Saturday, January 01, 2005
The Odometer Clicks...
And it's 2005. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen we've made it through another year! Not that this past year has proven dramatically different than most of its predecessors....same number of months (albeit with 1 extra day thrown in...), the same political brouhaha, the same wars, the same deaths, and the same Rockin' New Year's Eve. So what if Regis was the host? Sometimes I wonder if the whole New Year's buildup is just a conspiracy brought together by the noisemaker manufacturers, the champagne companies, and of course, the eeeeeevil influence of Big Media [TM].
Originally I had expected to spend my New Years as I did last year...alone, watching a DVD, and sipping on sparkling cider. Moving as I have to an apartment of somewhat greater altitude, I also harbored the hope that I could watch the fireworks from my balcony. But, things do not always turn out as we plan. Instead, I ended up undergoing a lengthy odyssey traveling first by bus and train to my favorite pub for a burger and a beer with a friend, then a trip down near my parents' first apartment to enjoy a dinner party hosted by another teaching friend and her roommates. I skipped out with my old roommate from last year who, after absconding with an abandoned Christmas tree for his rooftop deck, drove me up to the Art Museum area where I watched college football until around 11. A quick cab ride down to the center of town later found me spending the last 10 minutes of 2004 in a bar with a few other teaching colleagues toasting with some Guinness knockoff that perhaps this year would be better than the next.
Sadly, the first few hours of 2005 did not prove particularly promising as, in a striking example of irony, we ended up going from the bar to a diner. (The local Kwik-E-Mart equivalents, surprisingly enough, were closed, the first time I had ever seen this to be the case.) Now there isn't anything particularly ironic about a diner, not in and of itself anyway, but then the unthinkable happened. It's 2 in the morning...downtown...you're tired, slightly buzzed, and what would be the worst possible thing that could happen to you if you were a teacher?
Yes, that's right...an Underwood high school student, and his friends, decided to go to the diner, sit in the booth right next to me and my friends, and start being jackasses.
"You're Mr. _________, aren't you?" one said.
"Am I? Why do you want to know?" My response was received with a derisive snort and muttered accusations that I was trying to be smart.
Understand now that I was trying very very hard to maintain a straightfaced, straitlaced composure in front of my colleagues and that there was no real escape as I was in the corner of a booth. The rock crying out no hiding place and all that jazz...
Another kid turns and asks if I work at Underwood High School.
"Gee," I say. "I don't remember..."
Another couple of minutes pass by, and the kids become distracted by some other person and by the time their food arrives I am able to escape with my dignity relatively intact. But still...two years in a row, Underwood students finding me on New Years. Some things do not change no matter how high the odometer races.
God damn...happy new year.
NOTE: As promised, the Invisible Blogroll continues to expand! Feel free to check out the cryptic, poker-related musings of Square One TV's favorite videogame character at Mathman's Ramblings. And if the sarcastic wit of Dorothy Parker is more your cup of tea, then by all means visit Life is a Glorious Cycle of Song. There are more additions to come, so keep on reading!
And it's 2005. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen we've made it through another year! Not that this past year has proven dramatically different than most of its predecessors....same number of months (albeit with 1 extra day thrown in...), the same political brouhaha, the same wars, the same deaths, and the same Rockin' New Year's Eve. So what if Regis was the host? Sometimes I wonder if the whole New Year's buildup is just a conspiracy brought together by the noisemaker manufacturers, the champagne companies, and of course, the eeeeeevil influence of Big Media [TM].
Originally I had expected to spend my New Years as I did last year...alone, watching a DVD, and sipping on sparkling cider. Moving as I have to an apartment of somewhat greater altitude, I also harbored the hope that I could watch the fireworks from my balcony. But, things do not always turn out as we plan. Instead, I ended up undergoing a lengthy odyssey traveling first by bus and train to my favorite pub for a burger and a beer with a friend, then a trip down near my parents' first apartment to enjoy a dinner party hosted by another teaching friend and her roommates. I skipped out with my old roommate from last year who, after absconding with an abandoned Christmas tree for his rooftop deck, drove me up to the Art Museum area where I watched college football until around 11. A quick cab ride down to the center of town later found me spending the last 10 minutes of 2004 in a bar with a few other teaching colleagues toasting with some Guinness knockoff that perhaps this year would be better than the next.
Sadly, the first few hours of 2005 did not prove particularly promising as, in a striking example of irony, we ended up going from the bar to a diner. (The local Kwik-E-Mart equivalents, surprisingly enough, were closed, the first time I had ever seen this to be the case.) Now there isn't anything particularly ironic about a diner, not in and of itself anyway, but then the unthinkable happened. It's 2 in the morning...downtown...you're tired, slightly buzzed, and what would be the worst possible thing that could happen to you if you were a teacher?
Yes, that's right...an Underwood high school student, and his friends, decided to go to the diner, sit in the booth right next to me and my friends, and start being jackasses.
"You're Mr. _________, aren't you?" one said.
"Am I? Why do you want to know?" My response was received with a derisive snort and muttered accusations that I was trying to be smart.
Understand now that I was trying very very hard to maintain a straightfaced, straitlaced composure in front of my colleagues and that there was no real escape as I was in the corner of a booth. The rock crying out no hiding place and all that jazz...
Another kid turns and asks if I work at Underwood High School.
"Gee," I say. "I don't remember..."
Another couple of minutes pass by, and the kids become distracted by some other person and by the time their food arrives I am able to escape with my dignity relatively intact. But still...two years in a row, Underwood students finding me on New Years. Some things do not change no matter how high the odometer races.
God damn...happy new year.
NOTE: As promised, the Invisible Blogroll continues to expand! Feel free to check out the cryptic, poker-related musings of Square One TV's favorite videogame character at Mathman's Ramblings. And if the sarcastic wit of Dorothy Parker is more your cup of tea, then by all means visit Life is a Glorious Cycle of Song. There are more additions to come, so keep on reading!
