rabbi akiva @crackerbarrel redux

it's not that i'm more learned
it's just
that
what i've got seems
all current event-y

i was on the road
i stopped

now
i like cracker barrel
it reminds me of places
the little country places
my mom and i would stop when driving back to her parent's house
where you'd sit down and they'd bring you a basket of biscuits
before you even ordered
with butter
and honey
and
you could buy jerky
and quarts of milk with cream rising to the top

cracker barrel reminds me of stuckey's
with it's jarring orange-ness
and it's kitschy crap and candy

spliced
with those beloved country food memories

somehow
it works

or at least
it had until now


i was on the road
and there just isn't that much
i can eat, anymore, at the ol' cb
but i stopped
in louisiana
for the coffee
and
just for the record
no louisiana coffee for cb
just whatever they serve wherever

whatever

but i took in my book
i'm reading three
but i just took in one:
entering jewish prayer
cause i'm trying to understand what it's all about

now
i don't know if this is pertinent or not
but, in the spirit of full disclosure
i had just been listening to
just say nu
in the car
more because i love michael wex' voice
than for any real yiddishkeit
but
whatever
i think i'm somewhere between a pisher
and an alter cocker
when i walk into the ol' cb

and, i mean, i've bought cds there
i count on them to have classic country
or
at least
something good enough to be background noise

but
what they lacked in coffee
they apparently planned to make up for with
christian music

not gospel
not bluegrass
not oh brother where art thou
just big honkin no musically redeeming value christian music

so i'm looking at my three menus
trying to find something i feel okay about eating

and i ended up getting a fish sandwich
and then that felt weird
cause it was friday
and it was like i was encouraging them

so then
while i'm waiting for my food to come
drinking my coffee
trying to get
over the fact
that i got four hours sleep the night before
wishing i could have gotten by
on my
fresh strawberries
saviseed, chocolate maca, & sprouted buckwheat granola
and papaya, guava, & oat bran dehydrator cookies
feeling like everybody in the joint is staring at me
probably
because i look like a female version
of the guy from the unbelievable truth

and then
rabbi akiva said:

study is more important than performance

and
i thought i might be okay, afterall