Back home
March 13, 2011Wow. Okay, so. So! Our book came out! Which you know already, I'm guessing.
Eden and I traveled to Philadelphia and Atlanta to promote the book (you can see information and photos on the "Let's Panic" Facebook page, if this is the sort of thing you enjoy doing), and then we came back to New York for a signing on Tuesday and a book party--which, by the way, was generously sponsored by Blogher. Blogher is also sponsoring our tour of the Pacific Northwest/Bay area during the first two weeks of April. Truly, their generosity is boggling to me/us. (More on that in a later post.) Then we head off to Chicago and Minneapolis and finally to the Mom 2.0 conference in New Orleans. (The dates of all these tour stops is also on our Facebook page. This is our way of forcing you to "like" our page. "Like" it, damn you! "Like" it in quotes!)
Now I'm home, and the hubbub has died down, and I feel, honestly, blaauuuugh. (That's a word.) Maybe it's the natural consequence all the excitement; maybe it's just from eating terribly and not sleeping well and drinking just a little too much every night for the past two weeks--whatever it is, I have been growling and snapping at my family all day and I really wish my husband would stop giving me searching looks and why must my dog smackity-smack at his private parts and I never realized my son's voice was so very peppy. Everyone just needs to shush for a while. Just shush for a few months! Then I'll be okay.
But I started writing this post to talk about was Japan, oh, God. JAPAN. Let's forget about my complaining, up there. Shut up, me. Whenever I wake up from one of my multiple naps I find myself drifting back to my laptop and there's another one, more footage of a slow tide of cars and boats rolling in a wall of black foam, covering an entire village, the whole scene looking like a miniature set, because there's no way that could all actually have happened. Again and again, all over Japan. So much devastation.
This is the third or fourth or more-th time in the lifetime of my blog that something huge and catastrophic has occurred (that fact is horrifying unto itself--I'm pretty sure record-breaking devastation didn't used to occur on almost yearly basis), something that would be unthinkable not to bring up. And yet I struggle with that, because after all, you're all getting coverage of the tragedies in Japan, well, everywhere else. I'm not a journalist, after all, and I like to imagine that I provide some comic or other relief from the tragedies of the day, mostly. Who am I to talk about such things?
But oh, if I had to wait to come up with a post that would make you laugh, I'd have to wait at least a week or two to write anything here. I couldn't do that. I wanted to check in, and make sure you're all okay (you will let me know, won't you?). And I want to thank you. For everything. Again. And I wanted to say that I hope you are safe, wherever you are. I would really like us all to be safe from now on. (If any of you know how we can swing that, please advise.) I wish you all higher ground, and warm blankets, and partners that give you searching looks even when it drives you batty.
Reader Comments (16)
Howdy, Alice. A pleasure to meet you in Decatur! It looks like that FB link in the post isn't working right... maybe I am not "Liking" what I am doing hard enough? Hmm... even odder, it worked when I clicked over from the lets-panic site. Oh well, maybe it's just me.
Enjoy the being-home!
It does feel like disasters are more frequently disastrous now than i remember before. But then I remember the internet. Before you could read about it in the paper and see a couple of pictures -- maybe even one whole page of pictures and then watch a 5 minute or less story on the national news. You could buy a Time or Newsweek when it came out, too. But there was no way to update oneself every hour or two, or to replay again and again the videos.
I love me my internet, even if sometimes I think it has changed my life far far more than I suspect.
And now I will take your warm blanket wishes to my high ground and disconnect for the evening!
You're speaking at Green Apple in San Francisco! Yay! It's the best bookstore in the city and it's in my 'hood. I can't wait.
I bought and am enjoying your book!
I would like to think the reason disasters seem so much more common these days is just that we have access to more information, but it's hard to say. Otherwise, you could take it into one of those 2012 theories and I don't have enough energy to worry about that.
Thank you for not pretending we're in blog-la-la-land where the Japan disaster is not happening. I am safe under my warm blankets and so grateful for that.
Now, I'm going to that facebook link to make sure you're coming to L.A. to visit me. And to promote the book too.
It was great to see you again (if briefly, and you with that dazed "how many more days in a row am I going to be doing this" look in your eyes) at your launch party in Brooklyn. And I had a blast going out to dinner with the crew that met up there (Neil, Maggie, Marinka, Briar & Sharri/Dusty) and that never would have happened if you hadn't dragged us all out to the wild reaches of DUMBO.
Good luck on the rest of the tour!
I think you managed to be funny and cranky and sensitive about a horrifying catastrophe all at once. It is hard to lead your life when you know that across the world, there are thousands of people who are just...numb. All I want to do is give all the survivors hot showers, a fuzzy bathrobe, and a cup of coffee.
We come to your blog not JUST for 'comic relief', but also to hear what's on your mind. And I, for one, am glad the celebrity and fame haven't gone so far to your head [:)] that you aren't moved by natural disaster.
And, as others have mentioned, I think the reason disasters seem more prevalent is that we have access to more information.
I'm happy to share my feelings of bad-news-overload, it-looks-like-the-world-is-ending with other people. I don't want to feel alone in that. Watching the video of the approaching tsunami over and over and over, it's the boats and houses and cars being tossed about and broken like toys that you see, but it's the human tragedy you can only imagine. While we shouldn't ignore it, we also shouldn't let it consume us--something that's very hard to do in this day and age of technology and instant and incessant communication.
Congrats on all the good news. How great to have that to take your mind off all the bad.
Hey, don't worry about the post book blues. It's very common in doctoral students and I guess the same must be true of other authors. You work so hard for so long towards this incredible goal and you feel like you are never going to get there. Then it's done. And. um, and. There is no and. There is this big hole where the driving force used to be. It does pass, but it can take months (sorry!).
That might also explain why you are so upset by the Japanese situation. Not that it isn't a terrible thing, but when you have a vacuum, it will quickly fill up with whatever bad news it can find.
The only cure is another big project! But if you do feel it getting too much, go talk to someone.
I think this is exactly the right way to address the tragedy. I feel the same way - the same inability to really say anything about it. But I think you did it just right.
Wishing you and your family safety (and a speedy return from the blaauuuugh) as well.
Thank you for writing the funniest thing since sliced bread. Well, sliced bread isn't really funny as much as it is awesome, so thank you for the awesome book.
I'm thankful to have something funny to read after seeing so much devastation.
Momo Fali! Sniff! Thank you for being so nice. Truly.
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