Friday, May 23, 2008

All by myself. Sorta.

In a noisy, polluted and ever-changing city filled with people who never seem to stop and smell the wilting roses, I am celebrating the temporary sweetness of solitude. I am currently in K-Hell – sorry, KL – for a week, mainly to attend a meeting and a 2-day course. But my meeting is over and my course only starts on Monday and I figured I’d take the time in between to be with me, myself and the craziness of KL. I started the day waking up slow – a luxury we all take for granted, rolled around in the sheets and engrossed myself in a made-for-tv movie about a woman who ran over her cheating husband with her Mercedes, not once but three times. Nice.I walked around KL city alone, aimlessly and merely for the sake of walking until I got hungry. I finally settled for beef lasagna and overpriced iced lemon tea at Dome CafĂ©. My editor in KL sends me an sms to remind me off my impending deadline (oops) and so here I am at Starbucks e-mailing him my final draft. I’m off to meet him after this should I ever get off my procrastinating ass. Sigh. I’ve got three whole days of immersing myself in KL before the ‘business’ side of my trips kicks in.

You know, as I edited my story for the THIRD bleeding time and clicked on ‘send’ to my editor, I dawned on me that I could do this for a living. Live in this crazy city, watch people go by, drink RM14.00 ice blended chocolate and just type away on my laptop – AND get paid for it. Thing is, I don’t have the balls to up and leave the comforts of KK and my job and my whole life and become a full-time freelance writer. How would I pay my rent? How can I afford my shoe fetish? How can I sleep at night not knowing where my next paycheck will come from?

Don’t mind me. Maybe it’s just the KL air. I’m off to find my way to Titiwangsa. Hope I don’t end up in Seremban.

"When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom. Let it be."
- The Beatles, Let It Be. Perhaps I should.

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