I missed badminton practice for this?

Wednesday afternoon, I made the nearly 2-hour walk-bus-train trek from my school to Hamamatsu to attend the second teachers' meeting of the school year for the company through which I am contracted. These meetings are intended as supportive fora for swapping stories, lesson plan ideas, and general work tips; sounds harmless, right? In actuality, they are a completely maddening waste of time. We are grilled to share any issues we've had at our schools, but really, many of us just haven't had issues. And when no one has any real issues, we discuss mundane hypothetical issues and their commonsensical solutions.

Sure, there are a couple people—those people, you know—who show up bursting with anecdotes and self-proclaimed brilliant activities to share: "So this card game I made up, kids of all ages love it. Okay, so dragons are worth 7 points, lions are 5 points, tigers are 3 points, and monkeys are 0 points, but there’s this one situation where a monkey can beat a dragon, and the students just freak out! (And I will now explain this situation, along with the rest of the rules, so poorly, so that even you as native English speakers are thoroughly confused.) Hey, I brought the cards, so do you guys just wanna play it right now?!"

Oh yes, please. Yes, I do. And I expect you to give me a sticker if I win.

The majority of us do our best to feign enthusiasm. I know I'm completely transparent. I was missing practice for the teachers' badminton club, dammit! The most joyous part of this day was getting to stop at Freshness Burger after the meeting, for the Best Onion Rings in Japan, Possibly Anywhere (it's a chain, though the nearest location I know of is in Hamamatsu).
My aggression subsides with every hot, greasy, ketchuppy bite.