In the past few days my entire body has broken out in an evil, hellish rash of itchy little bumps and hives. I don’t know what set it off, but I suspect it was my riverfront trip, though that involved sitting on a rock for an hour and making no contact whatsoever with the river or trees or other “nature.” I’ve also been thirsty and nauseous and having dizzy spells, but I’ve been chalking that up to my all-cheeseburger diet and my feminine vapors.

So I’m trying to fall asleep and not scratch 5 feet 4 inches worth of itches at 4 AM, all while trying to figure out what I did wrong to the world for karma to retaliate by making me spend the last few weeks with Boy Thing (before our 10 weeks apart) looking like a walking herpes infestation. Maybe I should stop that orphanage-arson side business. But damn it, what are we on this earth for if we can’t do what we love?

Because besides 3 weeks in Europe, I got nothin’. This is always the hardest part. What the hell do I do?

I’m gonna be doing a fair amount of writing abroad. I don’t want to bring my laptop, but writing on the iPad screen keyboard is bleh. I already have a good iPad case, so I’m mostly looking for a keyboard I can easily connect/disconnect to use with ByWord, but I’m not against a great keyboard case. Right now I’m thinking either something like TacType that fits over the iPad so I can write flat, or just the Apple Wireless Keyboard. Any input from you more knowledgeable nerds would be awesome.