Let the nail-biting begin

Lest my (nonexistent?) audience think I'm doing nothing over here, I've spent the last two days after coming back from beautiful Belize organizing my home office -- buying supplies, getting my printer hooked up, etc. This takes much longer than one might imagine. I also had to return about six thousand emails I received from press agents while I was gone.

Tonight, I'm attending my first media event as a freelancer, which is a show being done by the Australian tourism agency. Basically, I'm looking for story ideas, but I'm also going with hopes of meeting magazine editors.

Also today -- I put out my first story pitch! Now I begin the waiting, nail-biting game of waiting for the editor to get back to me. I pitched a story about picking the perfect trail dog to Backpacker magazine. I think it's a solid idea and I also passed along ideas for a few sidebars to help sweeten the pot. Hopefully they bite, but I won't get my hopes up too much. They say you have to pitch 10 times for every acceptance. Dear lord, let's hope that's not true. I need some cashola. I have $2 in quarters to last me until next Thursday.

Oh, I also attached a picture of Jackson with his backpack on. Nothing like a cute dog to make an editor like you, er, right?

So luckily, there's also free food and wine at this thing tonight and my fridge is stocked. Two money saving tips: buy a $5 rotisserie chicken, pick it all apart, and eat it every lunch and the occasional dinner for a week. Cheapola! Also, it costs only a quarter more to buy a liter bottle of diet coke than it does to buy the 20 ouncer. Rock.