Stories of epic proportion always begin in the middle of things, and our adventure, though less than epic in scope, did get going as a kind of midlife vocational crisis for S.–one that is taking me along on an odyssey to what some might consider the edge of the world–or almost–

This is how it all got started.  S. and I  have been together for going on three years.  I teach college English.  S.  is the executive director of a non profit in Kentucky that advocates for the homeless in our state.  Before that S. directed an international NGO’S tsunami rebuilding project in southeast Asia.  I am essentially  a self-taught visual artist and writing teacher–a current bore with a dramatic past (story to be told later).  S. lives for new challenges.  I prefer the ordinary and predictable.  I am the off brand to S’s high end adventure.

But, perhaps, all of that is about to change.  S.  has tried for the last 2 years to settle down and live what most might consider an ordinary life.  Her efforts in the work-a-day world have been considerable.  We currently live a comfortable life  in a nearly comfortable 100 year old house–2 dogs, 4 cats, a basement that needs cleaning, an attic that needs straightening,  a way of life that needs (according to S.) a bit more challenge and adventure– a little less Lexington and bit more Bangkok–perhaps–

So it stands, that S. is considering returning to the NGO she left 2 years ago to assume a position in global disaster response that we hope will allow us to maintain a home of sorts in Kentucky while living a large part of our lives in a Thai apartment as an alternative base of operation.  While S. attempts to save the world, quite literally,  I try to anchor our adventure in words.