Yesterday was, bar none, the greatest emotional roller coaster of my entire life. It started out horrible, horrible, horrible, and then it ended wonderful, wonderful, crazy unexpected wonderful. This is the sort of day that if it happened in a book, I would drop it as contrived and absurd.

Granted, you expect a certain degree of hyperbole from me, but in all seriousness, the only way that I could top that emotional rollercoaster if I was diagnosed with cancer in the morning and founded the cure by midnight.

The miserable bit is mostly private and miserable, and I almost fear to speak of it for making it irrevocably real–the wonderful bit I CAN’T talk about, except to say that if it goes through, I’d be flying to L.A. in a couple of weeks for a work-for-hire gig there. And more than that I cannot say, ever, and I would ask you, O Faithful Reader, to refrain from public speculation. It’s exactly what I need–to get the hell outta Dodge for awhile, no less than anything else!–and there’s a good chunk of cash involved, and that’s all I can tell you.

I wouldn’t say even THAT much, but since I’d be unavailable for prints for probably a month, and unfortunately, it looks like Digger would finally go on a brief hiatus–I gave it my all, but the emotional havoc of the last few months whittled down my buffer, and I just don’t think I can keep it up. I’ll try–god, I’ll try!–but there are human limits. And I felt like I had to explain that I wasn’t just crying in my beer somewhere, but that this was important. Nothing less could make me break my perfect update record.

And that these two things should come down on me in a single day is beyond human comprehension. This sort of thing does not happen to real people. But at least they came in the right order.

So, um…any birdwatchers reading my list in L.A.? Wanna give me your contact info? I don’t know what my schedule will be like, but hopefully I can slink out now and again and see some birds…

And also, O faithful readers, what would you consider more fair and respectful to the audience–“I’m sorry, I have to stop this for a month, I am very, very sorry,” or a month of uploading doodles and sketches and character reference sheets and whatnot? You know that I’d never get into doing “Shirt Guy Dom” strips on a regular basis, but I don’t know if people would prefer ANYTHING or just a “Come back later.”