ANOTHER real byline. This is for real.

Hire me now, ok?

Look Ma, a real byline!

Copy writer and blogger for hire. Will accept press passes for payment if your shit is cool. Because of vanity.

Eurogames advert for gay airline… if only.

Internet, you can’t make your jokes so subtle this early in the morning. I actually need gay airline news right now, cute as this is.

Sometimes I engage in workplace passive-aggression. Whatever. Your table tennis is approaching my very last nerve.

This twitter exchange pretty succinctly sums up the extent to which I CANNOT WIN this week.

Fucking baby blackbirds.

I forget that I am a persnickety writer until these things pop up and break my heart.

• “An international country,” which is impossible by definition.
• “Don some ironic lederhosen,” because apparently irony is an inherent quality of a cultural garment?
• “Hospitable hosts,” as opposed to those hosts at tourist destinations who are passive aggressive because they do not want you there.
• “A cosmopolitan mix of the First and Third Worlds,” which is insultingly outdated terminology and horribly dramatic to define London!
• “Gypsy music.” This phrase is used twice. Really.

Reading this over again, maybe I am just being sensitive in some cases… but in a day and age where you can hire a copy writer on the internet for a pittance (hello!), why should writing like this ever see the light of day?

This probably speaks to my own privilege more than anything, having generally been surrounded by supportive people in liberal-leaning environments for most of my life, but I’m kind of in disbelief that I had to have this conversation at all. In NYC. In 2011.

In fairness to my co-worker, she was apologetic and said she’d make an effort not to use the term as a derogatory in the future, and I believe all of that absolutely. But there was the grating “I didn’t mean it that way” element  to the conversation. Which is like… I’m sure you didn’t. But some people do. And it puts me on edge. And if you think about it for five seconds, you’ll understand why.

I’m relatively sure there won’t be any negative fallout associated with the situation, but it does make me feel like crap. The last thing I want to do at a new job is present myself as the PC police or an oversensitive busybody. It’s also not the way I want to “come out” to anyone, ever.

That’s probably the strangest part of the whole thing. I haven’t had to “come out” to anyone since high school. Within a week or two of existing in a new social environment, the fact that I’m gay will almost inevitably come up in casual conversation, whether I’m mentioning a girlfriend or my LGBT advocacy work or why I love Dolly Parton so much. But the office culture here isn’t the warmest, and it hasn’t come up with more than a few people. Which is fine! Gay is not the defining feature of my personality, life, et al. But if people don’t know I’m gay, they don’t know to be sensitive to it. Which they should be all the time (sensitive), because that’s basic human courtesy since you never know the orientation of the people around you, but I get it that the world isn’t as enlightened as we wish it were and it takes a personal connection for many people to make a change.

Anyway, I feel weird. What whiplash to go from being a professional homosexual arguing for the most radical queer agenda within an advocacy organization… to being a mostly closeted advertising professional. Maybe I’m still breaking this job in, but right now this doesn’t feel like the long-term career path for me. 

That link will take you to the most tricked out website I’ve seen in my life, belonging to my new employer, Catch (starting next month). This chick landed a social media and copy writing gig with an agency, which I believe is what they call a “career track” job, gag me with an adult. But seriously folks, I’m stoked. And happy to still be able to give Therapick some social media help on the side. All is right with my blood pressure once more.

This was a short message from your blog-mistress who is being thankful, now back to your regularly scheduled Ewoks.

True Life Updatez: feel free to stop reading here if we’re not meat-world friends, unless you happen to be related to a therapist, in which case this may interest you too.

So about two weeks back, it became apparent that the nonprofit I’d been working with for the past year was… restructuring. To a structure that no longer included my job. Or probably any jobs. This is ultimately beside the point, except to say that my return to the unpleasant state of unemployment was sudden and largely unexpected. In a word, it sucks.

The silver lining is that my colleagues and I parted on amicable terms and the organization will continue to exist in some capacity, so ten months of hard work are worth something.

The other silver lining is that I’ve been lucky enough to find another start-up, Therapick, to work with part-time while I take on the still-lousy economy in pursuit of a great Community Management or Copy Writing position. If you know of one, holler at your girl.

Until then, check Therapick out; it’s not often that I come across a for-profit entity whose services I can so thoroughly get behind. They’re building an online directory of therapists across the country, aggregating videos so potential clients can get to know a therapist before walking blindly into  a consultation. As anyone who’s been through the therapist-matching process can attest, it can be harrowing. I got lucky in finding a great match on my first try, but lots of folks aren’t, and too many of them give up on getting the help they need because finding the right professional is hard. Therapick is starting interviews in New York next week, so if you know anybody who might be interested, drop me a line and I can tell you more about why it’s an excellent idea and investment.

Anywho, that’s it for the Life and Times of Dinah Fay for the time being. Hopefully this blog will turn back into the trove of clippings and ephemera it once was now that I’ve got a little more time on my hands. I’m looking forward to it.

Lemon out.