Erin, party-bot

So for the same cost of taking a cab back and forth to the airport, Laura and I are throwing a Thanksgiving dinner for 8. Our loft has been the set the stage for many a fantastic party, all of which I get completely anal about. I want everything to be perfect so everyone will have the BEST time EVER with the best food and the best sangria and the best people at the party so they'll talk about it for weeks. This, of course, is kind of antithetical to a party's nature -- they are supposed to be fun, and I am anything but fun to be around when I'm planning them.

My normal A-type personality turns into a AAA personality, and I become a whirling, cleaning, cooking, mixing robotic dervish, running from room to room witha bottle of 409 in one hand and my grocery list in another. An example: yesterday, I awoke at 5 a.m.; I had spent from 7 till 11 the night before cleaning our apartment so it will look all nice adn sparkly for the guests (guess I have some of mom in me...). With stray thoughts of items I needed to pick up at the grocery store and last-minute planning details buzzing about in my brain, I was unable to go back to sleep. So I got up, ran five miles, did my upper-body weights, wrote to Grandma, sent Nick a pretty pathetic donation for his trip to Honduras, paid my health insurance premium (yes, I am now covered if I injure myself in some kind of pre-party mopping accident), finished my grocery list and showered and did my hair -- ALL BEFORE NINE A.M. I rock! Then, after putting in a fully productive 10-hour day at work, I left at 8 p.m. In the next 90 minutes, I ran to the Manhattan Mall, Macy's, Whole Foods and Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up remaining (cheap, don't worry), last-minut items for the party, covering 16 blocks of the city by subway and about 25 blocks by foot -- AND made it home to Brooklyn. Home by 9:30. I AM SUPERWOMAN.

Yeah, sure, I'll crash sooner or later. But it's nice to feel like I'm accomplishing something, even if I will likely give all my guests e coli poisoning. Hopefully my turkey (graciously donated by a party attendee) isn't a total disaster. We have a lot of interesting media superstar types attending so it should be a good mix of witty, amusing folk.

Niagara, Money, etc.

I got back late Sunday from Niagara Falls. It was a pretty exhausting trip. I had a great room with a jacuzzi tub overlooking the Falls, but they kept us on a very hectic schedule of eating steak and crab legs and drinking martinis. :) Seriously, though, there were not more than a few hours of free time and it was exhausting getting shuttled all over town. We took a helicopter ride over the falls, visited a butterfly aviary type thing (neat!), ate at all the best restaurants i town, checked out the bars and the casinos, and did a tour of the local vineyards. and I did get to get a free massage and body scrub, which was nice. I also took a lot of bubble baths adn went for a run along the falls. One of the best partts of the trip was trying all the local wines. They have over 50 wineries in the area and produce the world's most award winning ice wines which are DELICIOUS. Without giving too much away let's say that everyone will be able to try some at Christmas.

Today I started at Money magazine. They're currently getting my email and other computer stuff set up so I'm not really doing any work yet. I feel pretty overwhelmed this week -- I have edits due on two different freelance stories, I've got to start work on a third, get all the updates up on dad's web site (and I still have stuff I need to do to my computer to enable it to do this) AND now I'm working full-time. I was hoping to get a lot of work done this weekend but I was way too overwhelmed with, well, work. I know it doesn't sound like work going out to eat and talking to hotel people and stuff, but it simply means you can't be at a computer and you're taking notes and doing interviews all day.

In addition, I'm totally stressed because the operating system here is too old to get on my Gmail account, which means I have no idea if I have angry editors emailing me from across the country about edits that aren't coming in, because I can't get on my email. I'm freaking out. Ack! So if anyone emails me today i won't get it till late tonight.

The offices here are really nice. I have my own big cubicle and Aeron chair. They have free coffee and snacks and the offices are really big. I'm right by Rockefeller Center on Sixth Ave. and 50th St. It's a bit longer of a commute in the morning, about 35 minutes, but it's a good chance to get some reading done anyway.

Well, I won't get the gmail problem resolved today. Dad, my first priority is to get my two story edits in and t hen I will tackle the web site updates, hopefully this weekend. I think besides the internal blueprints, we definitely need the artist's rendition of the outside of hte building. That's what people will see when they drive by, and that's what they want to know about.

Globe trottin'

Just got a new assignment today from Modern Bride. I'm getting flown up to Niagara Falls from Nov. 11-14 to stay in some fancy new casino to write a story about retro honeymoons.

Unfortunately, this time I don't get to bring anyone. Oh well, should be fun anyway!

Election-day preview

You can see my election-day preview on the Black Table here. It includes info on some of the nations' tightest Senate races -- including South Dakota, Colorado, and Hawaii, and it is meant to be taken with a grain of salt, as it's meant to be humorous. It takes a couple shots at Republican candidates, but it also pokes fun at the Democrats. Obviously, the election is meant to be taken seriously but the stakes are so high this year that it would be nice if people on both sides developed a sense of humor about it. Also, it includes one little swear word so you might not want to show the relatives.