My mother has this tendency to send me little care packages every few months or so. It usually consists of one actual gift (typically make-up — Mom sell Beauti-Control cosmetics, so she gets it wholesale), plus some other random stuff. Here’s what I got today:

* The actual gift – a buckwheat pillow for my neck. Not sure how it works, I think you’re supposed to put it in the microwave to get it warm first.

* A bunch of comic strips, mostly “Dilbert”, “Arlo & Janis” (Mom loves the cat in that one), and “Boondocks”.

* An article she cut out of the paper about Bret Michaels of Poison’s solo album. Dear god, will I ever live down the fact that I liked hair bands when I was 14? It was actually kind of sad, the article was a promotion for his upcoming show at The Dock in Jackson. The Dock, by the way (as anyone who’s lived in Jackson knows), is a tiny depressing dive of a place that’s been stuck in a time warp since 1985. Not entirely inappropriate for Bret Michaels’ target demographic, I imagine, but still. What a miserable existence. (I’m not sure if I mean him or his fans. Maybe both.)

* An article she xeroxed (I can only imagine that since I didn’t get the original, this means that my brother & sister both got copies as well) about how “30 is the new 21”. I appreciate the thought, although it somehow doesn’t cheer me up about that 28th birthday that’s looming less than 2 months from now….

In other news, I’m leaving for NYC on Wednesday. I’m getting stressed, I hate flying. I like the part of traveling that involves getting to see new places, I just don’t care for the process of getting there.

Right now I’m listening to an MP3 that I just downloaded of Rufus Wainwright doing “My Funny Valentine” on the David Letterman show. Damn, that’s good. He’s going to be playing at the Moore next month and I can’t afford to go. Waaah!