Nice Day for Air

Unseasonable weather is the best kind, provided it occurs in the winter of course. After some of the weather we've had, a sunny day in the high '40s was proportionately balmy. The snow is melting and there's still a lot of sand around. It's still a mess. But it was just warm enough to get outside, and get some fresh air and exercise.

Sitting in Starbucks, my friends and I pondered smoking, a conversation prompted by a young lady standing outside who lit up. I've never understood the appeal of smoking. “Cool adult” image aside, how can inhaling smoke be pleasurable? Isn't that something to avoid if for example you were trapped in a burning building? My one experience with smoking was at an office Christmas party at my last job, a few years out of college. The boss had gotten cigars for everyone for “dessert”, and insisted we all have a puff or two. I had one to oblige upon being prodded, and felt something thick and semi-solid roll down my trachea, rolling and clinging. It liked this warm, damp place. It didn't want to leave. It was only when I coughed that the smoke was violently expelled against its will. Diluted but not undeterred, it sought out other lungs to infest even as I extinguished its cylindrical brown progenitor. Never again.

The more I throw away, the more air there seems to be in my cubicle. Rey came by at one point this afternoon to help me with difficult decisions that shouldn't be difficult: “But, what if I need this cardboard? For something? What? OK, fine.” The space isn't as small as I thought it was, although I still think my new cubicle is bigger. Of course, I haven't been given the go-ahead to start putting my stuff there yet since my boss has been preoccupied with some other challenges at work. I'm sure the space will seem smaller once my stuff is there, which is why I have to get rid of as much as possible before the move. I am hoping to inherit the flatscreen monitor that's currently occupying the new space though...

I wish I had seen this “trailer” during last night's halftime when it was originally scheduled to air—it would have made my Phantasmic Links without question. The Homestar Runner brothers got some fresh air themselves, and I've never laughed harder. Of course, it's mandatory to have played Peasant's Quest in its entirety, otherwise the trailer doesn't seem as funny and I don't seem as credible.

Finally, at the end of a nice day 24 left me gasping for air as always. Without question, this has to be the best season since the first one and if they keep things up, they might well top that season as well. The only good thing about the weird state of advancing time I seem to be trapped in is that waiting from last week until this week wasn't so bad. Each ending makes it seem like it's going to be a long week. Even now I'm realizing the downside of agreeing to cover for someone at a band rehearsal next Monday. I'd better go set my VCR now....