A Friday the 13th
Friday was a mess of a day. It started with coffee at the house, then office hours at school. There was actually someone at my office hours (it’s usually been quiet this past month) who I helped on mechanics and conservation of momentum. She had an example at 12:30 and man, considering how little she understood and energy and momentum she seemed doomed. Ah well, can’t save em all.
After I finished helping her, I talked to Andrew and Stephen Hill for a while (about Burning Man – he finally finished signing up for our camp), then I headed downstairs to prepare my salad for lunch. I decided however, to first head to the campus farmers market for veggies and to check out my posters on campus. The veggies, carrots and potatoes, would be for a panang curry I was going to attempt that evening.
The posters were ‘anti-Lassner’ posters calling him a union buster. I came up with the idea while meeting with ALU, our student union group, to make t-shirts earlier in the week. Our unionization bill is doing well, but there’s a good chance the president will go to the governor and demand a veto, so I wanted to put the pressure on. On Thursday night I put them up all over campus: the posterboards near campus center, the boards on every floor of the physical science building, the chemistry building, urban planning, the tables near the theater building, outside the architecture building, some bathroom stalls, the phone boom / poster area near campus center.
Some posters were ripped down as I went to buy veggies, but that just made me feel better. It means someone had noticed. On my way back, I covertly hung a few more – one behind physics, another in a popular courtyard, and one more by the TGs courtyard. I wanted people to see these things and talk about them.
There was no TA meeting that afternoon, so I had more time than usual and enjoyed my lunch, had a coffee, and tried to read ahead for Machine Learning with Susanne. Class there went fine, but a bit boring and theoretical at first, with lots of important stuff at the end. But I missed most of that because I left early to volunteer at TGs to try and sign people up for the union. I posted up near the beer with my laptop, stickers, and cards. I got maybe 5 or 6 people, but a bunch didn’t want to join, including Stephen, Jake, and Kevin. People are scared, for some reason, and they’re often the most opinionated types.
“Don’t they know that this is how unions get screwed?” Cameron said later.
I had a bunch of beers, chatted with Lauren, Jasper, and others, talked to Susanne a little bit before she started talking business with Elan, talked to Inna and Conor (who kept slapping my ass for some reason), then we gathered people to go smoke. It was, however, pouring rain. Absolutely pouring. The roof was a no-go, so I suggested the tables by the theater. We sprinted over there and set up (some other young students were hanging out nearby, too, playing “What’s up?” on their phones. I had forgotten my weed stuff, though, so I sprinted back to the physics building with Cameron’s umbrella, encouraged Jake and the other stragglers to come join us, grabbed my stuff and ran back. I was poorly supplied, honestly, but Sam had his stuff and we made a good go of it. Finally, it was time to go, potentially to meet John Russel at karaoke, which I had promised to go to.
Inna and I kidnapped Sam and drove up there – to 9th Avenue Rock House in Kaimuki, but the place was deserted. A lone, older lady was tending bar and some other dude was sitting at a table with his head down. So, we got right up and took off. It sounded like John Russel was still at Maharani with his friend. People were at ‘Study Hall’ (the new tropics) so we met Same, Ryan, Mike, and some others there and had a beer even though they were wrapping things up. *Then* we got a call from John R. who was actually at karaoke. It took us a while to finish our beers and Inna was drunk, so despite my somewhat dicey condition I drove us up to 9th Ave. without incident. John and his friend were finishing up, though, and heading to their own car! Hah! They ran back in for two more songs – ‘Helter Skelter’ and ‘A Day in the Life’, then we finally left.
I drove to my place with Inna, managed not to get pulled over by the cop who followed me up the valley, and she tried to seduce me. I started my curry and got busy cooking, but she didn’t want to leave. I told her I wasn’t ready, especially after all the talking we had done about Amanda on Tuesday (some serious revelations, there – especially about Amanda reading my diary – my handwritten diary!!) and fended her off. Finally, I sat down with my curry in front of the TV, but Inna came back to the door.
“Come on, don’t you want to make out?” she asked. I was drunk, but man… we embraced against the wall and I grabbed her breasts as we kissed. It felt really nice, but I was so conflicted. She’s married, though she says it’s an open relationship.
“I’m just not up for this right now,” I said, apologetically. She left, but came back again and tried one more time and I finally convinced her to leave. Phew. I settled in from of the team with a bowl of fresh, homemade food in hand. “It’s just you and me now, curry,” I said. It was 1 a.m.