OK, so how am I doing since Richie left for Britain?

I suppose I'm alright. I am definitely not enjoying having to get around by bus everywhere I go. The Los Angeles MTA (formerly the LA RTD) has always been a sucky kludge, and the buses are poorly maintained and always crowded. I don't mind the Red Line; (subway) Blue, Green and Gold Lines; (light rail) or Metrolink. (trains, aka heavy rail) But the MTA buses are horrifyingly bad.

I've been walking as many places as I possibly can. I was doing that anyway when Richie was here but I'm doing that as a matter of course now. I have also been trying to get as many workouts in as possible at LA Valley College Fitness Center before they close down after Sunday morning for Spring Break. I gave it a miss this morning because I needed to sleep in, and Thursday because I just wanted to go home after classes rather than sit around and kill time between 12:45, when my last class lets out, and 4:00, when the Fitness Center opens. I don't know how I'll be due to the time change tomorrow so I'll take it as it comes.

Yeah, I'm missing Richie terribly. Some people need to have their space, have time away from their significant others. In the past 17 years we've been living together, 16 1/2 of them as a married couple, Richie and I have found that sort of thing to not be enjoyable at all. Invariably we wind up dragging around in the dumps while we're away from each other. I haven't been cooking much for myself because it's just such a hassle to cook for just one person. I've spent more money than I should eating fast food, although I have been being quite careful as to what fast food I do eat. I tend to stay up later than I normally do, and waking up earlier than I normally do.

There is also that fear about overseas travel now. What if some schmuck decides to blow up another airplane in the name of Allah? What if Richie's on it? Before 9/11/2001 and 3/11/2004 these sorts of worries were just my anxieties spiraling out of control. Now it's a worry about something very real. I won't be "back to myself" until Richie's safely on the Tarmac at LAX. It's fucked that life is like this now.