the punch - journal # 06.18

I sure as hell had to drag my ass out of bed tonight to get to work. Coming together came slow, after many sweet evening hours semi-conscious listening to classical and trying to sleep on a large iced latte from Peet's with almond milk and light on the ice, please, at noon. These days I am 'quicker to the punch' as they say, an expression my folks used in New England in the 1980's, when Tab sat in the plastic black cup mould in the Volvo Turbos of the world. Quick to the punch was a way of saying coming to or coming into consciousness and alertness swiftly. The connotation could also be physical, but I think it was more often a reference to mental alertness. Which crossed with another expression in the aftermath of the Jim Jones debacle: Don't drink the punch!