Today is the ninth full day I have been without Joe, who is currently volunteering his time at a 10-day Vipassana meditation course in Blue Ridge, VA. Luckily I only have one more full day without him because 1) I miss him teribly and 2) I'm falling apart over here! I never realized how many of my "good" habits were really Joe's habits that I follow by association. For instance, Joe regularly flosses, goes to bed early, rises early and (generally) eats healthy. Since he's been gone, I may have flossed twice; I've been staying up so late (well, only 10:30, but after 4 years with Joe, that's LATE!) that I force myself to stay awake rather than just turn off the movie and go to sleep; and at least one meal each day has consisted of a banana and saltine crackers with peanut butter (in my defense, I have been adding chia seeds to the peanut butter to increase the health value).

I may be being a little bit hard on myself here because I have also been eating delicious, fresh salads from the garden at least one meal a day. Without Joe, and without refrigeration, I have little motivation to do any real cooking, so I feel like I've been grazing and snacking for 10-days now. Also in my defense, during Joe's absence I have managed to:

• Continue earning a living


• Keep all our animals alive and healthy


• Keep the greenhouse and garden watered


• Do some serious beehive maintenance (with wonderful help from my little sister, sorry about the sting Jenny!)


• and, Install a frog pond!

So, maybe "falling apart" is a bit extreme, but I'm still looking very forward to having him home again. Wilson, on the other hand, is definitely falling apart without Joe, but that's another story.