Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Maybe I Can Just Go Back to Bed

UPDATE: All right. Enough is enough. The vast majority of the money I was complaining about was owed to me for A WRITING ASSIGNMENT I completed. A travel writing assignment. Not a comic book coloring job.

But since you came all the way over here to this site, you might as well buy my book.



I made the mistake of looking at the bank balance this morning. $1,900 into overdraft. I'm owed $4,100 dollars that simply has shown up yet. Get a job. Don't be a freelancer.

Then Roberta sent me a link to a ridiculous article about how rude kiddies are moving to my neighborhood not for the lovely old-time Italian delis and cheap family-run Cuban restaurants, but in order to transform it into something uniform and common, a playground for young people with the ability to accessorize while they tout their edginess. Must we Gap-ize everything? Is it necessary to standardize even where we live? Will this be a franchise of Generic-Hip-Edgy-City when I return? My only hope is that crashing real estate will stop the transformation again as it did in 1988.

Then one of the neighbors--the head of the Committee to Make My Building Too Expensive for Me to Live in--emailed that the furnace by the back window had a leaking expansion valve.

Oh. That's mine.

The heat is off. At 9 a.m., I'll call the plumber. And I'm late on two deadlines. Very late.

Once it's over, I'll just pretend today never happened.

5 comments:

Marie Javins said...

Oh, and about that "squat" mentioned in the NYMag article. It was NOT a squat. It was owned by a man/company who rented spaces to artists. The city got involved when owner decided to develop it and throw out the artists. You'd think someone writing a big article about JC could be bothered to read the local newspapers and get the facts. It's not exactly a State Secret and was covered extensively in the Jersey City Reporter.

Marie Javins said...

I've just gotten a number of emails inquiring about who owes me this money.

The answer is: Several clients. Not just one. And no, the bulk of it is not who people were emailing me to inquire about. Most of it is not owed by comic book companies.

Marie Javins said...

Hooray! I just got $1400 from one client! Only $500 to break even... then I have to worry about all the new bills.

See, there IS a reason I'm selling my condo. I'm broke!

Pville Peg said...

It's amazing how basic journalistic principles are now routinely ignored. 35 years ago, at East Carolina University, there was a big flap when the enthusiastic antiwar demonstrations against the US bombing in Cambodia (part of the Vietnam war) intersected with student frustrations about rules limiting dorm visitations. My guy, Bill, wrote a letter to the editor in the student newspaper, using a 4 letter epithet, resulting in suspension and then expulsion from the University of both himself and the editor. The ACLU took the case and won, years later, doing little to help Bill's student career (he got $100 plus attorney's fees) but establishing an important precedent about free speech and campus newpapers. Fast forward 35 years, and the University's glossy magazine, the East, did a big spread on what happened. It included a 'where are they now' for the principals in the case -- except that Bill was listed as "not found". Which actually means "didn't look" -- because a google search finds him quite easily. And, the article didn't even mention that the whole thing was triggered by a demonstration about the US bombing Cambodia.
Yes, we are very fortunate in the US to have the right to a free press -- does that mean, free to not do any actual fact-checking?

Marie Javins said...

On the heating-being-off topic, it certainly is cold in my apartment when the heat is off all day! Brrr!! Does anyone want to buy me a night at the Hyatt? I don't think the plumber will fix it today.

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