it's been kinda nice living in you

(mid-february at the rural-residential, riverside-moreno valley border. late noon. smoggy.)

riverside is starting to get hot. and if it stays hot, all the green on the mountains is going to disappear soon.

:(

last saturday was an unfamiliarly beautiful day. so much so that i called zu about it in the afternoon on my drive to LA. i thought about pulling over somewhere and taking photos, but i had no idea where to start.

the weather was perfect-- chilly and gloomy but still a little bit bright out.

the large stretch of snowy (SNOWY!!) mountains to my right was really clear. (mountain high?)

the more distant mountains on my left were silhouetted in this amazing shade of bluish purple that i'd never seen before.

the c mountain (big springs?) behind me was also in rare form. i'm in love with how, at the right time of year, this typically desert-looking thing-- also the backdrop to our campus-- turns a lush almost blue-green shade. which highlights its all-over rock formations that would be otherwise lost in tan-ness. and it is stunning.

it was homecoming weekend so there were a lot of visitors, future students, alumni, whoever. i felt some ucr pride.

i remember when i first visited ucr. wearing brown 100% polyester pants during one of riverside's heat waves, i was like FUCK THIS.

now, four years after being basically forced to go here because it was the only uc school i got into, i will look back fondly (perhaps fondlingly? gross) on my love-hate-love-ship with this place.