Max is coming home! Yesterday, Judge Michael Kellogg declared that Max should not be in prison or “processing” or purgatory or whatever you call his current North Kern County Nowheresville Gulag. Then he amended the abstract and adjusted the minute order and (hopefully) did whatever it was he had to do to free Max immediately. Yay! Of course, “immediately” is never immediate, especially when it’s a court and prison system holiday (not that the inmates get to have a holiday, just the court and prison administrative staff) and a holiday weekend coming up, but he should be liberated any day now – maybe by the time you read this. Then – after some much-deserved R&R – we will reveal the true, ludicrous story of this simple “failure to appear” on dismissed charges that should have been a misdemeanor, for which Max has been incarcerated and tortured as a political prisoner for nine long months.

Max and me in Cannes

Not that it’s been non-stop misery. Pain and pleasure are relative, of course. And it’s funny how when the pain is so immense, little positive things – touching hands through the glass, a taboo kiss blown across a stern courtroom, a favorable ruling by the judge, an acknowledgment of humanity by the DA, a beautiful handwritten love letter – become great pleasures, stimulating intense joy, romance, comedy, excitement and even ecstatic enlightenment. Thank you Eros, Venus, Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, Pan, Dionysus and all the other Gods and Goddesses (sorry if I missed your fave), for providing me with such a wealth of experience – the tragic, the comic, the fantastic and the orgasmic. Amen. Awomen. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Evie & me, waiting for Max, like Penelope waited for Odysseus & wishing you a Happy Valentines Day