Crispness

Left work last night

completely satisfied.
Glad to go home,

glad to leave behind completion.

I walked into a

quiet night,

low moon,

crisp air,

grass twinkling under foot.

A lovely spring is taking shape.

Fluff

Here is something I hate:

I'm at the gym and I'm in trekking class. I'm in front of the fan because I get so overheated that I will get sick and pass out if I don't have circulating air on my face. I am running, no, sprinting. And I am sort of gasping for air. Slowly, my breathing catches a hint of stink. The hint eventually turns into a decisive point -- and where is it pointing? To the guy next to me who has apparently passed gas while running full speed.

This is disgusting on several levels. First of all; I am running. I am breathing deeply and each breath feels like it might be my last. Do I want my last breath to reek of ass? Second of all; his farts were super stinky ... like a dead animal. I'm thinking, what is this man eating? He smells like he's about to rot. Thirdly; where is the common courtesy? The treadmills at my gym are upstairs and fans are kind of scarce and the air is hot and muggy. Can he not just a) hold them in or b) at least jog away to expel his disgusting puff?

I admit, I was pretty rude after the first fart was followed by many and I realized that apparently his jogging was compressing his bowels and that he would be releasing gas the entire HOUR LONG class. I started putting my hand up to my face under my nose. I would take my towel and whip the air in front of my face. I would roll my eyes and make a slightly (but really more than slightly) disgusted noise. I would turn my head away in a most determined fashion. I hope he got the hint. The hint being: if you are farting, it's time we were parting. And hopefully he was appropriately embarrassed and will think twice about his treadmill etiquette.

A Stink

My workplace is built on some sort of stink factory. Every night, without fail, around 7 or 8 PM a hideous odor begins to slink its way into our noses. The smell is a strange mix of manure and fresh poo from some farm animal - so that it is both fresh and ripe, yet stale and pungent. It's very odd. And stinky. Many employees complain about the stink and I don't know what to tell them. How best to say that apparently our building is built on the bog of eternal stench and that for the rest of our working career at that building it will continue to seep into the foundation and continue its reign of stink? Worst of all, you can't breathe through your mouth to alleviate the intensity of the odor because then you just taste it - and you know that the air is teeming with microscopic particles of shit...or maybe a decomposing body. Sick.

A funny story, though, has managed to come out of the stink hour:

My two friends are working. One of them farts, despite trying to get away and hide their fart. My other friend (the non-farter) says, "Oh no, here comes that farm smell." And then continues to complain about the smell (which is NOT coming from the farm) with exclamations like: "Oh, I hate that smell" and "It stinks soooo bad, don't you think so?" Ha ha.