I said I had so much to tell you, then told you nothing because I was writing. Always a good thing, to be writing rather than blogging. Blogging impairs productivity in much the same way crack does.
I wanted to tell you that my son (he's only 18) has been backpacking through Europe with 3 childhood friends. In the last 20 days they saw Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Venice, now they're in the South of France, next Barcelona. And here is the extraordinary thing: I'm sleeping perfectly soundly. I thought I would experience fear, but instead all I'm experiencing is vague envy. What do you know...!
I wanted to tell you that I visited my sister and that her baby daughter is a dream, the most beautiful little girl you will ever see. I miss my sister and her children now that she moved near Boston, and this is not something I will get over. I deep void I cannot fill.
I wanted to tell you that my mother stayed with us for a week and that we were both on our best behavior. I had fretted so much in fear of her visit after two difficult years when we barely communicated. But things were fine.
I wanted to tell you that I met Nadia of La Porte Rouge in her new house, which used to be our house.
When you only know a person through her writing and photography and have never met her, there is a point when you wonder if you have not invented this person, like a fictional character in one of your novels. There is a moment of adjustment, then huge relief. Yes, you can do this, speak to her, and she is real, and good news, you are real too. You do not want to disappoint: Am I too old, too stooopid, too fat, too uninteresting... Then you hear that the person was worried about disappointing too and you think that's really silly. Now you are facing this person and all throughout you know you’re supposed to take her off the pedestal where you have placed her without her consent, but then you find yourself unable to, because she is that cool.
The pictures are of the house where Nadia lives. Nadia wrote a post about meeting me, with a pretty nice picture of me seen throgh Nadia's lense. And then Aran, of Canelle et Vanille wrote a post about meeting Nadia and now I feel practically like a celebrity by osmosis. I tell myself that the house you are seeing is connecting the three of us. If six degrees of separation can include a house.
Here are Huevos Rancheros Nadia made and that were super scrumptious and dazzling to look at. I just wish I knew how to take pictures of food, pictures that aren't fuzzy and where you can actually recognize the ingredients.
Voila. I also wanted to tell you about my 5 days in New York and eating, eating, eating and more than ever wanting to move to Manhattan and never look back.
When I have a chance, I want to tell you all the good things happening to my novel Hidden in Paris, the great reviews, the great emails, the guest posts and interviews, and how it is slowly going up, up, up the Amazon ranking and gaining a lot of traction as a fun summer read thanks to all of you who are spreading the word, and especially thanks to a few incredibly kind bloggers I really want to honor in a post just about them.