Romantic

I know it might not be apparent to those who don't look deep below the surface, but I'm still a romantic at heart.  I'm not talking about hopeless romantics, or some kind of version of high school romance.  I'm talking about mature romance that sometimes transcends relationships.  Often, it's the simple things that embody my vision of "romance"....like holding hands, or simple kissing....rather than any grand gesture where the ultimate goal isn't romance.  It's simply sex.  I'll take romance over simply sex any day of the week.

I've got a lot of big things coming up.  I just told someone that I wish that I could go to sleep and wake up two weeks from now, with everything that needs to happen between now and then all taken care of.  I think they call that kind of "sleep" a coma, and I suspect I'll be awake for more of what's going to happen than I really want to.

I'm on the cusp of some significant changes.  I've already mentioned that my contract is ending as of the end of next week so this particular crazy commute will be over, as well.  With gas prices zooming up (they've gone up 17 cents here in the last week!) it's probably a good thing.  But I've got at least one and maybe two cross-country drives in my near future and that's not going to be fun.

One of the things that a certain someone and I share is a trait whereby we simply do what needs to be done.  We don't complain too much.  We don't dilly dally.  We make decisions and then we do.  In this case I've got some things that need to be done and I could moan about some of it for an hour.  There's a good chance that I'll spend my birthday night later this week in a hotel somewhere in Louisiana.  But I've got an obligation that I need to honor so despite the fact that it complicates life right now I need to do what I need to do. 

I can remember a half dozen recent birthdays of being on the road to or from somewhere.  None in recent memory top my birthday when I turned 50 but I don't look at birthdays that way.  It's just another day....it marks another year that I've been on this earth.  As we've talked about many times in the past it's not how long you're here that matters most....it's what you do with the time.

Today is Tuesday - so I was up at my usual ridiculous hour and I drove my usual 300 miles to get to work.  I'm actually in pretty good spirits, although I've got a big headache right now.  I'm not sure if it's the new BP meds, or the rain, or the stress, or what....but I'll be headed to my hotel shortly and hope to curl up in a little ball for a few hours.

I had my annual birthday physical yesterday and all seems to be well.  Funny thing is that in previous years I'm typically in tip/top shape in February and there are often issues of one kind or another.  This year I haven't had the time to get to the gym in weeks and my readings were the best they've been in years.  Go figure.  I've got an appointment with a dermatologist on Monday to do the close examination of my skin for any sign of another melanoma.  I'm not too worried, but then again when they found one on me 4 years ago I wasn't worried about it then either.

Anyway - life changes on the way.  That's true for all of us, I suppose, but here we go again.  I like to think there's an ultimate purpose for all of this.  But then again, I  think that's the romantic in me speaking....