March 27, 2002 // 8:02 p.m. // On/Off
I had this class with the same teacher last year, and made the decision that I'd revise last year's paper about nation-building in the US and China. I waited until the night before the rough draft was due to trek into my storage room on a quest to find a copy of the report I had printed a year before. When I finally found the box full of last semester's assignments and school newspapers, I found little from the history class. In fact, I didn't find a single page of notes out of the nearly 100+ I took. I did find last year's rough draft (which was more of an outline than a rough draft) and set about adding to it. And then I read the syllabus. In a five-page, typed and double-spaced paper, please discuss nation-building in China and India between 1850 and 2000. This was not the topic last year. It was now after 10, and I had no plans on starting a rough draft that late at night. I made the decision to not go to that history class, and instead opted for the mall today. I wouldn't have made it through the paper anyway. Minutes after submitting my last entry, the power went out. It flickered on seconds later, and then off again just as quickly. On then off. On then off again, all in a period of perhaps thirty to forty seconds. I sat in the dark and waited for the power to flicker back on one last time, but it never happened. I left the darkest room in the house, and went to the window in the living room, the lightest room due to a large window and a beautiful glass door. No storm. No rain. No snow. Just an eerie silence and calm. All of the neighbors lights were off as well, as was the street light across the street from me. There was no movement on the street. It looked abandoned. I have a hard time falling asleep unless there is noise. More specific, television noise. Every night, I set the sleep timer, and drift to sleep. I can't put on a CD or the radio because I'll listen to the music and I won't go to sleep. So I stayed up, resolving to stay awake until I drifted to sleep with a pen in one hand and a flashlight in the other or until I scared myself with my own shadow or imagination, whichever would come first, and wrote in my journal for almost an hour by the light of a flashlight (with two keychain sized spares just in case) until the power struggled to come on like the little engine that could. But again, like a last gasp of breath, it never came on, and I decided to try to fall asleep. It was easy, I must say, until I woke up at 4:45 swearing that I heard my parents talking about me, trying to distinguish their voices form those of the two TV's, now on. After a little more than four hours of sleep, I'm still tired. But at least I woke up with my hair in such a way that it takes hours to separate and loosen and do it's thing. What usually takes until four in the afternoon I had by seven in the morning. I also found an "outfit" that I like. Khaki pants, white and gray socks, sporty sandals (like those side of the swimming pool sandals), my leather jacket and last but not least, my blue Cardigans shirt that I just bought that features a snowflake and the words, "The Cardigans" on the front and on the back, in a faint lighter blue that's tough to distinguish from the darker blue reads, "The Cardigans. First Tour On The Moon". It's second only to my "make me look pretty" outfit of khaki and a black shirt flanked by the Vegas strip. It's my favorite "outfit" and I wear it fairly often for those special occasions, like going out for the night. It's also my confidence outfit, but I now have a new favorite look for when the shirt needs to be dry cleaned. Um...I'll wrap this up and pick up tomorrow. Look forward to hearing about Monopoly, school elections and how you can make my day just by sitting by me. Jason Last time on Apexsensatin : Now on Apex : Apex Archives : Next time on ApexsensatinI had a rough draft of a history paper due today that we've been reminded of since the semester began. Only the rough draft was due for critiquing, not the actual final draft.