up here so high the boughs they break

Jon Stewart + Ice Cube, two great tastes that taste great together. Last night's Daily Show found Jon Stewart back in rare form, from ripping apart CNN anchors to trying to pretend he knew the meaning of crunk. And Ice Cube, well, what's not to love about him? He was once interviewed by The Believer, and there's something inherently likeable about the dude. Like Mos Def. Except Ice Cube has more of a put-upon dad quality to him.

El jefe sent out what he calls a "simple, stupid survey" and I neglected to fill mine out. He's definitely got the stupid part down, I will say that much. Luckily, he also wanted to keep the surveys anonymous, so I will suffer no repercussions for shirking this little responsibility. Really, I hate wasting my time at work with this kind of meaningless crap. After all, that's what the internet is for.

I sneezed fifteen times before I left the house this morning, about a dozen times while driving to work (this does not lend to safe navigation on the roads of my city), and four times while typing this. And that was after I'd taken a Claritin. I hope I don't have to switch over to the dark side, and take Benadryl, because that sh*t messes me up. I stop sneezing but I lose all ability to think or sit still. Wonder what's in the air that has caused this little immune rebellion.

The poem-a-day torture continues, but today's did not, in fact, inflict pain. I've been inhaling a lot of words lately, poems, stories, and it's making me wonder why I bother writing in this space. I should be reading instead of adding to the noise, I'm starting to think. At any rate, a James Wright poem this morning had a beautiful, springtime-apropos line in it:

Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

That feeling comes over me all the time, over the slightest of things. I'm trying to remember that, instead of allowing my anxiety to get the best of me. People I know from this life, the one I created in the Bay area, think I'm exaggerating. They only know me as someone who desperately wanted to move to San Francisco and found a way to make that happen. They have no understanding of the stumbles and falls and brick walls that preceded that solitary accomplishment. It's not their fault really. As in this space, so much of perception depends on what one chooses to reveal.

BUT I will not get all mopey today. Tickets for Peru are in hand, complete with travel companions. This blows my mind into a million, thrilled pieces.

Update: Sweet sassy molassy, I just got tickets to this amazing collective of craziness! The funny thing about this is that I was going to rant about how it sucks that McSweeney's put up notices to these types of shows once the show is already sold out, but then this random piece of luck befell me, and now there can be no b*tchery.