the past week in review

Basically it's been a whirlwind. On Wednesday and Thursday I visited my
new favorite baby (…next to yours, of course), who is very beautiful
and smart. She is beautiful because she is two months old and she is
smart because when I read her the New Yorker article about Gary Snyder
she was very raptly attentive to his outdoor wilderness retreat
lifestyle, but when I tried to read her an actual poem by Snyder she
burst into tears, which is about how I feel about him.

Then I came home and had a day of relative normalcy, and then a series
of events got me really, really upset and at some point I decided I
wanted a divorce or at least A Break because I am Not Appreciated and
Not Cared For and Oh, Man, the Weeping, and the house was so cold and
then I realized that I had a fever. Yeah. Sunday I barely left the
couch, and was brought tea and soup and tempting bitlets and
alternately read to or left to watch television and basically I just
drifted in and out of a fever haze, and Friar put a clean shirt on the
heater so when I woke covered in sweat I just changed into a warm, dry
shirt. Generally I felt like a tool but I kept taking everything
anyway, because hey. Sunday night I wrote bad poetry to amuse myself
which is how I knew I was getting better. Here is one:

I wonder what Mr. Rogers would do
if Mr. Rogers had the 'flu.
I like to think he'd quietly lie
against his pillows, fluffed quite high

by his wife, at whom he'd smile.
And she would read to him a while
and maybe even kiss his head
or touch him gently as she read.

His son would bring tea on a tray,
and Fred would blow his nose and say
his gratitude was really boundless,
though with this throat, it's kind of soundless.

And so far things here are also good,
in mine as in his neighborhood,
I'm sick, and gladly taken care of
Though I am also most aware of

the fact that I am not the good guy
(despite all attempts to be such)– I
have merely surrounded myself with
sweetly loving kin and kith.

and now it is Tuesday, and other than the fact that I think I may quit
smoking since it's been a week and I dunno, it just doesn't sound that
good, well, things are back to normal. Going out tonight to celebrate
OUR NEW PRESIDENT OH YEAH!

And you?