The captions on the photos accompanying the Met Opening night photos are banal - even more so than usual.  I apologize.

I’m tired, and I’m having a hard time tonight.  I just got off the phone with Dan, who gave me one of those tough-love talks that, frankly, was a bit overdue.

The gist of it was this, which he said (and I promptly wrote down) in the middle of the conversation:

“You’re running a business that’s based on selling you as a product. But you’re not a product, you’re a person.  It’s not the kind of life that I would ever want for you.

I feel like the Julia that’s on your blog, of all the faces of you, this is the worst. And I’ve seen you at your worst.  I feel like this is the result of you being overexposed and burned out by having been slammed so hard. But it’s also a product of your social environment, which I have to say, I find absolutely appalling.”

Oh yes, and he also said this:

“At the scariest moments in your life, you’re going to be alone. And then you’re going to have to ask yourself, am I really a success?  Am I proud of myself?  There’s so much more to that than whether your business succeeds, than whether you’re rich or not.  It’s about being a good friend, a good parent, a good family member.”

And finally:

“If you get everything you say you want in your life plan, are you going to want to inhabit that life?  Is that going to make you happy?”

We talked for two hours, so there was a lot more, of course. I need time to digest and process before I write about it, which I will.

I’m so tired.  I have to sleep now …