Re: [Or] [ZuNo] An Experiment in Reality Pt. 2 (The Start of a New Year)
January 2, 2008
5:00 A.M.
Waking up knowing that you have school to attend is not a pleasant task, so after I woke up, I proceeded to go back to sleep. Logic states that this would make me late for something. Logic is correct. Waking up once more 50 minutes later I found that there was no way I could make the 6:19 bus, which means that I would miss over half of my zero hour class.
After my slightly hurried and joyless shower, I found the culprit that caused me not to wake up properly. My cell phone. I have had many misadventures with my cell phone. I believe it is possessed by something, or has a really bad attitude. This is interesting because it is the second phone I’ve had that did things like that to me. Maybe they just don’t like me. Anyway, that day my phone thought it would be funny to activate its alarm but not to make any noise. It was rewarded for its efforts by a couple of thumps on the wall until it resumed normal function.
Seeing as I’d miss my bus, I figured there was one other thing I could do (other than wait an hour for the next bus,) I could call up my buddy Wessel. Wessel, unlike me, was allowed to drive, and could therefore pick me up and get me to school on time. Alas, his phone was not working, for reasons I was to later find out.
Eventually it came time for me to leave the house and get down to the bus stop. The journey was cold, but I had a nice jacket and a fish hat to keep me warm. I had with me all the accoutrements I’d need for school and my swim gear, for practice at 3:00 P.M.
After waiting in the cold for a short time, the bus picked me up and whisked me away to school. Well, not exactly school, but at the nearby grocery store. City busses tend to do things like that, and after a certain amount of time (and a certain amount of therapy sessions,) I’d come to accept that city busses existed to spite me. Life goes on, and so did I. Whilst hurrying to my history class my iPod started playing Waiting for the Worms, by Pink Floyd. This was a hindrance due to the greatness of the song, the marching in the background, and my brainwashing from the school band. I found myself slowing down in an attempts to keep in step. Just one of the many examples of my body doing something to spite me.
I arrived at my IB History of the Americas class 30 minutes late. I was 30 minutes late to a 45 minute class. Do the math, and I’ll bet you’ll be able to find out just how much I got done in that class. I turned in the assignment that I had done the night before, and hit Wessel for not answering his damn phone. Having given him his just desserts, I picked up the new worksheet and wasted no time not doing it.
After 15 minutes of pointlessness, I had 15 minutes to spend before I was subjected to a full hour of pointlessness known as Wind Ensemble. I was determined that this day would not be a boring one, and I pulled out my can of Wired x344. Wired x344 happens to be a quirky little drink with a quirky little name. The 344 represents the milligrams of caffeine the drink contained. 5 minutes and one delicious energy drink later, I was ready for Wind Ensemble. My buddy Fredo found me and slipped me his latest copy of Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. It was #9 out of 11, The Kindly Ones. It promised to be a good read.
Wind Ensemble was what it usually was, listening to the bad morning announcements, learning music we should already know, and constant chatter. I didn’t notice that it was mundane because I was a little busy reading Sandman. It was rather enjoyable.
The next class of the day, IB Biology was a major downer. We watched the movie Hotel Rwanda, for reasons I still don’t fully understand. Apparently, the conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu had something to do with nose size and skin color, and therefore had to do with Biology and genetics. Genocide seems to be a subject that better fits history class.
IB Math Studies proved to be what it has always been, socializing whilst learning odd math concepts. Something about the different laws of exponents, I don’t remember too well, it didn’t really hold my attention.
Before IB English Literature started, I wanted to have a little adventure. So I did something that I used to do all the time during my sophomore year, get lunch and eat it before passing time is over. Nowadays, I can’t finish in 5 minutes, because I can’t get into the pizza line, so instead I go for the deli sandwich. I can usually finish the sandwich, but the chips, milk, and apple are usually eaten slowly and stealthily during English. The class itself was a letdown. Instead of discussing the book, we listened to a CD of people discussing the book, which really irritated me. The homework for the night? Look up the meaning of agrarianism.
Lunch was a time of social functioning, and due to the lack of food in my mouth, I functioned fairly well. I got a Mountain Dew out of it.
After lunch, I went into the band room for IB Music, or as we call it IB Talking. Our teacher (the band director), Mr. Goranson, has to teach us and the percussion class. The percussion class has about 25 students. IB Talking has roughly 6. The result is that Goranson has to teach the class with a lower collective IQ, percussion, more often. So we do what we do best. Talk. I spent the period finishing up reading Sandman, which was brilliant.
IB Spanish 3 was the next and final class of the day. Many worksheets were handed out, and we were informed that our teacher would not be returning to class until next Tuesday, and we would be having a sub and watching movies. Not the fun kind of movies, the edumactional ones. Bummer.
Now that school was over, it was time for swim practice. I decided that I didn’t want to swim that day, so I called up my coach, lied to him, and rode the bus home. I spent the afternoon in a trance playing Guitar Hero III. I swear I have an addiction to that game.
Eventually my father demanded that I go into his office and help him fill out the form for the festival that my band hoped to play. After being rather short with me, my mother called and told us to come over to Denny’s for dinner with my grandfather.
Dinner was peaceful and wonderful, just what I needed after such a chaotic day. My grandfather and his friend, both truckers, reminisced and told stories. I’m always amazed by the things my grandfather has experienced in his life, and I never get bored with them. For dinner I had a bacon cheddar cheeseburger, with fries. It was pretty big.
The conversations lasted a very long time, and by the time I got home, I was ready to go to bed. It was a good end to a blah day.
11:00 P.M.