So three days before Friday's slam, Big Poppa E calls Doug to back out of featuring, and although thats a really asshole thing to do, we figure was just a victim of gas prices. And ultimately, it turned-out to be a good thing. Because, after Thursday's open mic (which had a decent crowd) I asked Doug what he was gonna do about the lack of a slam feature and the fact that no one would know about it until they showed-up. He said, in short, "That depends; do you have a feature set ready to go?" The bitch.

So I decide, after conferring with Heather, who was still researching at Yale (and discovering historical and literary inaccurasies that will send changes from the Library of Congress to every state school in the country - I love my wife), that I will do it.


Do you remember what happened the only other time I featured at something? Well my crowd was almost twice as big this time. There were nine people watching my set.
So it was actually a good thing that Big Poppa E didn't show because the turn-out would have been a huge insult to him and I, at least, would have felt ashamed.
What's worse is that I perform better in front of a large crowd (even better in a small space), so I pretty much should have phoned my set in. Doug and two others then did three poems each. I really respect his "the show must go on" attitude. He passed the hat and I made $13, plus I got the Busload of Poets DVD from 2000 (of the Poetry Slam bus tour that I caught at the Green Mill in Chicago and changed my life - it really did).

...

The Bipolar II meds I've been taking have worked quite well, but also have given me chronic diarriah for two months (a very uncommom side-effect for that drug; welcome to my world). So I'm having to switch to something else right now.


I'm kayakking in a typhoon.