The rodeo reeked of big animals and big sweat. Dr. Jenny Casey tried to breathe through her mouth as much as possible and, twenty minutes after walking onto the stadium grounds, she didn't know whether to be alarmed or relieved that her nose had grown accustomed to the smell enough for her to fully take in the sights.
She still couldn't believe she'd allowed the department secretary and another female faculty member talk her into this whole rodeo thing. And here she thought she'd escaped small town America into a lifestyle that better fit what she thought of as her modernist facade.
Her mind wandered back to the conversation that had trapped her into spending a precious Saturday with giant bulls, horses and...more than a few tasty looking men.
"You have to see all that San Antonio has to offer, small town charm in the big city," Sherrilyn had gushed last week during a quick lunch in the university's main cafeteria,
"You've been in Texas two years and you've barely traveled outside of Austin this whole time."
She nodded over to their third lunch companion, Dr. Adrianna Garza,
"Both of y'all work too much, you need some time to unwind. Besides I need to, you know, get my _____ on," and she glanced around before making a universally understood sign for getting good and drunk.
"That's not true, I just went to a conference in Denver in August," Jenny protested, half thinking that it might not be a good idea to leave town and get drunk with the department chair's secretary and the only other female in the department, tenured to boot.
Then again, cementing her few working friendships might not be such a bad idea.
"Presenting at a conference is work, Dr. Casey,"
Adrianna scrunched up her nose and rolled her eyes, using Jenny's title to emphasize her opinion of Jenny's idea of fun,
"And, while Denver is in the western half of the country, I hardly think it counts as Texas. She is right, you know, we spend too much time and get too satisfied with the urban granola Austin life. Different Texas experiences will be good for your research and you need to relax a bit before you give midterms."
Then good old Dr. Garza hammered the last nail in the coffin,
"Anyway, what would you do if you didn't go, take in the latest Indie film and work on a paper the rest of the weekend?"
Jenny sighed, so everyone knew Dr. Casey didn't get out much, even in Austin.
A wet black nose on her bare arm nudged her out of her reverie and Jenny knelt down to give the little goat in the petting zoo some kibble to munch on. She wished she'd worn a more comfortable pair of shorts, rather than the snug jeans and thick-heeled boots but at least she fit in with the crowd.
She shrugged her long bangs away from her eyes and tucked the strand behind her ear as she stood up to look for her friends. Adrianna was nowhere to be seen and Sherrilyn was flirting with some tall, dark drink of water of a man in a cowboy hat on the opposite side of the arena.
Since they'd all agreed to meet up at the rodeo concert later that evening, Jenny wandered around the grounds alone for awhile. She bought a small, dangly pair of turquoise earrings from a local craftsman and like them so much that she put them on, right then and there. Later, nursing her second margarita, she strolled back to the concert area to meet up with the girls.
Since this was the opening act for a more popular country singer, only a small crowd graced the area surrounding the stage. She stretched out on a white plastic chair near the front and closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying a bit of the evening breeze. Even in early March, South Texas was hot and mildly humid.
She heard microphones moving and steel tapping steel as the band readied for their first song. Somewhere an announcer introduced the band,
"Now let's give a big Texas welcome to Charlie Ray and One True South!"
