Last Minute Replacement

I hate Windows Vista. Truly hate it. Not that Vista is wholly responsible for the thousand plus words describing my hellish week with a happy ending that disappeared entirely this morning when I carried my computer from my room where I spent the evening writing to my office where I would upload my fancy words onto the blogspot but Vista sure as shit didn’t do me any favors with the recovery process. That was the longest sentence I’ve ever written and there are absolutely no commas, dashes, or parentheses.

Anyway, it’s gone. A perfectly fine Friday evening was spent conveying frustrations of what was by far my longest and most stressful week and my small triumph over bureaucracy, but alas, it’s gone. It was quite long and not one time did I begin a sentence with the word “I” and I was quite happy with my work. The long treatise also contained a recap on last Saturday’s action where the now mighty Outkasts worked hard and endured 70+ scoreless minutes against the team that handed us our last and my only loss, a 6-2 drubbing nearly two months ago just before we turned the corner. To paraphrase my lost recap: I scored off a header in the 72nd minute to break the damn. Blind squirrel found acorn. The damn exploded and we scored three more in the closing minutes to win 4-0. Spirit of elated satisfaction after game. Excited about the game this afternoon. Soccer good, fire bad.

Starting last weekend and carrying over through this week—and still lingering—was a horrible cough that seems to always be going around. It was the first week of the new term and I had four new classes during the day and new evening classes. Needing to be prepared for this I wanted nothing more than to lie in bed and even contemplated quitting my job for that opportunity Monday and Tuesday morning. Not having the energy or time (I have a game here shortly and have to go but didn’t want to leave the blog empty over the weekend) to recap my daily absurd back and forth with administration, which is explained in great detail somewhere in this universe in a floating ether pocket, I’ll say three things. 1. The evening classes were disastrous due to poor communication (imagine that), lack of any support or curriculum and general confusion. 2. Despite being sick and exhausted I worked hard this week for the first time and actually felt, dare I say, stress. 3. In one of my many meetings with admin I asked for a definitive answer to a question I posed weeks back, a carefully planted seed involving vacation.

Really long story (and last night’s story was really long—you might thank the ether for making this week’s entry mercifully shorter) short, the week ended on a happy note. Turns out the seed sprouted into a beautiful flower and I am relieved of proctor duties during finals week so I can pursue my dream of climbing Mt Fuji with my old mountaineering partner of past blogs yonder who is still in Suwon. That’s right, I’m going to Japan in July! Having talked about this for years, the omp and I will conquer Japan’s tallest thanks to timing and administration finally conceding a request. I’ve wanted to do Japan every year I’ve been in Asia and it’s always eluded me somehow but NOT THIS TIME! It only sweetens the deal that I get to share this experience with an old friend who shares my love of hiking, outdoors, and food. Can’t wait to try the sushi!

The story was so much more eloquent and lengthy last night but alas, I’m short on time and ready to kick. Before I take off I would be remiss not to mention today’s festivities and how a frustrating and exhausting week ended with victory. Today is Saturday and I actually spent the day in the office, which I never do. Last time they asked me to I just said that it’s not in my contract to work Saturday’s and they haven’t asked me to come in since. However, today being Teacher’s Day, a Korean holiday honoring…yes, teachers, I thought it would be worth hanging around and it was more than well worth it. Our ubersweet students showered us with flowers and letters and performed a show of which I took no pictures. I know, I totally suck. Having been really pissed all day and frantically searching for my lost document, this took away the sting just a little. Then when administration handed me an envelope with money in it the sting went away completely and I decided to sit down and grind something out before I head out to score goals and conquer. In summary, Vista sucks, I had a rough week, it ended really well with a Japan trip and envelope with money in it, and Outkasts are playing this evening. Have a great weekend everyone!