Friday, 11 March 2011

It's been almost two weeks since the earth bulched and, much to the annoyance of some, I have been decidedly quiet.  So much was already being written and I was dealing with issues like food and hair so greasy I was two thirds of the way to brunette, that the blank page and I were having communication problems .  When I had the chance, I attempted to keep notes of the day's adventures.  These are the highlights. And, yes, I use that term liberally.

Friday, 11 March 2011
In the morning

Graduation for the third years today.  I find the whole ordeal a little silly - all the ceremony, the dewy-eyed parents, the mothers in their kimonos and hairstyles that you know they got up at 4am to create, the fathers in their pressed suits.  All the weeping!  And all the speeches that I don't understand! I will have to entertain myself by trying to play match the parents to the acne ravaged teenager.

I could accept it if the students could actually, you know, fail a year.  All this fuss just for pitching up and doing the minimum.

But, I've had to make an effort to smarten myself up a bit and am feeling pretty as a grumpy peach in my 50s dress.  I might have to take my bobby socks off though.  It might work for Japanese fashion, but I think it might be tacky, considering the occasion (apparently, I did give a smidgen of a shit).

I really wish everyone would stop running around like there's an earthquake happening (this is the first time I'm re-reading this and, yes, I did actually write that), especially because they have already taken care of every painstaking detail.  It's making me nervous.

The Crooners perform tonight.  Kinda nervous about "Don't Stop Believing" - just pulling out that goddamn E!

Later that morning...
Well, that's over.  Almost cried a few times.  I blame the lack of food.  Muscle cramps started just before the cereminy and progressed to get worse over the next two hours.
The kids walked in reaaaallly slowly to Vivaldi and were so nervous about getting the 90 degree turn that they'd practiced that many of them messed it up.  They sang the same songs as last year.  Speeches were made.  Everyone sniffled a bit.  They exited to a Jazzy instrumental cover of "My Way".

A sudden wave of overwhelming sadness.  Sadness and aloneness.  Overemphasizing the positives of being in a somethingship with someone.  Of how much I wish for witty texts that warm your tummy and sparkle a dreary day.  Of an unexpected hand that laces its fingers through yours.  Of wanting to be wanted.  A palm on the knee.  A grasp around the shoulders.  Someone to discover and be discovered by.  To kiss and inhale and fall into.  Someone to stand too close to and have neither flinch away.  But, also, knowing the fultility of grasping for it.  These Things like to take me by surprise, when I'm looking in the opposite direction.  And then, suddenly, there you are.  AAAAGH!  I can't believe I just spent even more words obsessing about this.

Late afternoon, after the earthquake, and I returned to this:

But, as I was standing on the sports field, after we had evacuated the school building, and the snow  - in an irritating display of post-apocolyptic poetry  - started swirling around us, I had feared that I might not have a home to return to, so this was very, very good, with the exception of being highly irritated that I would now have to clean up - never a particularly favourite activity of mine on a good day.  This was not a good day.


After we had sent all the other students home, another teacher had been kind enough to give me a ride home.  As we drove, I briefly thought, "Maybe it wasn't that bad", because we passed a woman with a bag of KFC and she appeared very chilled out.  She wasn't walking fast or running.  Just strolling along, enjoying the late afternoon walk home and the KFC that awaited her.

 I know!  I know!  There are some of you shaking your head and saying, "I've seen your apartment look worse" - this is because I have an alcoholic five year old called The Claw, who occasionally takes possession of my life.

 I should mention, in defense of the messier of us, that not packing my stuff away the night before saved my laptop from being crushed by the desk.

Le Bedroom floor, taken as the sun was running away.  My bed is was another oasis, untouched by any fallen objects.  Won't be changing that room's set up.

The kitchen cupboards

Everything that used to be in them.

The olive oil was very shaken by the experience.

The aftershocks keep coming.  I'm on a raft bobbing on a sea of land.  And they won't stop.  Ok, Earth, we get your point.  Could you stop now please?  The sirens, too - a constant wail that makes it all so much worse.

A broken vinegar bottle explains the smell.