S. left for Atlanta this afternoon, as tomorrow is her first day of employment with the NGO whose international headquarters are located there.  You could say this officially launches a lifestyle that will return us to Asia later this spring and end my current work with the University of Kentucky Writing Program in May.

Yesterday S. and I pampered ourselves in honor of Valentines Day–treating ourselves to manicures and pedicures, a late lunch and shopping at Joseph Beth, our favorite bookstore in Lexington.  I purchased Norah Vincent’s Voluntary Madness,  her most recent work,  narrating her year long immersion in and expose of  in-patient psychiatric hospitals–so far a fascinating study.  In fact, I want to hurry and finish this post, so I can return to reading it before bed this evening.  However, I must also discipline myself to write, dedicating enough energy and time to making this blog meaningful and fun.

Yet, often, as I mentioned the other day, I feel as if I’m merely going through the motions of writing–typing words and assembling them into sentences that amount to nothing more than discipline, to little more than exercises in commitment keeping.  I said I would do this, so I must and shall.  I know no other way.