Hello all!

First off, mea mea culpa for my long absence. Second, I appreciate all the concern posted about whether I was in the HOSPITAL?? which I most certainly am not. I'm here in my office in my robe at the crack of dawn as usual. And yes, I just got back from Italy on Tuesday, and have more or less been crashing in and out of bed with radical jetlag since then, and have been totally incapable of finding my keyboard with both hands. But I'm back.

Italy was totally and completely incredible. I want to move there. RIGHT NOW. This is not a convenient or practical urge as, um, I live here. And The Jeff has a job he likes that is, um, here. So. That particular move is not in the immediate offing. It was Rome that just made me swoon. Milan was wonderful, Florence beautiful, but Rome was magnificent. We spent the one (tragic!) day we had there traipsing around the ruins of the Forum and the Colloseum (sp). Red poppies growing wild on the ground where Socrates got poisoned (and said some cool things). Gorgeous Mediterranean sky, tangerine and olive trees, St. Peter's, the Trevisi fountain, and the huge wild city all sprung up around it as if it was the most natural thing in the world to have a towering Latin-inscribed Pantheon in the middle of downtown. Now I am throwing myself into learning Italian, the most gorgeous language I have ever heard or had rolling around on my tongue (the seven or so words I know, that is, rolling around in there). I was told, thank you very much, that my "grazie" was perfect. Ha! How about THAT? Big stuff, no?

I also had 31 interviews, a debate, and endless dinners and lunches with important people whose language I sadly didn't understand. Twas intense. The Italians don't mess around. I fell madly in love with my publisher, who is brilliant. The cover of the Italian edition is just gorgeous. I bought a most splendid pen in a pen shop that had been there a hundred years, as well as some snappy scarves. I drooled on all the astronomically expensive clothes and shoes in Milan. My wallet suffered gravely from the fact that the American dollar is totally worthless internationally at the present time. I saw a staggering quantity of mind-boggling art, and was awed by the feel of being in cities that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years. But mostly, other than working madly, Jeff and I sat on the edges of piazzas and drank an unhealthy number of macchiatos and people-watched, which was smashing. Also, I slept like the dead, despite the fact that European hotel rooms are truly bizarre, and furnished with beds not intended for use by people with bad backs, or really backs of any kind. Nevertheless, I couldn't have been happier, and it was an incredible way to wrap up an incredible tour.

Next up: a radio drive-time tour (not sure which cities yet, but will let you know as soon as I've got the schedule), which is a thing where I sit in my office and talk on the phone and get confused about who I'm talking to and where on earth they are. This will be fun, though. And next week I'm writing the Vogue article, which I'm looking forward to as well. It's been AGES since I've done any magazine writing, and suddenly I'm overflowing with story ideas, most of which involve some poking around before I'm ready to write them. It's good to be back in the journalism groove. And, thank heavens, once the Vogue article is done, I can FINALLY get back to work on the novel. I'm just dying to dive in and get my hands dirty and bang it out. I sort of feel like a novel should be written on a typewriter. Ripping pages out of it with a flourish and so on. I will not be doing this. I am very attached to my totally trashed laptop, and on it I can do the all-important task of deleting in a fit of despair. Nah, I'm not despairing. I actually can't wait.

So, as you can see, I'm writing on this travel blog when I am not in fact travelling. This is because I have forgotten the password to my regular home-blog. This is somewhat like forgetting my own address while I was on tour, which I did. I will consult The Jeff and he will tell me how to get back on the regular blog, and you can find the next entry there. Which, I swear, will be next week.

Mike, I quit smoking.

Cheers to all!
Marya