Chapter 84

So the way I start my daily routine is I set my alarm for 5:48, allow myself a 10-minute snooze, but then spring up on my feet (or reluctantly roll out of bed) so I’m good to go by the time 6:00 rolls around. The girlfriend also wakes up around the same time, and to fight the urge of just repeatedly smashing the snooze button, she puts her phone in the living room. However, when it rings, she just asks me to turn it off and stays in bed longer. What’s the point? Those little things she does amuse me a lot.

I did a 45-minute yin yoga session, some of the moves were a bit difficult but I was all loose and relaxed when it was over. Then I went out with the dog, and brought some beer bottles and cans to the garbage collection point. There’s a woman with a bright yellow sleeveless vest working there, she is around 140 years old, and her eyes brightened when she saw the recyclable goods I brought her. Her job is merely to direct people to put their refuse in the right box (foodstuff, recyclable, hazardous, general garbage) but she keeps all the recyclables to herself, she must be happy as hell with that new setup, not only she gets base pay, now she doesn’t even have to forage for cardboard or bottles, they’re brought to her.

I put on some music, next up in the Top 500 was a funk album by George Clinton’s Parliament. It was awesome, it truly felt like listening to one of those radio stations in the GTA games. One track had the chorus “Let me riiiiiide” that’s been sampled on The Chronic by Dr. Dre, and I couldn’t help but sing along. I then listened to Testament again, I think I could play that shit in a loop. Burnt Offerings, Disciples Of The Watch, Into The Pit (among others) are such strong thrash metal tracks. Then I put on a Jocko Willink podcast, it talked about the war between US forces and Indians from the perspective of a Cheyenne warrior named Wooden Leg. Pretty badass stuff.

My morning was filled with invigilation periods. Bleh. It’s easy but a bit boring. I saw a message on WeChat from a German friend, he’s a regular reader of this blog and a grammar n... uh, nitpicker, who was annoyed that I used the bastardized cowboy word “vittles” instead of “victuals”. He also said sometimes he gets depressed reading my narration of what is essentially a normal life, while he and hundreds of millions are still under lockdown with no end in sight. It truly is bizarro world, I’m the one who’s supposed to be living in a highly restrictive environment.

I went home, fried some bacon in the pan, and make BLT wraps with those jianbing flatbreads I bought yesterday. The weather was fantastic, so I took the dog out for a long walk/longboard ride. I was only wearing a light wool sweater and it was a bit too hot. Things are looking up, spring is a nice season for everyone but especially for high school teachers, as time goes by we get closer and closer to the summer vacation, and the workload lightens a lot. This week is lazy as hell, next one will be a bit busy with all the grading, but from then on it’s mostly review and practice for the exam, which is more relaxed and requires less class prep than normal classes. And on top of that, obviously, days become longer and warmer, morale improves, outdoors activities become attractive again. Hell yeah.

During lunchtime I watched a video by YouTube music critic Anthony Fantano, and System Of A Down was mentioned at some point. It made me want to revisit their first album, and it’s really, really good. I listened to half of it before going back to the office, where I finished it. Then I listened to Nocturnal by Heltah Skeltah, one of my favorite east coast hip-hop albums ever. My afternoon was spent grading papers, a tedious task if there’s ever been one, but I could listen to music and YouTube videos. I watched one about the videogame Cyberpunk 2077, how promising it was and how disappointing it turned out to be.

I got home, and there was a lady selling packaged snacks on the street. I bought crab legs and cured pieces of chicken, and ate the crab while I watched a 30-minute video about late medieval military tactics. It was very instructional, and presented different hypotheses (tactical, geopolitical, technological) for why infantry started to prevail over cavalry at that time. The period ranging from the 15^th to the 17^th centuries is fascinating, the way war was conducted changed every few decades, as paradigms shifted constantly with the advent of artillery, pike formations, fortresses, large professional armies, and all that.

The girlfriend came in, we took a quick nap, then she went to her pole dancing class and I went to the climbing gym. It was deserted except for me, my two pals, and one small boy. I finally made it to the top of route number 3.5, after passing a particularly tough crux with a thin crescent-shaped hold you have to grab on sideways with your fingertips. Yay! I repeated the feat, but couldn’t do it a third time since my forearm and finger strength were pretty much gone at that point. Climbing is pretty addictive, the next morning (as I wrote this) I was in class, bored out of my mind invigilating an economics exam, thinking about how cool it would be to be climbing now. My climbing junkie friend was also installing new pegs on the bouldering wall, and we played around with that for a bit.

I rode back to the city and had a late barbecue dinner with the girlfriend at a Xinjiang restaurant, then we got home and watched The Office in bed with cocktails (a pink one for her, a bourbon renewal for me) like the hedonists we are.