Earth moving last week. Check. Interview today. Check. Tomorrow … retaining-wall building. Followed by blissful peace. Well, followed by the official opening of the new member site on Wednesday or Thursday, followed by more webwork. But blissful peace is definitely in sight.<\/p>\n
What seemed like weeks of sheer scariness at the end of August now seems like no great big deal. <\/p>\n
I’m exhausted tonight, though. I’ve been turning down interviews for years. The last on-camera interview I did must have been in 1999 (for John Stossel when he was still with ABC News). Both then and now, I agreed to do it only if my face could be blue dotted or pixelated.<\/p>\n
Today’s interviewers were really nice and the interview took “only” four hours. Since they’d estimated between three and seven, that wasn’t bad. We met in a park and they had me bring Ava along for some Claire-with-dog establishing shots before we sat down for the actual interview.<\/p>\n
I could not believe Ava. My little monster girl behaved as if she was trained for films. Behaved perfectly both on and off leash. Didn’t jump on anybody. Didn’t poke her attention-seeking nose where it didn’t belong. Was willing to do the same things over and over again to get the shot. <\/p>\n
And at one moment when we unavoidably approached a woman attempting to walk three rage-crazed little yappers, Ava — normally the first to go nuts at the sight of another canine (especially one that’s going nuts in her face) — walked along at my side with complete composure while the leash-entangled woman dragged herself and her snarling mini-maniacs off the path, desperately apologizing.<\/p>\n
I was so proud of my puppy girl.<\/p>\n
Then I wondered if she might be sick. I can’t imagine any other reason Ava would behave so placidly.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, the interview went well. The questions were designed to be challenging, but the intent was friendly. <\/p>\n
Now it’s wait-and-see. The documentarian must still raise funds to complete the project. What we did today will initially only be part of a teaser, a sampler, whatever you call it, to help raise money to complete the work.<\/p>\n
Despite the beautiful day, the astoundingly well-behaved dog, and the friendly film crew, my hermitty self was dead-flat beat by 1:00 p.m. when we wrapped up. I refused an offer to go to lunch and headed straight home where of course I spent the afternoon thinking of all the things I should<\/em> have said instead of the things I did<\/em> say on camera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earth moving last week. Check. Interview today. Check. Tomorrow … retaining-wall building. Followed by blissful peace. Well, followed by the official opening of the new member site on Wednesday or Thursday, followed by more webwork. But blissful peace is definitely in sight. What seemed like weeks of sheer scariness at the end of August now seems like no great big deal. I’m exhausted tonight, though. I’ve been turning down interviews for years. The last on-camera interview I did must have been in 1999 (for John Stossel when he was still with ABC News). Both then and now, I agreed to…<\/p>\n