Trying to work

I spend most of the day researching and trying to report a pitch of an article that I know is already doomed to fail. I see it as a lifestyle piece, bordering on a personal finance piece, and it’s tied to holiday giving so if I want to pitch it I got to do it soon, but before I try to sell it to any media outlet I have to gin up a little bit of reporting, which of course is way harder than I thought it was when I came up with the idea 24 hours ago. By 4 pm, I’ve spent most of the day trying to track down people who could speak to me for the pitch, but who don’t call or write me back, and done some online research on where I might be able to pitch it to, if the reporting materializes, concluding that actually most publications do very little original reporting these days, even if it’s lightweight and fluffy. In other words, should I bother?

Maybe, because maybe I’d feel good about myself, and get paid, if I got something published.

On the flip side, if I do some work and it continues to go nowhere, I will have only myself to blame. And how fun will that be?

When I go to pick up Z at his daycare, I get a long lecture on how he seems distant and disengaged and he doesn’t listen to the caregivers. I am pretty sure it is “just a phase,” I say. Also, I say he seems happy and talkative at home, but he has been cranky lately. The minute we get home he pulls my hair and leaves a giant wad of it on the living room carpet. I didn’t need it anyway.

T leaves for a surprise! international business trip tomorrow morning – so I have 5 days and 4 nights of single parenthood to look forward to.