Chapter 53

Up at 6. I used to wake up around 7, but now on this perpetual journey of self-improvement I gave myself the mission of getting up earlier and have a leisurely morning, exercising and drinking tea and walking the dog before going to work.

I got my mp3 player and put on Pearl Jam. I’m too young to have caught the grunge wave and not many of the guys in my high school were listening to any of that early 90s Seattle shit aside from Nirvana, but much later in life I started to listen to them a bit. Some people blame their singer for popularizing the “veddering” vocal style so prevalent in shitty post-grunge or alt rock bands but I like how he does it.

I went to school way earlier than usual, to make sure my things are in order before a full morning of classes. I won’t hit the ground running anyway, first I’ll go through the final exam question by question, with the goal of reviewing, clarifying points about the marking scheme, and also giving myself and the students an easier week before grinding again.

The classes went really well and I had to deal with very little shit. I remember some schools from my past where every minute of every lesson felt like tending a field of cucumbers at best and having to put up with rude little wastes of space at worst (but not being legally allowed to hit them or even yell) but now I’m in a pretty good place. Knock on wood. The weather is magnificient and likely to get better, so I hope the students don’t start getting too restless in their minimum-security prison and keep their eyes on the prize.

In one of the classrooms, the mouse that operates the computer wasn’t there. I shrugged and pulled out my own wireless mouse from the bag I use to carry my odds and ends. The students gasped and some applauded. Always have a plan B.

At lunchtime, I was already downstairs walking to my bicycle when I realized I didn’t bring my laptop. I have to relearn all those auto-pilot moves. Ah well, I didn’t feel like going back to get it, I’ll just read a book while eating rather than watching YouTube. I listened to the album Born Annoying by Helmet, another band I am a little bit too young to have caught in its prime. From what I’ve gathered, their mid-tempo alternative metal wasn’t that well received in their time, being too heavy for rock fans and not enough for metal fans, but it sure has influenced a lot of the nü metal bands I grew up with. Then I put on a Dark Tranquillity album, now that’s a band who was at its apex at the same time I was an avid little consoomer of metal, I caught them live four times I think. They released an album this year and I haven’t listened to it, I kinda moved on from the Göthenburg-style melodic death metal, perhaps I should go and give it a spin for ol’ times’ sake.

I ate a bowl of soup, a reheated KFC sandwich the girlfriend brought back from her work yesterday, and some fruit. The soup tasted a bit sour, not sure if it’s because it’s turning bad after four days in a glass Tupperware or because of the tomatoes in it, anyway I ate it all and didn’t get sick. My computer desk was filthy, I cleaned it, took the dog for a little walk and then rode back to the office.

I wanted to listen to music from YouTube but the third-world fascist internet was shitting in the shovel. It didn’t disturb me that much though, I now make sure to have a few albums of various genres saved on my hard drive for such occasions, it pays to prepare for contingencies, like in the case of the classroom with no mouse. So I put on Windir’s third album, called 1184. It was a good piece of epic black metal, with more folkloric elements than I remembered were on their other LPs. I was curious and wanted to look up why it’s called 1184, but of course the internet was still down, because I’m exactly 800 years after 1184, metaphorically speaking.

I had a double class in the second half of the afternoon and then got ready to head home. My earbuds were malfunctioning and playing at a much lower volume they are supposed to, but then I found the source of the problem: both of them were clogged with a big gob of ear wax. Gross. I removed the rubber part and pushed the crud out with the tip of a pencil, then they were working normally.

At night I watched a video by Internet Historian, a YouTuber with a unique and amazing animation style, about the wreckage of the Costa Concordia. That enormous luxury cruise ship hit some rocks off the coast of an Italian island, and the investigation led to conclusions of incompetence and utter fuckery by its captain and others. I also watched a few videos about driving in Central Asia with the girlfriend, damn this whole wanderlust. I have been to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan a decade ago, it will be so cool when we can go drive the endless steppes with our own vehicle.