My lack of recent posts is due to a bout of paralysis after the unpleasant aftermath of my post, “The Party Guest.” Apparently, even when nobody but your husband knows that you have a blog (which means that nobody on earth actually reads your blog), google searches still work. Thus, people who have their names searched daily on google alerts –  say, entertainers – will get to read postings that contain their names.

So, for example, let’s say that I blog about a local musician – who shall remain nameless this time, for God’s sake  – and the post contains speculation as to whether this musician will be “passed out on purple satin sheets in a trashed hotel room” instead of performing at my child’s second birthday party as scheduled. That musician’s perma-google would  pick that up, and I might then receive an email from him in response. Worse, his email might be gracious and apologetic rather than hostile. People, it was horrible.

In the aftermath, Boyd has suggested that I hire a personal technology chaperone. This, along with the host of other insults that I have hurled at myself since the Incident, shut me up good for about a month. In writing, anyway.