TGIF

Yeah! Thank god, it's Friday! It's been a long week of 9 hour days, and I'm about ready for the weekend. Unfortunately it's raining here today, after fair-to-middling weather all week. Over at Weather.com, the prognosis is particularly dismal. Showers tomorrow, high of 67, Sunday, partly cloudy, also a high of 65.

Today reminds me of London weather. Dark, dismal, the type of day when you just want to stay in doors in your pajamas, drinking a strong cup of tea, eating Hob-Nobs (plain chocolate of course), and reading a good book, Jane Austen perhaps, maybe Persuasion or Mansfield Park. Or watching the soaps. Crap TV and crap weather, perfect together. Tonight, I'll probably be watching the daytime Emmy's.

Meanwhile, it's as cold as a meatlocker in the office. I'm wearing my jacket to stay warm right now, while I wait for the next round of expenses that I have to do. Nothing exciting planned for the weekend, I'm poor right now due to my enforced unemployment for the past two weeks, so The Taste of Tribeca food festival is out tomorrow. I had planned to go with friends, but I can't really justify spending $35 for food, not unless I'm getting a complete meal, along with alcohol. I went last year, and had a good time, although it got really crowded really fast. It was also hot last year, and I drank a glass of champagne, and then indulged in a wine tasting. It might be less crowded tomorrow because of the weather, but I'd rather spend that $35 on groceries for the week. I need to start bringing my lunch again to work, to save money.

Midtown is mucho expensive, and I have a tendency to always end up going to the most expensive of all, Dishes, located two blocks away. The salad bar is phenonmenal, but it's pricey. $10 for Noodle soup.

I had planned on blogging today about current events, but the biggest thing on the news is still Mary Kay Letorneau's wedding to the guy she had underage sex with. I'm sorry, but am I the only one creeped out by the whole idea of them getting married? I know that he's now of age, but it still doesn't make it acceptable. She's spend what? 7 years in prison and is probably a registered sex offender. I don't know if she could be classified as a pedophile necessarily, since she's marrying an adult. What I don't get is why Entertainment Tonight as devoted a whole week to covering the story. How by all that is holy is this story entertainment news? But there's Jann Carl interviewing them, showing clips of their rehearsal dinner. Apparently, Mary Kay is planning on wearing white, and their two daughters will be in attendence.

At least the story has replaced the whole 'Runaway Bride' debacle.

I also saw a brief flash of the front cover of the London Sun, which apparently has a picture of Saddam Hussein in a pair of tighty whities on the cover. Ewww! Truthfully, does anyone really want to see that?

God, Bradley Cooper is cute! I'm sorry, CNBC is doing a newstory on the Fall Season, and his cute face just flashed across the TV screen. He's doing some show called Kitchen Confidential, not to be confused with the Anthony Bourdain book of the same name, although he plays a chef.

So back to the news, more bombings in Iraq, Los Angeles just elected their first Hispanic mayor since California began a state apparently, which means that Fernando Ferrer is hoping to do the same in New York. Still, I found myself wandering over to the Arts and Travel section. Read a great article on Venice in The New York Times. I went to Venice for the first time last year, as an early 40th birthday present to myself, and I absolutely fell in love with it's decayed charm. I can't wait to go back, hopefully next time with a partner.

Well, I apparently didn't get the job at Viacom so back to the drawing board. I also have to see about how I'm going to pay to go to Nationals this year. There are only 350 places left which I'm amazed by, considering what a bitch it is to get to Reno. Maybe all those West Coast members are going since it's relatively easy for them, compared to the dog and pony show it's going to take for the rest of us.

Since the weather isn't planning on cooperating, I'll be spending my time working on the manuscript for Nearly Famous. I plan on asking a few friends to read the first 3 chapters, before I start querying. I feel like there's something missing in the first 3 chapters, some punch, but I don't know what it is. I need to figure it out before I go ont to the rest of the rewrites. And then it's on to what to write next. I think I need to read more of the Secrets anthologies before I trying writing one to get a really good sense of what they're looking for.

I have a few other ideas. I wrote one chick-lit romantic comedy, so now the choice is more chick-lit or a real romance?

I also have to do some digging and try to find my tax records from 1998. Apparently Viacom doesn't have any record of me before 2004, so my background check looks a little fuzzy. If I can't find it, I'll either have to call Viacom and find out what's what, or call my accountant, and see what kind of records that they have. I can't believe that they expunged all the records, they have to be somewhere. I'll just have to play detective and see what's what. I can't wait. Nothing like digging through dusty records.

If the weather stays crappy as planned, maybe I'll splurge and see Kingdom of Heaven. It didn't get great reviews, but Liam Neeson, Orlando Bloom, and Jeremy Irons can't be sneezed at.

Nothing like getting a request for the full to make you dig down and do the work.