All Good In the Hood

          One of the teams was doing a new business pitch, and required a one-day turnaround on a simply huge media audit. This was a big 'un. After waiting through a lame instructional meeting on PowerPoint at lunch, I dove into the work and didn't surface until 11 p.m. I missed DOC entirely. By the end, I swear to god, my fucking prostate ached from all of the American Cancer Society publicity I was combing through. For example, I had the privilege of reading this tripe: "The 'road to recovery' from cancer is literally paved with volunteers." Literally! The road is literally paved with them! A janitor took his sweet time with this floor today, and managed not to give a shit that I was the only employee there by choosing to hover near my workspace, talking loudly and playing music on his phone. Three thoughts were coursing through my brain: "holy shit shut the fuck up," "I want to finish and go home," and "wow I'm a hungry hippo rn." I called for Thai food since the company reimburses dinner if you work late enough, which was cool, though the guy on the phone was being a fuckboy when I gave him the spelling of "Athenaeum". The food was some xtra-greasy pad thai, as God intended, and some sushi that hit the spot. As I said, I left at 11, when the struggle was finally ended and I could say "good enough." I may clear 40 hours in this four-day work week.
          I was caught in an awfully cold rain on the walk to the Orange Line, which seemed to be speaking as it pat pat patted on my head and back and neck: "You will never be happy after this night!" Then an inkling of carpal tunnel pain in my hands and a fucking gale blowing in the opposite direction rose up in concert, and all of a sudden my eyes were watering up because I could finally let it out. The way to the Community College stop, that long, windburned walk up and through the mess of overpasses separating Cambridge from Charlestown, was rock bottom for me today. On the train I composed myself; the walk home was crappily wet but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
          When I got home, I found Johnny, Kofi, Jules, Nathan and Alaric watching The Late Show. Stephen Colbert was interviewing (still possible/probable presidential candidate) Joe Biden, and of course these are two funny and personable guys. The conversation turned to Biden's late son Beau, and Colbert handled it more delicately and with more finesse than I could have expected. It was touching, which I see as an unexpected bonus from the Report. This was cathartic. We then turned the catharsis machine up to eleven with the first episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. There's probably nothing I can say about Fred Rogers that hasn't been said, but he is one of my heroes. "If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of."

"You're not my neighbor, boi. LOL" - Fred Rogers