Is nostalgia always for simpler times?

As I was thinking about what to write today, I found myself reminiscing about the January/February a few years back when I sent the love of my life a postcard every single day over the course of the month leading up to Valentine's Day. Don't get me wrong, it's not a holiday that I am a big fan of, but I was (and remain) a hopeless romantic. There's no helping it. So I find myself wondering--is it the sheer force of Februaryness that makes me willing to commit to doing something every day?

And then, even more than that, contemplating the general concept of commitment. What do you have to have in your heart to be willing to make a promise that you intend to keep. And, perhaps even more noteworthy, what do you have to have in your guts in order to do the work to keep it?

Then, of course, there is the concept of overcommitment--it's all well and good to promise something and mean it, but at some point you may find that you have made so many promises that it is impossible to keep them all, and the best you can hope for involves everyone feeling shorted in one way or another.

Regardless of that philosophical tangent, it was another self-portrait day, wedged between meetings and errands. I'd hoped to make cupcakes (the coworkers love cupcakes), and if I can't sleep tonight, perhaps I still will, but in the meantime there is this:


Strangely enough, I am actually kind of proud of this one, more for this picture than for the drawing itself.

As you can see, I gave myself an out by not including my entire head.