Backhand

I was going to call this post "War Journal" because yesterday felt like I was dug into a trench taking grenades all god damn day. Before my classes began I walked myself over to Mando Books to pick up a copy of Write Away which Dr. Franke had assigned. I passed my poor little silver Saturn along the way.

Two new parking tickets. I have a parking permit, which I paid 60 dollars for. I was in a section with absolutely no signs, no postings, no indication that it was any sort of special short or even/odd term area. So the city will get yet another 60 out of me. I've already paid 3 tickets this semester. All totalled I'd say that's two hundred dollars Cortland's managed to get out of me. It really seems to me that there's some sort of punishment being doled out for owning a car in this area.

Anyway.

I went to Philosophy and French. Earlier that week I had given a presentation on the Death Penalty in Philosophy and had used my flash drive to upload the graphics. It dawned on me as I left the room that I had never taken my drive out of the USB port. So I rushed back in, only to find it missing. No one had seen it. Now most people have their files on their computer anyway, which I normally do- I am very safe about these things. However, I just got a brand new computer (which promptly crashed and had to be replaced under warranty) so my drive was completely clean. Which means...Everything I have ever written is gone.

So I figured I'd take me gloom with me to the Red Jug and play Trivia Night. The fucking idiot DJ does trivia night as category lists for some reason, rather than actual questions. For example, he will say "cigarettes," and each team must list all relevant brands of cigarettes. There is a limited number of answers per question, so sometimes one must guess as to what brands the DJ might be picking as answers. Seems straightforward, but each category is worth a different number of points, and some answers are randomly selected for triple or quadruple points. The second to last category was "Dead Male Singers." We were in Third place I believe, not very far behind. We filled the list. We were incredible. We even threw in obscure dead men like the singer from Joy Division. I threw in Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Frankie Valens.

Which was supposed to be Ritchie Valens. Which, of course, was the 9,000 point bonus answer. I put my forehead into my hand, stared at my Guinness, and considered for the first time having a fit in public. But instead I just kicked the shit out fo Patrick at 8-ball. Our record for the semester thus far is 11-8 in my favor. At the end of the semester the loser pays the winner ten dollars for each game in the difference of scores. In addition, side bets are welcome: for instance, Patrick now has to do all the dishes since he lost 2 out of 3 last night.

Hardly compensation for my stupidity and misfortune, but I'll fuckin take it.