September, October (More Or Less)

Listening to: Felt
A Tribute To Rosie Perez

-The boys take first place at the prefectural track & field meet. The annual meet is a pretty big deal, as the entire student body skips class for the day to cheer the team on. The events start at 9:00 in the morning and run until 6:00 pm or so, at which point everyone is sunburned beyond recognition and entering the early stages of dehydration. The vice-principal and I severely mistime a high five in our excitement when the winners are announced. Awkward, but everyone (from our school) goes home happy.

-A typhoon warning cancels the first day of school back from summer break. The scene at the supermarket is pretty wild. I stock up on beer and ice cream while everyone around me buys real groceries.

-The cat is pretty good about not chewing on my stuff, but he did go to town on my photo album and my high school yearbook. I can only conclude the following: HE FEEDS ON MEMORIES.

-I want to go to the beach, but it seriously rains every weekend and only on the weekends.

-One of the 3rd year students shows up to school in a pair of the fakest 6 Rings that I've ever seen. I would laugh at him, but that would be very unbecoming of me. As a teacher, not as a sneaker collector.

-I threw some serious change at a brand new suit, and the cat promptly jumps on my back and claws the shit out of it.

-We decided to check out the old haunted hotel remains near my village. The story is that some millionaire decided to build a hotel on sacred grounds near an old castle ruin, but people mysteriously started dying during construction and it never got completed. Weird stuff inside: no rooms looking alike in spite of the fact that it's a hotel, stairways that lead to nowhere, other stairways that inexplicably turn into ramps, creepy boiler rooms, etc. The layout to the place is so bizarre that we get lost and have to jump out of windows and hop rooftops to escape.

-Today's vocabulary test has the words "salmon" and "jazz" on it. I have to stop myself from giving bonus points to the kid who somehow manages to misspell them "semen" and "jizz." Unbelievable.

-Went to my first Okinawan style wedding. Kind of like a real dapper Halloween party where only the bride and groom dress up and everybody gives them treats. In the form of money.

-I want a pair of KDIIs. I have dreams about those. Can't believe I slept on the Creamsicles. Can't believe I didn't pick up the Scoring Titles. Can't believe I didn't look harder for the All-Stars. Sometimes I think of flying to the states just to see if Foot Locker still has any KDIIs in stock. Sometimes when I get really hungry, I think, "Man, I wish had a pair of KDIIs." Then I order a pizza. Sometimes I start believing in Santa again because I've been pretty good this year and he might hook me up with some KDIIs. Sometimes I consider selling my ride and buying like 100 pairs of KDIIs. If I ever found a magic lamp, I think I'd wish for a pair of KDIIs. Three times in a row.

-The seasonal sandwiches at McDonald's here are off the charts. There's a chicken fondue that makes my heart all warm and fuzzy.

-You want to know what my new hobby is? Watching the Los Angeles Clippers bench whenever Blake Griffin or Eric Gordon dunk on someone. I've never seen grown men quite so excited.

-We finally find a new home for the cat, and I in turn find that I miss having the little guy around quite a bit. I do discover that I'm no longer picking kitty litter out of my socks, which I suppose I could get used to.