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 Café. 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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