I haven't posted to this blog in a while, in case anyone has noticed, and because it is traditional to include a reason when one is expessing regret for one's behavior, I am trying to figure out why I have been negectful in this particular realm.  Sorry, my narcissism level has been low?

A. I became obsessed by the Olympics?

B. I did a million interviews because I have a new book soon to be released?

C. I had company coming and going?

D. I've been working on a manuscript?

E. I had a toothache

Answer: All of the above.

A. Well, the Olympics are over, and by the last two days I was sick of it all anyway and spent too much time trying to decide if Bob Costas has had a facelift, or if he was wearing a hairpiece, or both.

B. It is true that I have been doing many many interviews...not a million (that was a lie; no, an exaggeration)...some on the phone, but some in person. The Boston Globe people actually came to my house in Maine and the NY Times guy to my house in Cambridge. I like interviewers, maybe because I once was one. I offer them lunch because they are good company.  Chicken salad and chocolate cake for the lady from Denver. Lobster rolls for the Globe.  Is lunch payola?  (Please write something nice about me if I make you a lobster roll) I don't think so. Nonetheless the NYT guy declined sustenance. I wish my animals hadn't liked him so much, though. He will undoubtedly begin his article with a sentence like "Although her dog leaped into my lap and her cat grabbed my shoelaces..."  I would have, when I was a journalist.

C. I like having company, and all of my friends are quite understanding when I ask to be excused for a chunk of time because I am doing an interview over the phone, or because I have some work that needs doing.  Susan Goodman came with her laptop and worked in one room* while I worked in another; then we took a break and drove to Cornish, Maine for lunch and antique shops.

* and she showed me he unpublished manuscript for a picture book she'sworking on, and I LOVED it

D. I am finishing up the sixth Gooney Bird Greene book, working in bits and pieces around A, B, and C....and also

E. which is, sigh, the ubiquitous toothache. Today I am in Massachusetts, not Maine, having driven down here over the weekend hoping hoping hoping that I would not find my dentist on vacation Monday.  That's today. Whew. He was in, he saw me this morning, and stabbed me and scraped me and wrote me a prescription, and I will go back to Maine in a couple of days, presumably feeling better.

I found waiting for me in the house in Cambridge a package of books in Korean and also copies of my play "Gossamer" which has just been published by Dramatic Publishing. And I was also able to catch up on things I had DVRed, something I can't do in Maine.

I'm also going to see the new Meryl Streep movie which is playing nearby. Why not.

Okay, that did it. My narcissism level has plumped right back up.