I’m happy to report that my terrible feeling of human frailty has diminished significantly since last week; I’m still paranoid about exercise and bathing, because my ear is still full of that same bloody cotton (except, er, the part that just…fell…out….It’s very normal), but I feel less piercing pain and light-headedness, and am now working again like a normal human.

I knew that, in order to start feeling normal I would need to start doing normal things, but it can be a little tough to get over the hurdle of doing the first normal thing: leaving the house for breakfast, or going to the post office, or visiting the library. I anticipate the same struggle emerging around actual exercise pretty soon (I can’t just not exercise for a month, can I? CAN I? It feels bad and my muscles are atrophying, but it’s so relaxing!), though for now I’m still allowing myself to take it pretty easy. One thing at a time.

This morning it actually rained, one of the first real rains we’ve seen in months, which has been a mixed blessing. The winter was too hot, which left me feeling antsy and strange, but on the other hand it seems like maybe our house won’t decay too much before we’re able to get the roof fixed. In everything, good and bad: my tarot cards said something similar to me not that long ago, and it has turned out to be more prescient than I would actually have liked.

In book news: INVITATION TO A BONFIRE was on The Millions’s Most Anticipated/Great 2018 Book Preview along with a huge number of other titles that I’m absurdly excited about.

In that spirit, have you added my book as to-read on Goodreads yet? Please feel free to do so now!

Ok. I guess it’s time to go back and be a real person in the world again. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll even get a bit more rain.