I’m seeing that this could become my accountability blog. Let’s see. I last saw Lewis just before he got on his flight to Melbourne and I my redeye to Chicago and on to Albany. He got on the plane in his snuggly pod, only to have the slight hitch that the plane was delayed 2 hrs due to faulty navigation equipment. The TSA didn’t want to let them off the plane, as it was an international flight, so the airline, rather wisely, elected to give them dinner as they waited on the ground.

Meanwhile, my plane boarded on time, and we flew uneventfully to Chicago. Lewis and I had eaten copious amounts of Mexican food, including stuffed poblanos and the New Mexico version of pulled pork, so I didn’t worry about eating. I slept again on the plane to Albany. I tuned into the force and found the car, which my beloved coyote had left in the parallel universe that is airport parking, and hit the road, getting as far as the nail salon. I had found the nail salon when I went to be fingerprinted, and found an interesting parallel between having someone twist your fingers on an ink pad and someone twist them while applying a full gel set. I needed new polish and a fill, so I did that, then attended to errands and hit the road! I hadn’t had breakfast, so I stopped just this side of Bennington at Papa Petes, “Last diner for 20 miles,” and had DELICIOUS eggs Florentine with sweet potato fries. I’d like to maintain my bikini-ready figure so perhaps that better be the only meal I eat today.

Meanwhile, I heard from our dear friend (and wedding officiant!) Peter Blum that his ex-wife Merrily had died. Peter Blum has very kindly offered to take me with him at the end of February to assist at a workshop in LA at the Hypnosis Conference, and he was letting me know that we would need to get back early for Merrily’s memorial. She was an amazing artist, who never got to have a show, so the children have planned an art show and memorial for Sunday.

On that sad note, I arrived home, to our VERY SILENT apartment. I am determined to work as hard as Lewis does, so am committed to keeping up with the tasks at hand at least until 5pm tonight (we’ll call the nails a long lunch). Tomorrow starts early! Back to the gym! I am convinced that the weight we bear is not about food and exercise but also about eating just the right amount to maintain our desirable level of anxiety. Some people like more anxiety than others, so it stands to reason that they eat fewer simple carbs. Others can’t stand any so they eat a lot of carbs. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. So the trick is, to learn to live with a little more anxiety, which in my mind means a little more uncertainty. I have to make peace with uncertainty. And there you have it.

I decided after a long break that I would start up again. Life has been active and fun! We have had some adventures, a brief sojurn to Honolulu for a weekend (paid for last year and down to ‘use it or lose it’ status), my first experience downhill skiing (on the Moose slope out in Bolton Valley), the exchange of the 1994 Toyota Camry for a Ford Escape (4-wheel drive) (a win-win situation – we got a car that will carry us through the Vermont winter with a reduction of panic attacks from sliding and the Camry’s new owner is apparently taking it to the Monadnok Speedway and turning it into a race car – a fitting end and one my dad would have really liked), and all of this, of course, interspersed with The Paperwork of Marriage as a foreigner. I have had my electronic fingerprints taken, and learned that I don’t give good fingerprint, so I have had another set taken, this time with good old fashioned ink. The next step is the examination of my file to make sure I am worthwhile considering as a resident of the United States!

Just now, we are in Santa Fe at the Creativity and Madness conference, and we will zip off later today to Los Angeles, where Lewis will continue to Australia, and I will return to Brattleboro to wait for my appointment. I am not allowed to leave the country until I have temporary papers. I am a little melancholy, thinking thoughts about Lily and Shadow and Mavis and Tony and Sally and Keith and Varun and our favorite Dominican Sister at the retreat outside Warburton, the barramundi meals (a perfect food, according to our friends from the north) the sweat lodge we build every year out of tea tree and the fresh mussels the kids collect from the beach at Boole Poole. I will do my best to astral travel there. Maybe I can find something that smells like eucalyptus and tea tree and kangaroo and light a candle for the success of this journey.

Meanwhile, I have papers to write, projects to finish, photography to organize and my personal trainer certification to study for (I’m getting it to be able to work with people on psychotropic medications who haven’t been in touch with their bodies for a while).  Oh yes, and a film to finish!  Yes, friends, it’s that time.