Yesterday, they let us go an hour earlier :( As a freelance, every hour counts. It was freezing outside and boredom had taken its toll on me, so I walked ot K's apartment and watched some TV. I watched the show, Deal or No Deal". They asked the viewers to send an sms with their guess of the winning suitcase. I sent in Number 11 and guess what? It was freakin number 11! But nopes, I didn't win the $10,000. Sigh. I wasted 50 cents. :(

I'm working on a story about a party that Gucci threw at a famous chef's L.A palazzo. Because there was some discrepancy with the story, we asked to see the invite and one of the editors just dropped of the invite to this event. You would not believe what it is- -- its a gold plated block of metal with the invitation inscribed on it! And Gucci sent out some 200 of those invitations. (whistle) I held it and saw my face reflect in its mirror-like quality, smudged with random finger marks. How much money gone down the drain is that? Working in such lavishness just reminds me sometimes how wasteful and pretentious these super-rich people and corps are! A gold invite. hah.

Last night K and me sampled a Vietnamese restaurant right opposite her building. We shared a pad-thai and vegetable spring rolls- the food was soo good! Earlier I used to be the kind of person who'd starve herself to buy new shoes/ clothes. Now, I think about eating well first. Ever since we graduated and R got his super-cool job, we've been sampling every restaurant in Philly. And when I move to NY- ofcourse after I have a couple thousand dollars saved up, I'm going to try a new restaurant every day.

Work is unusually slow this week. I think it will pick up once the new year kicks in. I'm very excited about by gig at the other magazine. At every magazine, there usually is a give-away table where the editors put stuff they arent going to use in a story and don't want for themselves. I've found treasures at the table at this magazine! Just a couple mins back I picked up a Fodors Spanish for Travelers CD disc. yippiee. But the word is, the gicve-away table at the other magazine is a hundred times cooler and has more stuff. hehe. HEY-- Don't be jealous. Magazines don't pay as much but we have our fun perks!

I can't wait to start doing more important, writing related work. I've written to a couple editors at travel magazines for freelancing. No one's gotten back yet but I presume it is because of the holidays. Also I'm searching for more fodder for my "other" blog. My friend Brandon's mother teaches at a jail here in NY and he has such fascinating stories to tell. I'm going to interview her for my other blog. Brandon is also an aspiring film-maker and conversing with him is very inspiring. I think both of us take turns at inspiring each other. I've asked him to guest-blog on my other blog because he has such a strong voice and I want my "blog" to represent more voices.

I think writing is an art and most artists at some point in their life get attracted to or feel strongly about intermixing different art-forms. Visual story-telling is something I've been dabbling with. I don't necessarily believe that either words or photographs are disposable in lieu for another, but I think the synergy between words and images, works beautifully and complements one another.

Philadelphia, my hometown, shelters a very rich, hip-hop culture. And one aspect of this culture are the stunning works of graffiti intersperesed throughout the city. It has been on my mind to photograph these images since forever. you'd imagine that I would have done all these things "that I've wanted to do since forever" when I was sitting jobless for 3 months- but I didn't! When you have too much time, it is difficult to prioritize it. Now that time is dearthful, I know I will actually get around to doing this project. I'll ask R if he'd mind driving me around the city this weekend, so I could shoot the graffiti. Then I'll make a nice pdf. booklet and upload it on my blog for everyone to download.

I've never seen the Rockefellar tree during Christmas. My office is one block from the Rockefellar center and I've still not seen it. Partly because I'm lazy and its cold and partly because I want to see it with R. I'm on a major butter-R-up trip to get him to drive to NY this Friday to pick me up and have dinner in NY. Its the second day of MTA strike. The last time these people went on strike was in 1982 and it lasted for 12-13 days! I hope its not so this time. A lot of my friends have to walk more than 60-70 blocks to come to work. But I'm hoping the strike will last until Friday so R is compelled to drive here instead of taking the bus. hhee. I'm evil :P

Last year., I'd written a chick-flick movie script for a play-writing class and got an A on it. Brandon thinks I should polish it up and try to sell it. He's given me hopes. I could do with some money. He going to read it and tell me what he thinks of it. I'l lhave to figure out a way to sell it now. I has so much fun writing it! Its a very typical story line-- set in NY, has kids, hot women, hot men etc. But the dailogues are killer. Trust me, I dont get A's for bullshitting.

Who knows? If Universal or HBO buys it, you'll be lucky to watch it on TV. :P heheheheh

OK. back to work. This time on a Heidi Klum story.