Busy, Busy

Back at work for the week and I'm feeling much better, albeit, a tad bit drowsy from the meds. I only had a couple flubs, so I consider it an okay start. But what I'm really looking forward to is this weekend. I got my first assignment from an expat magazine for the February issue and I'm thrilled to get started on it. Apparently they needed more music writers and a couple co-workers of mine that did some work for the magazine passed on my info to the music editor, and viola! My big magazine debut.

I pitched the idea of doing a feature on a little live music spot called 빵 for the music issue in March, but the editor asked if I could get it done for the February issue instead. This is fine with me, however, the deadline is next Saturday (Jan.15) which means I have to do all the work this weekend. Thank goodness it fell on my weekend off, otherwise I don't think I could get it done. Especially since the show starts early, around 7 pm, which is normally right in the middle of my work shift.

So, Friday night, I'm heading over to take pictures and hopefully interview the manager and a couple of spectators. The only thing is, I'll be missing my roommate's birthday party. I feel bad about this, but at the same time, she only mentioned it was her birthday after I had said I was planning to go to Hongdae Friday night. Plus, she said she had no plans yet. And this is a work thing, even though I don't get paid for writing the article.

I haven't told her yet, since everything just worked itself out in the last three or four hours while I was at the office, but I'll have to tonight. Or whenever she finally tells me what her plans are. I could possibly start out in Hongdae and then go wherever her party is after the show ends around 10pm, but I kind of want to stay in Hongdae and check out whatever bands are playing at the clubs that night since I've been out of indie loop for a bit and need to get back in if I'm going to be covering the scene.

We'll see what happens. I'm also on a kick to try and watch my spending this month since I'm 100% I'll get paid on time. It always happens at the beginning of the year with all the year-end freelancer tax stuff getting in the way...

Christmas is Always Crazy

As usual, I've stuffed my Christmas holiday with tons of stuff, half of which requires prior preparation. And, of course, I'm working like crazy up until tomorrow.

Roomie and I have decided to have a small get together on Christmas Day at our place. It's nothing huge; just her, her boyfriend, our friend, me and the guy I'm dating. Another friend of mine might stop by for a bit before going out clubbing. We're just planning to have Christmas-y cocktails, with cookies, pie and maybe some cake and watch movies. Not a whole lot of prep, just a trip to Costco and picking up/cleaning the living room/kitchen. However, we've planned to do this Friday morning and afternoon, which will kind of cramp what I had already planned for Friday.

Friday night, I'm covering two concerts for the website, starting at 7ish. Before that, I had planned to go to the laundry mat (which will take about an hour to an hour and a half), go get the rest of Roomie and Best Friend's Christmas presents and go buy The Boy's present (two stops, but they are both in the same area). But now, we're planning to get to Costco around 10 am when it opens, then cleaning when we get back. I don't foresee Costco and cleaning taking too long (maybe 1-1.5 hours for Costco, an hour at most for cleaning) but I can't be absolutely sure that it won't take all morning and afternoon.

Which means, I now have to fit in what I planned to do on Friday sometime tomorrow, just to make sure it all gets done. Plus, I should probably pick up my bedroom a little, since I'll be embarrassed as hell if anyone peeks in there during our party. (It's pretty messy...)

So, my new schedule...

Tomorrow, I have to get up early and go take care of the Christmas presents before I go meet my friend for lunch at 12pm and then go to work. Tonight and tomorrow night, I'm going to work on picking up my room. (Half of which is just dirty clothes on the floor.) Tomorrow night, as soon as I get back from work, I have to go to the laundry mat. Since I get home at 11 pm, there is a high chance the buses will no longer be running when I finish, so I'll either have to walk 20 minutes back home or try to catch a cab back.

I might try picking up the living room and kitchen a bit now and then go do laundry on Friday. Honestly, with two of us, the cleaning shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes, but there is always the possibility it could take longer... And a HUGE possibility we'll be at Costco for a long time, since Roomie's boyfriend is going with us to do some shopping as well.

I'm planning to talk to Roomie tonight about how long everything will take on Friday, because honestly, I really need to do laundry and I don't want to have to do it late tomorrow night. Especially since I can't remember if the laundry mat is 24-hour or how late it stays open if it isn't...

Bleh, I'll just be happy when I can sleep in and rest (Saturday morning). Isn't that what holidays are supposed to be about? Thank goodness our party on Saturday night is all about comfort...

Back in Seoul

So, I'm back in Seoul and back to work. Going home for a week and a half really re-energized me and helped me get my center back. Work is going along much more smoothly and I'm not so cranky anymore. Also, I'm hoping this going to bed early and getting up at 6:30 am thing continues (jet lag, gotta love it). I was very productive this morning and washed all the the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Normally, this isn't much of an undertaking, but my roommate didn't really do dishes (at all) while I was gone and there was quite a mess greeting me when I walked in last night. She did say she would do them, but I wanted to cook this morning and to do so, I needed access to the stove, which meant washing dishes...

But back to my trip...

I spent most of my time with my parents, sister and little brother, but I got to see extended family on Thanksgiving and some old friends from college. I also went down to Chandler and saw my old high school teacher that I haven't seen in about five or so years. She was excited to see me and I ended up doing an improv lecture/Q&A on living in South Korea. It was fun and the kids asked some good questions. And, not gonna lie, it was cool being treated a little bit like a rock star. My teacher kept mentioning that I, too, was a Chandler grad and proof that Chandler grads can get out of Oklahoma and do great things (not sure how great editing is, but I let her run with it).

But more than anything, I hope I was able to spark an interest in some of the kids in exploring the world a bit more. So many people from Chandler end up never leaving Oklahoma and getting married and having kids right after school without going out and trying new things. So, I hoped that talking about my job and experiences showed them that they have access to a whole world of opportunities. A bunch of them had more questions about what kind of jobs you could have in Korea and what you should study in college to do them, so I think I encouraged a few. ^_^

We also did a family photoshoot. Here are some of my favorites!