I. Am. Alive.

At some point I decided to lay aside my charts and compass and just navigate by instinct. There's a destination awaiting me, somewhere, and what's most important is that I survive the trip. Spending hours poring over a tattered map won't help when what I need to to is trim sail and follow that star.

Big U. has been an awakening, too. It's tough on so many levels - I am bruised in some surprise places - and it's taken me a while to adjust to things. There is still some chafing.

What's most important is that I survive, and to some measure thrive here. The long days of inanity have been forcibly replaced by a severe regimen of thinking and more thinking. And much reading and writing (alas, no fiction, though that really didn't wind up being a huge selling point of mine, though, did it). So I am busy, healthy and well. When and if I pass through this fire, I will truly be reforged - scotaku still - and ready to return to combat.

More Later.