Strangest day so far this year, me thinks

Submitted: Wednesday, April 14, 1999 19:01

Today has been one of those days where I just stopped caring about everything. I haven't had one of those for a long, long time. [/me blankly stares off into space for a few moments.]

It started off normally, more or less. Wake up to the computerized alarm, stumble into the shower in a dazed stupor, and gradually wake up. But today, I stayed in the shower an extra long time. Long enough to make myself miss my math class, which I am on the verge of flunking. No kidding. It's so depressing.

So, upon exiting the shower, I went straight back to bed. And slept right through the remaining portion of the math period and through Systems Analysis and Design, at which time I was awakened by the returning Neelix. I guess I didn't miss much. Just more excruciatingly boring lecture time.

At this point, I was scheduled to go to work for an hour. I didn't. Instead, I sat for two hours tinkering with my newly-adopted window manager, Enlightenment. It was fun, but I felt guilty the whole time.

Just writing this now feels so depressing. I can't believe I'm posting it on my public web page. Oh well. When ya gotta spout, ya gotta spout. If the wrong people read it, that's life. Maybe I should include a disclaimer somewhere. Anyway, on with the story.

So at 11:30, I'm supposed to be at investments class. As you can guess, I wasn't. I really felt like playing with Gnome some more, but I left the room so as not to provoke any questions from Neelix. I hadn't done my homework for the class, which made it even worse. So, like a coward, I went to go hide out in the library.

What followed was something you never really think you're going to do until you do it. I located a copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and began to read it, for the second time in my life. And I kept reading. I was just spellbound. It came time for my speech class, but decided I was already on a roll for the day and continued to read. Upon finishing the book, I looked up to discover that the time was 17:50. I had read for over 6 hours straight -- and I was late for my evening shift by 20 minutes and counting.

Time to stop this madness. I came in to work, more tardy than I've ever been to this job. And here I sit, typing away in between helping various users.

That book has left my brain in shell shock, just as it did the first time I read it. As I recall, I was also read nearly the whole thing in a library then too. The Boulder Public Library, and I was skipping class. That was shortly before I dropped out of high school. The possibility that this parallelism somehow foreshadows upcoming events in my present life disturbs me. I think I'll go to class tomorrow.