'I wanna be ignored by the stiff and the bored'

About midway through The Hives set at the Metro tonight, I felt a small amount of teacher-guilt. This is the feeling a teacher, especially an English teacher, gets on a school night, when said teacher should be at home grading week-old papers but is instead out enjoying what normal people call "life."

I moved back against a side wall, where it was cooler and a little quieter, and looked at the all-ages crowd while the band launched into their hit song. The singer sang, "Do what I want cause I can and if I don't / because I wanna be ignored by the stiff and the bored / because I'm gonna," and I thought, hmm, I don't really understand what that means, but maybe it can be my teaching motto anyway.

Then, I thought about a bunch of different things, mostly related to my job. Didn't have anything to write it down with, so let's see if I remember:

• This is an all-ages show. Please don't let me run into any students.
• If I do run into students, who will be more embarrassed, me or them?
• Nah, there's no way any of my students would listen to this music.
• But if they did, would this make me cool? Or make them uncool?
• Do I want to be the cool teacher?
• Man, that bass player is old. Chubby, receding hairline, sort of resembling the old "time-to-make-the-donuts" guy in the commercials. He's probably pushing 40.
• Which puts him in my age bracket. Do I look like that?
• Why don't I ever wear earplugs at concerts? Will the ringing in my ears ever go away?
• Whenever a student mumbles something, or speaks very quietly, I say, "Can you repeat that? I'm deaf in my left ear and I can't hear out of my right one."
• It's not a stupid joke if it's true.
• Why do I call this a school-night? Isn't it really a work-night?
• Do any of these people here have jobs? If so, are they thinking about those jobs right now?
• Hey, this new song is pretty good!
• But at my age, shouldn't I be listening to jazz and classical music?
  
• Screw it, 36 is the new 26. Or at least the new 34.
• What the heck am I going to try to teach tomorrow?
• I wonder if what's-his-name in fourth period will show up tomorrow. I hope not.
• Do people with normal jobs fret like this on a Sunday night?
• Darn, it's 9 p.m. and they're still playing. Maybe I should cut out early.
• Come on, make this your last song.
• In eight years, I think I've run into students at a concert only once. Actually, they were graduates. They said they didn't realize that I "rock."
• So I bought them beers. Just kidding. But I did continue drinking mine. Said something about it being legal.
  
• I really need to stop thinking about my job. Can't I just enjoy myself?
• No, I can't.