Poised beneath a twig-wigged tree, she spills her sparkling vocal powder. - Szymborska

I loathe government documents. My class is interesting and I appreciate that all the information is in whatever source my professor directs us to but wading through each tedious and exhaustive document is like being sucked into quicksand. Or so I would imagine. I especially hate the Congress sites and find them uniquely unnavigable. It took my over 2 hours to complete 4 questions in a single part of my homework assignment. Again, I am pleased the class is only 5 weeks long and I am in week 4.

Jane called me at work yesterday, to inform me that we had bees in the house. Bees?!? Who has bees? I thought at first she was joking, considering everything else we have had to deal with, both individually and collectively, in that house but apparently she was in earnest. I learned there is a “Bee Master of Las Vegas”. Bee Master? I am a huge fan of honey but that is the extent of my preferred interaction with apiculture. There is a great quote from a novel called Fourth Queen about a sultan’s harem and one of the queens describes her feelings as follows “So close have we been, with our chests opened and our ribs splayed like bone petals, with the honey running, and our two hearts like red bees, humming and sucking together.” This is a bee quote I can get behind. My idea of romance has always tended toward the gory, like Slavenka Drakulic’s Taste of a Man in which the woman consumes her lover after determining that cannibalism is the only true marriage, the way that two can literally become one. I read this book in middle school because my librarian mother did not censor my reading at all (with the exception of disallowing VC Andrews’ books which I have still never read) and imagine this idea has since shaped my theory of relationships. I have another relationship theory based on punk music that allows for three couple options. 1 – Sid/Nancy (Sex Pistols) – obviously an explosive and overwhelming passion that destroys all involved. 2 – John/Exene (X) – once romantic develops into long-term friendship. 3 – Lux/Poison (the Cramps) – lasting romance, the fairy-tale type of love (that makes allowances for hookers and drugs) and is forever. I shall close with a quote from Paul Eluard’s letters to Gala that showcases his overwhelming adoration for his muse:

“Abandon yourself to whatever tickles your fancy, nuzzle whomever you please, ogle whoever pleases you”