Recruitment. They just got us rounded up and issued us our booklets - basically your ID while in uniform and that was it. Don't even remember where it was. Some office in the circle of the local barracks. Never understood why they call it circle (ditto for factory circle), it's always straight lines and mostly right angles.
Zova drove his moped to school, but didn't say so at home, so can't return it the same day. Has to be tomorrow, when his parent's won't be there when he returns. So I get to drive it home and return it tomorrow. So I got to know the feeling of some tiny horsepower obeying my hands. Went to the IX community center in the evening, had partial success with some girl but... mnyah, got too annoyed. Too many guys here know me from before.
3rd and 4th an ekskurzija to Divčibare (or perhaps, now that I think of it, Tara). Mostly taking photos (with Zova's backwards loaded FED-4, soviet thingy), in the fog. It's a whole kilometer up. Most of the time was with Višnja, D.M. and gang from their class, and he was with me most of the time. Upon return, Tejka sent me to their bus. "What are you doing here with us?" "I came with this bus, with it I return" "Go to your II/1. Two days you were with them, what are you doing here now?" "Okay, and I resign as class president. And I was invited there already, so this is just something to reckon with in the future". She already started that after dinner (when we got nowhere, because there's nowhere to go, the one place is not a disco, it's a night club). Snide remarks geared to cause guilt in me for not being with my class. Which I couldn't even find most of the time. I can't even remember the places I mention in my notes... it must have been crazy then.
On 5th went to theatre to deliver the picture and get paid. The old bursar actually knew (about) my maternal grandfather, made a big thing of me having and knowing my roots in the city. I remembered that.
At school, bluffed Zova that I crashed his bike.
On 8th celebrating end of year. IV4 even has music - one guy plays violin, other accordeon. The renovation of school is already underway, this week those in the farthest classrooms were shuffled forward into cabinets and seniors' classrooms, even in the least used wing on the other side of the monastery. Crazy. I made some money on the last batch of pictures, though seeing there's no logbook today we skipped to the "dansing", i.e. the pinball room at Dom, where I left some of the income. And I finally got a five in biology, I'm all excellent.
On 9th, after all this, I was invited to bring the projector to Dom, because the author of "Panta rhei: horrors of underground" has a poetry evening, and has a spool of 8mm to show. Don't know how I carried the projector, did someone come to get me or did dad take me... Anyway, it was a crazy evening of, ahem, alternative poetry, which included some show from a couple of local poets, at least one actor, and CD as the reporter, who even sang something at some point. There was also a lot of harsch critique against banning some issues of "Student" newspaper and also "Indeks" (its counterpart in Novi), PIV (province executive council i.e. government, accidentally pivo is beer and the two coincide in several cases), province court... I got a spool of super 8 to run. It's unedited, not particularly imaginative, walk around the streets of Novi, with just a few funny moments, like when he zoomed in on some bearded guy passing a yard wall all covered with pasted posters, whom he called a cretin, and told me to reverse and show the guy again and again - which I did just fine, I had the controls of the projector down pat, no problem, no lag. In the finale, he had a couple of cardboard effigies, very crude, which he crushed shouting "down with false heroes".
All good fun, and all the critique was against certain phenomena in the society, not the system as a whole, precise and constructive.
On 11th we didn't make as much fun at the school as we planned. First, burning the latin textbook failed, almost nobody brought them. On the main street there was a pioneers carnival and a hot wind was blowing and I think I got a sunstroke. CD appeared and took me aside during the break. Just to scare me into being very careful what to say, he mentioned (masked as either what may appear in the newspaper or as what may be on the court) a weird interpretation of my part in the poetry evening the other night. "He says roll it back show that cretin again, and you roll back and show Marx". And I think, for your mother's cunt, don't go there, I was just pushing buttons, you sang on the stage.
I slept until evening, and wasn't quite normal when I woke up, still a bit dizzy; slight problems with balance stayed for a day longer. Found out that I was invited to go to Dom by both Tejka and the mummies, oh no. I'd go with the first option, knowing how many times the other one led to a fuckup. But they said they have a third girl with them, with the same nickname as at least two others I knew, and... well, if it was the one I had in mind, she would come with Vladimira... and the other one that was possible was, well, not ugly but not compensating it with anything else but nose held high. So I went with Tejka. She got a serious sunburn, went to the dam up the river. Found Gavra there. She was with me all the time, we did look like a couple, which killed my chances with the cute little one from the current KČS, phew, and that's the one who always greets me by name even though I don't quite know who she is.
On 13th we gathered things to paint the lab in DC-99 - that thing remained untouched so far.
Got the pass for Dom the next day. A couple of days later I tried to use it but the entrance was free - the Omege band weren't playing that evening.
Most of the week passed in painting the lab. It's dark blue, to minimize the light reflections. There's a little window above, which we can't quite close all the time, but it isn't facing sky or yard, it's just a well between the wings of the house. So this should be enough.
On 25th was on the river, below the bridge, with Lazar, shooting the regatta. There's a sizable kayak club in the city, well equipped and well known, and this event was well organized. In the afternoon I pasted those posters to the rear wall in the garage. It's all white, looks better now.
In the evening, with Gavra and Tejka again (plus others) and she stuck to me, pretending to be a couple again and snuggling up to me. I just didn't want to play, she's definitely off my candidate list, don't need that kind of trouble in this one life, so I moved half a meter off, she didn't fall, though. She told me to fuck myself, which ranks high on her curse scale. Zigzagged from that gang (there were others from IV4 as well) in the comforter hall to the other hall and back. Some soldiers, their evening off, tried to calm down one of their own. Almost got in trouble myself with the guy, still not quite versed in the language of the drunk. On next round met one of the local painters, who tried to cummon my help to amuse the friend of the girl he was hitting on... but the one I got was so bored and boring and was no fun at all. You just had to see her slow chewie movements to understand. Third round (I kept getting back to the gang because I promised), I spotted that cute girl from this last KČS in the pinball hall (some hall, it's a converted terrace, joining the toilets to the main building). Finally heard her name, too ordinary to remember, any nickname? Linka. Okay, that's memorable.
Ended up almost escorting a girl from the only highrise in town, on Mala Amerika, though she ditched me just half a block before her door. It was just about third time at all that I walked among those buildings, so I half pretended that I got lost and met her again at the door. Just doesn't like her own generation, that's all. Said she forgot the key so she's going to get a spare. And how she doesn't like to have met me again. Then a couple of guys from the "band" which recorded the music for the "Progressive" appeared, then another guy (later a geographer, director of the city museum) came and somehow recognized me... well he's got lots of act photos that he's done and needs some kind of official cover, maybe through the club, eh? Meanwhile one of the band guys was talking with her. Then they gave me instructions three times (one wrong), found the way more or less fine (it's only 100m in either direction and you know where you are, it's all small, just none of the exits are visible from where we stood), was at home in 25 minutes. Never saw her again. Interesting face, though, I would have recognized her. At least the talk was looong and interesting, a kind of verbal match, interesting altogether. Thinking it over, I may have had a chance if I pulled a few tricks and at least pretended to be one year older. Ah, well. Who knows then, if that worked, how it would go once I said the truth.