People have been asking me where Maria is all day, and I’m not sure I know. We talked several times today – Dubai to Cambridge – and when I last heard from her, she was boarding a plane for Calcutta at 5 p.m. my time, or 2 a.m. her time. Her last text said she was boarding.

I got on my Flight Tracker App a few minutes ago, and it said her plane had landed in Kolkata, the time difference is about about nine hours (ahead of us), as I write this at 8:28 p.m here., it is 8:58 a.m in Kolkata, which means she’s been there about an hour getting through the airport and customs (and money exchange) and finding her driver, yes, she has a driver taking her to the hotel there.

She will get in touch with me one way or the other, and she has a lot of catching up to do and meeting and greeting, so I don’t really expect to hear her through most of tomorrow. I hope she got some rest, Kolkata will be a lot more intense than Dubai. She started taking her malaria pills today.

I am very happy she has landed, and we both are excited about the trip.

A lot of people thought my first posts were sad, and I suppose they were.

We mean a lot to each other, and while we never want to tie the other down, or hold us back, neither have we experienced long separations over great distances, unless you count most of my life. I never wanted to infanticize my daughter, I surely don’t want to ever treat Maria like a child, she can take care of herself.

Maria spent most of the day in a Dubai hotel room after her original flight was canceled. , frustrated and anxious to get going. She should be there by now, at long last, and I don’t expect to hear much for the next few days. She has better things to do than talk to me.  She said she would let me know when she got to her hotel.

She is posting some beautiful pieces on her blog.

I keep telling her emotional roller coasters are good for writers, and she is proving it. The India trip is fertile for her, it will deeply affect her life.

But enough about her, let’s talk about me.

I am in a very good place today. The new plan with Cassandra is working out well, and in a day or so, it will not seem strange and I will just get right into writing. I plan to get up around 4 a.m. Wednesday and get right into my study, the dogs can come downstairs and wait for sunlight.

My missing Maria is like a dull ache, somewhere in the chest (not, it’s not angina), when I am writing, it is completely gone. If I’m that good on the second day, I’ll be fine for the remaining nine.

The barn cats are in the basement where I will feed them and keep them through the day. Even Fate lies still when I sit at my computer, the dogs seem to know

I miss Maria, but I am not sad any longer. I’m busy all day, and spent at night. I have a lot of good writing to do, and I want my head to be up for it. You can’t really turn it on or off, it has to feel right. Maria’s trip is an affirmation of us, in many ways. She has taken her life back, and I have taken my life back, and there is nothing sad about that.

The Valantine’s Day party at the Mansion was the best thing the blog has ever done, and I could not be sad on a day like that.

The house is clean, the dishes are put away, the laundry is drying, the cat litter cleaned out, the living room vacuumed,  the animals are fat and happy if eager for Spring. Fate as been getting a good workout and is keeping me company in bed, she snores sometimes. She is a sweetheart and Red keeps his position on his dog bed by my side. Whenever I put my hand out, his head is there to receive it.

We are in sync. Me and Maria too. This is an exciting time, I meant to savor it, on my end and hers.

Welcome to Kolkata, sweetheart, may you bring back the stars.