Some added 'Fashion' nonsense

My Fashion Fiasco experience has been getting a lot of play among my friends at NYU and - much more importantly - at The Observer bullpen. No fear - my head isn't swelling up (much) but it *was* gratifying to have Choire walk past me in the newsroom yesterday and yell, "OK! The New Interns? Hired!"

Choire wanted us to "dump" our notes from the various shows we had all covered on him - his exact words, "Everyone is taking a dump in my Inbox today." I took it one step further; I typed up all my notes, but I also sketched out a draft, and I shot both those emails to him late yesterday morning and worried all day whether what I had written was any good. I didn't hear anything back from him. And, as I thought on it, I realized I'd just written a whole chunk of text about ONE show, and the piece he was putting together was covering the entire weekend, so there was no way my work was gonna get that much space.

Now, NYU held a Meet the Editors night last night on Waverly. Apart from my dapper band of mischief makers (The Humorous Nucleus) and I getting lightly sloshed on the free wine, it was a chance to meet and speak with Editors from several publications about internships. I also took the opportunity to take crazy notes for my story on internships for Ogintz. In attendance was Suzy from The Observer. I've fact-checked a few of the pieces she has edited and gone to her to sign off on them. I noticed that when she gave her speech to NYU last night, she claimed that any freelance pieces you manage to get published at The Observer could earn you $250. Erin Coe and I almost passed out. We were told that no matter what we wrote at the internship, we wouldn't get a cent.

So afterward Lee and I approached her, and I cracked wise about how they'll pay other folks and not interns ("I'm actually thinking of writing a piece, putting a friend's name on it, and then he and I can split the difference!") when she suddenly nodded her head and said, "OH. You're one of the two interns who got into the party last night, right?"

I beamed. That's me! She wanted to know how I did it, and I gave her a thrilling rendition of the evening's antics. A colleague of hers was nearby and overheard, and asked what we were talking about. Suzy explained I had managed to actually get into the von Furstenberg show - "Regular staffers would have seriously said 'The hell with this' and taken off instead of working so hard to get in. That's great." - and then the kicker, she said, "Yeah, Choire was telling the other editors about it."

Blooddite-Lee looked at me and grinned, and I couldn't tell if my face was flushed from the compliment or the wine.

This morning while I was fact-checking like a mad woman - The Observer was so busy getting ready to go to press today that I wasn't 'allowed' to eat lunch - I got an email in my Inbox from Choire asking, "Your byline is going to read as Nicole Pesce, OK?"

I stopped breathing and waved to fellow-intern Raegan.

"I'm getting a byline!"
"Awesome!"

Coincidentally, the Fashion Week piece was passed to me for fact-checking, so I immediately devoured it, looking to see what, if any, of my notes got in regarding the crashed lights and whatnot.

.
.
.

He printed nine whole paragraphs of the draft I'd taken a stab at submitting to him, only tweaking a few adjectives. But if you check out the Transom section of The Observer tomorrow and running this week, and you read the fashion week piece, then the nine grafs on the von Furstenberg show are all me. I am so honestly flattered and excited. Raegan and Brad's bylines are on there too - the whole Transom crew that worked on it get listed at the end - and that really makes me just as happy. Suzy has encouraged me to pitch to her and write as much as I can, and Sara from the calendar pages suggested I check out a party later this month launching a new champagne label (they sent her a complimentery bottle!) where there are supposed to be *real* penguins running around on blocks of ice.

I want to cover "real" news, but I can see how a writer can get swept up in these society events, especially if you have a dry sense of humor. It's hilarious.

And I stayed late at The Observer tonight, after all the other interns left (I'd volunteered to stay late to tackle any last-minute submissions) which I think was a good move. I did some fact-checking, wrote most of my research paper for Serrin that's due on Thursday, and ... lo and behold ... since the frenetic pace of the day was winding down as all of the copy was filed and basically all the hard work was done on the writers' and editors' end ... people talked with me. Joked with me. I really felt more ingratiated for the first time. I'm not saying that there has been this sudden miraculous shift and everyone loves me and now we're all buddy-buddy. However, I do feel more confident and more welcome, and I definitely think that the next three months will go a lot better than I had melodramatically predicted only a week go. See - just a light touch of humanity was all I was asking for, and now I feel great.

I'm still annoyed about not being paid, though.

I go to sleep now with some endearing words of praise from the Bloodster; not that I enjoy blowing smoke up my own ass, but he's so funny:

My dear Nicole, You are, of course, something else, and yes indeed, I am proud of you. What a tigress, my kind of reporter. What an exciting experience for a raw ass(forgive me)recruit. I hope that I can read some of your work in tomorrow's New York Observer, or at least see that you got some kind of credit. You did take the story beyond the reports that I read in today's paper. Come see me sometime, even if it isn't a Wednesday. My office hours are the same: Tuesday,. 10 a.m. until noon, but you're welcome anytime. By the way, what is Brad's last name? Congratulations again. Blood

He called me a tigress?!


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