I Looked Up In Dismay

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        I looked up in dismay to see that the alarm clock read 12:32 p.m..  “Incredible.” I said.  The one day I had actually set my alarm it didn’t even wake me.  I got up, stepped on a shoe, then kicked it across the room forgetting that I needed to wear it later.  “Damn shoe.” I uttered with useless dismay.

        The computer was my next stop.  I had a set pattern while getting on the computer.  First check the e-mail, delete the useless stuff, read the useful stuff, then reply to the ones I actually gave a damn about.  Today was different though.  I got into my e-mail and noticed a “Barnes and Nobles” ad.  I clicked it revealing the elaborate backgrounds that these places always took the effort to use to catch the eye of the customer.  One knows the ploys and the “special one-time deals” that these places always gave out.  I noticed an offer that oddly stuck out at me.  “Gladiator” only $10.99 for the special limited edition.  “Cool” I thought.  “Always loved that movie”.  

        A years ago was when I had first seen it at my father’s.  I didn’t want to watch it but my grandfather was there so I didn’t have much of a choice.  The opening scene consisted of a battle between the Barbarians and the Romans.  I remembered thinking, “That must blow.”.  Of course I also recalled the fact that I wasn’t there so I was pretty happy about that.

        The next e-mail subject read “Cool Pics”.  “Awesome.”  I thought to myself, more candidates for my wallpaper on the computer.  Clicking on it turned out to be a mistake.  A jolly roger popped up with a message reading “Click the X button if you can” with a timer right below it that read approximately one minute .  “Can’t be too hard” as I clicked the “X”.  All the sudden it darts across the screen to the other side.  Now the screen read “Try Again”, the timer began going faster.  “No way.”, my thoughts raced trying to figure out how to out smart the skull and cross bones on my screen.  Nothing came to mind.  The timer ran down and next thing I knew my computer had downloaded a virus and began to erase everything from my hard-drive.  “Well I guess there goes my computer for today”.

        Darting out the door and late for class I ran to my 1 o’clock Aeronautics class.  Sweat beading from my head, I sat down.  Unfortunately I sat in the front row, so there was no hiding the fact that I was late.  No concern in my mind though, I was one of the best students in the class and had no problem with the teacher or any of his exams.  The only problem was that this class went slow, really slow.  I had something to look forward to though and that was his next class,  “Intro to Computer Applications”.  My instructor there was incoherent to the fact that no one paid attention to her and that everyone was online at that time she was lecturing.  The class was easy though and I was keeping an easy “A” in it.

        Mr. Lowell released us after the agonizing two hours and I was off to my next class.  Being on time to this one wasn’t much of a concern.  It was right across the street to my Aero class in the Engineering building.  The doors were card activated which reminded him of a spy movie or something like that.  This class flew by, for the main reason that I didn’t pay attention.  

        The next class that I was engaged to was Civ 1.  Not a bad class but it was still a class.  It was a five o’clock class that meant during this time of the year it was dark when I finally got out.  That depressed me a bit.  Upon entering the class room, I sat down and observed that there was a rather large T.V. in front of the entire class.  “Yeah, movie day.” was the first thing that entered my mind.  I was good at watching T.V., that was for sure.

        A few minutes later the professor walked in carrying his yellow paged notes that he always had with him.  His name was Dr. Matthew Ruane.  He continuously spoke of his love for alcohol, which concerned me of how well the grading process of a recent research paper would be handled considering it was about 10 pages long and 120 kids in that class.  I knew that I’d be drinking after all those.  

        What struck me as odd was what he saw next being a copy of  “Gladiator“.  “Minor coincidence, no big deal” I though.  Then the last exam was passed back which made me totally forget about what I had just seen.  That “F” written on that exam tore into my mind and made me think at a million miles per hour on how the hell I would keep my ROTC scholarship.  After class I spoke with my instructor to pull my self out of my self-dug grave.  

        Returning to my dorm room only brought me greater dismay.  Upon opening the door I was greeted with a stench of something awful.  My post that was in my room was leaking something rancid, more than possibly sewage.  “No freakin’ way!” I said while slamming the door shut and making a run for the phone on the desk near my bed.  Calling maintenance at this place was like a maze with no end.  Everyone transfers you to everywhere else and you never get transferred to the one place that will actually take the time to send someone to fix it.  Finally after getting a hold of someone to fix the problem and hopefully clean up the mess I took a trip to Evans where most of my meals have taken place.  

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        Getting there at 7:08 was a mistake, closed.  “Damn it!  Guess I’m going hungry tonight.”  I went without eating many night so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  

        Arriving back I was met by some maintenance guys that were smelly but he was happy to see for they were the only way I was sleeping in that room tonight.  The mess was cleaned and everything was smelling like AJAX.  I didn’t care, that or raw sewage.

        Laying in my bed was like a huge weight being lifted off.  All my problems were gone until the next morning when ...

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