Status report: Today I worked on the introduction. I thought I was going to work on Chapter 2, but I wanted to get the introduction done first, just to get it to my readers and out of the way. By the time I go to sleep tonight, it will be done and sent.
That’s it for today, just the introduction. I have three footnotes to write before I go to sleep.
What I’m longing for, right now, is something extraordinary. Some sort of adventure, some sort of change, some indication that life won’t always be like this. I don’t even know what it would be. Just something. I don’t expect life to be like a fairy tale, but there must be more to it than this, right? All work, all the time. I feel as though I was able to live for a little while, when I was traveling, and now I’m back to just working, existing in front of the computer. I’m starting to feel like a machine.
That’s all I have for you today, just my tiredness and my sincere wish that something extraordinary could happen. So I’m going to post a few pictures of my trip to Asheville. Here is Malaprop’s Bookstore, from the outside and inside.
I think I must have gone to Malaprop’s three times, while I was there. I didn’t take many pictures – I was too busy actually doing things. But I did photograph some details that I thought were interesting, my first morning there, when I walked into town and around the downtown area. On the way, I saw the clematis called Traveler’s Joy growing over a bush.
This was a bus stop. It looks like public art, doesn’t it?
And finally, metal leaves growing over a doorway.
There were so many boutiques, so many coffee shops, so many art galleries. So many things to see and do, and I could only see and do a few of them. But Asheville is one of my favorite towns, and I hope to go back there again soon.
Theodora Goss 
Asheville is a wonderful town; I only visited a handful of times while still living in North Carolina, and I wish I’d gone more. When we decide to move back to the USA (whenever that might be, most likely when the economy’s much better than it is now), I’d seriously consider moving there.
The bus stop is BEAUTIFUL. Puts the bus stops in Singapore to shame, which tend toward utilitarian practicality.
Something extraordinary is happening right now, as you sit, reading this post in one place at a certain time, while I sit here typing, in another place, and at another time. We are crossing the boundaries of time and place right now, Theodora (who is almost always “tired”, who has a keen eye for exquisite detail, and, who finds it a challenge to live in the energy frustrating present at peace). I just love the details you notice in Asheville, and in other places. Rest assured, wherever you are going, you’ll be there when you get there, and it will be precisely where you were destined to be when you do. Right now you are precisely here, as you were destined to be.