Chapter 356

I opened the curtains and there was a thick yellowish fog, I could barely see the silhouette of the buildings not even 30 meters from my window. It reminded me of my Jinan days.

The walk with the dog felt a bit apocalyptic. As he was running through the short hedges, he bent down and picked up a nugget of dried up shit. I yelled at him, dragged him home prematurely, and brushed his teeth. I left him in jail.

I had twelfth-grade classes in the morning. Can’t really say much about them. I have been doing mostly review for a few days now, and it’s a bit of a challenge to keep them all engaged, some students have their shit all neatly packed together and don’t need much reviewing, some sleep on their desks, and everything in between.

At lunch time I didn’t go home, I brought my old digital camera to the Samsung service shop. There must be something wrong with the battery, it can’t charge at all, and I can’t even pull it out of its socket. The guy tried to extract it but said it basically melted and fused in there. Ah well, it’s an old little machine, and has served me well through these years.

I made a quick detour to the Shaanxi noodle shop. Those north-central provinces make amazing thick flat noodles, like we had the pleasure to experience during the big road trip last summer. I also ordered a roujiamo, a flaky flat bread filled with shredded meat, and it was so good I ordered another one.

In the afternoon I had Catatonic Class, and later I had Crazy Class. They were particularly crazy. If all my classes were as disruptive and hard to corral, my life would suck donkey shit. But as it is now, with only two periods a week plus the lab (where they behave better), it’s a bit of a breath of fresh air, and I can’t be mad at them for finding a bit of humor in the otherwise joyless life of a not particularly academically gifted student forced in a school program not adapted to their needs. God knows I can empathize with that attitude. In between I graded papers, listened to Clown World news, played online chess games, and played a bit of badminton with a student who invited me.

I went home, the girlfriend was in bed, with a severe gastroenteritis. I took care of her for a bit, and went to the gym. Leg day sucks, but I powered through it. Back home, I took the dog out, ate a big plate of bacon, hard-boiled eggs and dumplings, and watched videos about chess. I sometimes wonder if I should really, really put my focus on getting good at one hobby rather than half-assedly dabble in fifteen different hobbies at once, but nah, life would be dull if I did that.

Then I played a bunch of games, while listening to some powerviolence albums at a low volume. I won about half of them and eventually went to bed. The dog cradled his small body against mine, which brought me a lot of warmth in the winter night. Even though I often discipline him when he steals my food or eats feces, he has unconditional love for me. This, added to general good spirits and the endorphins cruising through my veins after my workout, made me very happy as I drifted to sleep.