Day 301 of Staying the Fuck Inside
*(over 300 now? really?!)
**Happy birthday, to my wonderful wife who hasn’t killed me in 301 days, Amanda! May you spend less of your 50th year Staying the Fuck Inside than I did!
Under times of intense stress, my body tends to freak out. This is usually in the form of a case of pink eye, or an outbreak of cold sores in the vicinity of my left nostril/upper lip.
Last night, I felt it coming on, and this morning I had to peel my eye open. It has been pretty damn gross all day. This is one of the more “productive” cases of conjunctivitis I’ve had in recent memory, and I’ve been wearing an eye patch for most of the day.
I look like Snake Plissken.
Stress triggers are the fact that it’s now Day 301, and all that entails, and, frankly, the Coup d’Cuckoo attempt from the other day. I’ve seen others say that it has brought up memories of 9/11, and I have to agree.
9/11 was not a happy day for me. I wasn’t directly in the path of anything, but I was working down the road a bit from the Pentagon at the time, and let’s just say I still don’t watch any of the annual tribute programming.
I can’t.
So the CoupCoup Birds kind of really set me off the other day. I am not, by any stretch, Mr. SuperPatriot, but I do think our Constitution is pretty damn great, and having grown up near D.C., I’ve been in the White House, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. Others have described these buildings as “sacred,” and I will agree there is an almost otherworldly aura and ambience to the buildings when you are inside. You are in an entirely different space (whether by the Masonic geometrical weirdness, the overwhelming sense of “history” or just similar architectural techniques found in assorted cathedrals), and to see a space like that – that I have directly experienced and hold, frankly, in awe – violated in such a manner has been deeply painful to behold. We are by no means perfect. But I like to think it is something we ultimately try to strive for.
In any event, the stress barrier in my body was breached, much like the police barricades, and now I’m dealing with the fallout.
This usually clears up in a few days, but it is damn annoying right now.
Although the eye patch definitely helps, it also throws off my depth perception. I’ve been knocking things over, and missing my mouth while eating all day.
We had margaritas with dinner.
It’s only going to get more entertaining from here.