Last night around midnight I realized that although Stewart kindly agreed to update Day Off today, I had no comic to offer... *gasp*. I remembered that I had come across this cool blank book that he’d given me a year or so ago, and so I decided to pull that out and try to put my latest Day Off thoughts into words and pictures. I turned to the first drawable page (not the cover, nor the title page, but the next page) and there was this strange little drawing. I turned the page, and uncovered the beginnings of a bittersweet tale. I had drawn the first four and a half pages with no pencil layout (ink only), no real story direction in mind (that I can recall) and no memory of having drawn it at all... how odd and yet typical to find, in the whee early hours of my birthday, this surprise story all about birth and the way your beginnings mark and measure you...
I’ve been visiting the past a lot lately, trying to make sense of who I am, who I need to be, and how I got to this place, this 37th year, as I am. I realized that the Day Off I’d planned to write, telling a little about some of the most important things I’ve been learning about my life and the world lately, would make a good next chapter for this tale.
It’s eight pages long - the longest Day Off I’ve done in the seven years I’ve been doing this. I hope you enjoy this particular chapter in this particular story. I am beginning to realize that - no matter how I try to tell it - it’s the only one I’ll ever be able to tell with any honesty.

Much love. I wish you good dreams and better awakenings.
-s