It's Been Weeks. . .

. . .since I posted, and here's why:

1.  I have been deeply involved in book research.  I adore research.  When I do it, I think of little else, do little else, resent the time needed to eat and sleep, and mutter nasty things about those unreasonable library employees who actually think they need some time off and who thus periodically lock up the library.

2.  I wrote 25 pages of my book that, for various reasons, I had to scrap. 

3.  All the research netted me a ton of things to read.  I've been reading them.

4.  As I read them, I decided that other scholars are far smarter and more skillful than I, that they have better things to say, and that I am kidding myself if I think I'm going to be able to write a decent book or indeed, any sort of book at all.

5.  As a result of #2 and #4, I spent a few days feeling depressed, panicked, hopeless, and stupid.  So what else could I do but go on a bender of detective-novel-reading (my favorite form of mental narcotic)? 

6.  Once I semi-recovered from #5 and told myself to stop being a self-pitying, self-indulgent ninny and just buckle down and WRITE, I then, of course, had to do a little writing.

7. When my car wouldn't start recently, I called Triple A.  Thus began a surreal trip through car-owner hell in which the towtruck driver first tried to extort money from me and then ran my car into a wall in the process of getting it out of the garage (broken mirror; smashed fender).  Once the car finally got to the shop, they kept it a week after first telling me that it would take three days, meaning that I had to pay to take a bus to visit the relatives for Easter.  Now they are trying to charge me $600 for a new battery and starter -- at least twice what it should be, even in NY.  I have spent a great deal of time on the phone complaining to Triple A.  The saga continues.

8.  I was laid low for a day or so by a headache (something to which I am not prone, so I am now thinking dark thoughts of brain tumors).

9.  What little time has not been taken up by numbers 1-8 and by family, I have spend on ASC commenting (for which I am still woefully behind, but at least it's something fun to do.)

So.  That's why I haven't been posting to my LJ.  Of course, given all the complaints you see here, you probably wish I'd continued to give you the silent treatment.