21-IX-1972.

On 17th some acquaintance of my parent's, mostly deaf, was sitting and the talk dragged endlessly, you never know whether he heard or not, so I slipped out to town earlier, distributed the pictures to the pillars and deejay. Saw Ruška with that guy from last time, and I think why do you need to bluff, just say nicely.

Asked one from my reserve, in the middle of "who catches what" whether it's stupid to ask her now, she said it ain't stupid but it ain't a yes either. Okay.

Ascorted the little M. all of three doors away from Dom, this one at least gave me a good reason: has a boyfriend in cops high, comes on saturdays.

School finally began on 18th. History reduced from 3 to 2 classes a week. Sociology by the same lady who held psychology last year. Changed the professor of oto - it's not the old alkos Dabić (whom we called Danga but didn't hear others calling him that), it's the younger alkos Radisav. Their third drinkpal was LML, who'll teach us the vojska prep course (which was renamed to something long these years). They had a tiny room downstairs, next to our first grade classroom, the so-called „oto cabinet“, where they'd sneak in whenever at least two of them were off class, and would chug a little. We never saw them lose balance, but we did see them coming out of that door, and heard them fumbling their words in the like manner. That's those two, LML held out, you could never see it on him.

The classroom is small, intimate, on 2nd floor. I see Višnja every day, they are next to us on one side; on the other there is IV_6.73. My deskmate for the year is Sredljak, though I don't expect any new confusion, they know us already.

The next day went to dispensary to get released from PE again, managed to skip the line and then straight to the local newspaper staff room. Stuffed them a couple of shots for the saturday edition, then to Dom to see with the manager about the concert photos.

With dad downtown in the afternoon, buying textbooks and LPs, was aiming for "A ti se ne daj" (and you don't give up, by Mlinarec) or "Time". Bought textbooks.

Shooting Pa šta onda in the evening, with scene movements while they play, probably had some wine behind the scene during breaks. The drummer had his usual solo in the end, when they were playing "Suzie Q" second time. They packed up their instruments, moved the amps and speakers, removed half of his drums, but he was still on it, "fell into trance like a donkey into a ditch". Though he did drink a lot.

Yesterday agreed with Višnja to come see the movie, but again she won't come alone, and D.M. promised to tag along but then changed her mind, because of "I didn't feel like coming". I pulled Višnja to the side next day and expressed my suspicion that D. may be jealous. She did tell me to "go to your starlette" long ago. "Aaah, that explains a lot", says she. "And now please don't walk with me to the bus, a guy will wait for me there, I'm supposed to go out with him tonight but I want to tell him not to hope, so if he sees you it would get complicated."

She did go out in the evening, we met, had some relaxed chat, then split, to our separate gangs. I stood mostly with Grne and some girl.

Next morning that summons finally came. After school went straight home and had a nap. Afternoon, had a solo meeting at the club, nobody came. Went home and made photos until 1:30. On saturday I was sleepy like a puppy, and was in the mood to pay my respects, so I asked Višnja whether she remembers how many times did I ask her. Once, she says. Nope, twice, and doing it again, and asking also would once a week suffice for the future. The answer was in various shapes of "oh, don't...".

My folks are in Belgrade, so not to sit it out with granma I went to town in the afternoon, watched "Valter" and then couldn't get a bus because of the firemans' congress, so walked home, had dinner, went back to town (third time that day). In the disco was with a bunch of girls and it turned out I broke the record - never had so many hours of good fun in female company and that number of heels drunk* in a single day. Came back with Vasa and again we talked quite long at the supermarket on ruža, no cops this time.

Club remodeling finally finished on 23rd. Worked both morning and afternoon. We even oiled the floorboards. In the evening I kept hitting on a girl, and she was responsive, and when I almost talked her into escorting her, she says she's with two other girls... when Sima the cop taps on my shoulder, says "hey what's you hitting on my girl" "well it isnt written on her [brow]" "that's why I keep watch" "okay, could have told me sooner" "so you know now". Well, fuck that. Though, the guy sitting with him was B. from my old class in the elementary, who was always just trouble, don't remember that anything good came from him. So I better check. And I found her again, and asked whether she has a boyfriend. Well no, she has a candidate she should start going with. Ah, so, is the guy a cop? Ah no no... but then she didn't really answer that one, evaded the answer. So yes that's him but she's undecided so far. So I escorted her, sort of... waited two blocks away from Dom, where our paths would part (and at right angles, so escorting her would mean a very long walk back), just to tell her that... well, if it doesn't work out with this guy, I can wait a little.

That was Ema, the cosmetician.

The "Pa šta onda" singer dropped by to pick the photos on 26th, amidst all the rush - the pics were still hot from the dryer, he's running away to arrange a slot with Minimaks, needs the photos for the newspapers, etc etc. The history professor is ill. The "Portrait" is sent away tomorrow, to be copied out there. She didn't see the movie, the last chance failed, her dad didn't let her go. I enrolled into some course of german, tentatively, just in case I may visit the Hat club this winter.

That tuesday, 26th, att 6:00 had to go to Radijator to have my practice log verified. We had to fill that, with what we did each day (which was almost nothing, so invent), then in the end hunt for some boss there to sign and stamp it, allegedly can't get a mark in oto without that signature, and then can't complete the year with a mark missing... I wonder whether anyone ever wasted a year that way, or how many times just anyone's signature and a smudged stamp did the job.

In the evening found Ema on first try, and had merry old time (and she liked it!). Then the candidate came up, in civvies this time, and another guy, and they alternated in hitting on her. Was hilarious to watch. Gavra messed up with that fuzzy girl from few weeks ago, the one he sent me to remove her friend but I danced with her instead, so she just ran away tonight, without a word. So he was hitting on Ema's friend, then some others, then gave up, went home and got earth drunk. Ema and the two guys were still at it when I left.

The next day Gavra was still drunk. Had a fresh wound on his wrist, was biting himself to sober up.

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* "to drink a [high] heel" - to get kicked away, i.e. to be refused

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Mentions: Dom omladine, Gavrilo Taroški (Gavra), Gradivoj Sredljev (Sredljak), Grne, IV_6.73, LML, OTO, Pa šta onda, Radijator, Radisav Pajsić, ruža, Ružica Bajin (Ruška), Vasa Šančev, Višnja Lazin, vojska, in serbian

24-I-2021 - 10-VII-2026