Well, Janet left yesterday morning at 8:30 on a plane from Raleigh to Chicago to Tokyo to Singapore, and I'm a sad panda again. It won't be a just few weeks this time until we see each other again. We were talking about me possibly going to visit her in November, which would be cool. Need to start saving up now. She's going to be arriving in Singapore today around 1 PM EST (which is 1 AM her time), and she said she'd send me an email to tell me she'd gotten there safe and sound.

I've been sick for the last week, and just can't seem to shake whatever it is. I've been achy, nauseous, weak, exhausted, and whiny. Janet took care of me last week; I actually had to miss two days of work, something I dreaded doing so close to starting my new job. But whatever it was knocked me on my ass, and I haven't completely gotten back up yet. Yesterday was the first day that I actually ate a complete meal in a week; before that, I'd just pick a bit, and barely make a dent in the meal.

On Labor Day, Janet and I did a bunch of stuff. I took her to Bojangles for brunch (a southern restaurant that everyone needs to experience at least once), then we went to the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. Afterward, as we were driving back, I pulled over and we stopped at the N.C. State Arboretum near campus, which I'd never been to, and which I knew she would love. She shot a whole roll of film there. Then that night, we had dinner at the Fox and Hound, which was delicious as always. Then home and packing for the big plane ride.

It felt really strange last night, sleeping alone after having someone next to me for two weeks. Guess I'm going to have to get used to it for a while. I'll just have to plunge myself into my writing to take my mind off of the loneliness. I did get "Snake Charm" fixed up while Janet was here, and I think I'll start some serious revising on "One Less". I need to redo "In the Valley of the All-Father" and take out all the Norse stuff (which would change the title), but that's going to be a serious rewrite. Though the first half should be okay, the section that Tim Powers said David Lynch would just eat up, the really creepy and mysterious part where you're not sure just what the hell's going on. "One Less" and "Valley" are probably my two favorite stories from Clarion, so I'm going to make sure I fix them up and send them out.

I guess that's all for now. I did find The Vintage Book of Amnesia, edited by Jonathan Lethem, on Monday, which I'd been looking for and hadn't been able to find. It was in the remainder shelves at Barnes and Noble of all places, in trade paperback. Other than that, nothing else exciting is going on. This week looks pretty mundane.

I miss my Janet.