"Feeling MUCH better now."

The late John Aston, who played Gomez on TV's Adams Family, also played a character on TV's Night Court. This character had recently been released from a mental hospital and was disturbingly cheerful and unflappable - while still being weird. One of his best lines, after describing some strange event in his past, was to say (with a toothy grin), "But I'm feeling MUCH better, now."

That's kind of how we feel -- and probably appear -- at this point. We went to Star after giving ourselves some decompression time (thereby confusing both the people who thought we were coming, and those who had heard that we weren't), with the promise to ourselves to leave early if it didn't work out. In the end, it did work out, although I still found myself pretty mercurial and hypersensitive throughout much of the week. I did a lot of napping, whether from exhaustion, depression, or pique, I suppose it matters not. A week on Star is a bit of a social compression chamber at the best of times, and this time was no exception, but on the whole we got a lot of consideration and many heartfelt hugs and love from old friends. The weather was great all week, the water was an unheard-of 69 degrees so we could go swimming, and the food was increasingly good. We avoided most opportunities to get ticked off at people, and in the end even joined in the silly Island traditions we roll our eyes at. Nontheless, I think at this point some folks are tiptoing around these precariously balanced mental patients.

So -- many thanks to friends and relations for your love, comments, emails, and the like. It really does make a big difference.

love,
D