved me. Most of the places you can eat on campus don’t have appetizing healthy choices, but the market did. They had tons of different things to choose from, so it wasn’t like walking into a cafeteria and having to eat what was on the menu for that day. They had stations, like a sandwich station, Mexican food, chicken, Italian, and so on. In the middle, there was a huge salad bar where you could just tell the person behind it what you wanted on your salad and they would make it for you, then you paid for it by the ounce. That was another thing that I loved about the market, it wasn’t a one price place where even if you just wanted an apple or a coke you had to pay for the entire meal. You paid for each item you bought. I really liked having that place, cause when I’d go to the cafeterias that were all you can eat I always went over board and ate way too much crap. So, the market turned into my mom. Thanks, Market, for keeping the freshman 15 far, far away.

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I like Buffalo Wild Wings. There’s usually somewhere to sit unless something really big is going on on TV, they have tons of TVs to watch so no matter where you’re sitting you can still see what’s going on, and they have really good food. They have drink “specials”, but I still consider drinking there to be pretty expensive when compared to a lot of the places here in Lubbock. It’s a good place to have a large group together, you can sit in the non-smoking room if you don’t like to be around smoke or go into the bar area if you smoke, and, well, the food. It’s fun to be at a bar and have really good bar food right there that isn’t too expensive. I love their naked tenders wrap, but I also love getting wings. There are two here in Lubbock now, so it’s not as crowded when you go like it used to be. They are both located away from most of the popular bars in town, too, so depending on what’s going on it can be a good way to avoid large crowds and get to sit down and watch the game. It’s not my first choice when I want to go out and eat dinner and have a drink, but I do like to go here when I want to watch a game because I’ll definitely get to see the TV. So, I might not go here all the time, but I don’t hate it when I do. So, Buffalo Wild Wings, you’re alright.

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Favorite spot in Lubbock for me personally: Blue Light. Not only because it’s Blue Light, but because it’s connected to another bar that I love, Tom’s Daiquiri, that I’ll write about later. Blue light has it all. You sit inside and watch awesome bands play, you sit outside in the front and can drink on the sidewalk or walk right into Tom’s with your drink, or you go outside in the back and they have a seating area and sometimes a band out there too. Their drinks are never expensive, and if you go early they have really good specials. They have a staff that never changes, so you actually get to know the door people and the bartenders because they are always the same. That just says that these people have a really sweet job and never want to leave it. The crowd is always good, it never seems shady, and everyone just wants to have fun. There’s a small dance floor right in front of the stage so you can dance to the live music. It’s just one of those bars I feel comfortable in, like I feel at home when I go there. And, being able to enjoy two completely different bars legally with the same drink is a lot of fun too. So, this one definitely gets my approval, because it is one of my very favorite places to go to. So, good job Blue Light, you win.

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The Texas Cafe and Bar, also known as The Spoon, has really great food. I like going there during the day and eating their brisket sandwich. They also have ribs, sausage, turkey, ham, and some fixings. It has been open for over 25 years, and with it’s recent new owners taking overt, they are now focusing on live music and having bands at least 4 nights a week. Which is a nice idea. I guess. Unless you like to talk to your friends when you’re at the bar and actually hear what they’re saying or what you’re thinking. The first few times I went to the spoon I remember having a lot of fun, they have pool tables in the back and foosball. But, the place isn’t exactly huge. It’s good size, but when you bring in a band that wants to be heard over everything else, you better be there just to see the band and not talk to anyone else. Even if you go into the back room, it’s too loud to do anything. Most of the seating is located right in the front and you have no choice but to wait until the breaks to say what you need to. They are known for their special drink, cherry bombs, and you can get them alone or in a pitcher to share. Or put a straw in and drink yourself I guess. But, for me, this place is reserved just for lunch, when I’m in that part of Lubbock. Or, when a band that I know and like is playing and I want to hear them.

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This weekend I was pretty lazy, just trying to get over my sickness and hang out with some friends. A friend of mine called me on Saturday and asked if I wanted to go to the Tech basketball game, and I figured I had nothing much else going on and went. When I was a student I went to a lot of the basketball games here because it was free with a student ID, but without one it’s only 8 dollars to get in. So, we went, sat really close, and had a good time. Tech won on Saturday against TAMU Corpus Christi. That night I went out and watched the Texas Tech Vs. OSU game, where we didn’t do very good. I hate when Tech loses, basketball, football, what ever. So, one Tech victory and one Tech loss for Saturday. Then on Sunday she called me again and wanted to go to another game since it was a tournament. On that game, they had a special where it was buy one ticket get one free with a United reciept. So, we went and bought some candy and showed up at the game. Again, I had a lot of fun and Tech won against Ohio State. They won the tournament, which is what we needed after that football game against OSU. It was a nice weekend of Tech sports and just hanging out with friends, I just wish we had won everything!

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