Nightmare on 42nd Street, between 5th and 6th

I’m finally settled in my apartment. It’s funny because all last week I was procrastinating, thinking that I would NEVER get the mess that was my room/landing in control. But after three hours this weekend, I’m pretty much done. Hallelujah.

And cleaning was most definitely therapeutic. I turned on some tunes and sorted, scrubbed, and sanitized EVERY last piece of junk I own (which is considerably less after the great bed bug debacle of 08) and that in turn gave me time to sort, scrub and sanitize my thoughts. Well…somewhat at least. It was nice to just spend the weekend getting life together. And I had a deep tissue massage too because it was spa week. I love New York.

I needed that massage too because last week was amazingly stressful—both at work and at home. First TV Guide was sold (Yay!) to a private equity firm (yay!) based in Paris (Yay! Time to get that passport out…). All in all—this was good news. We were getting all this positive press because we had brokered a deal even in the middle of the economic hullabaloo—it was a happy day. The only happy day. Part of the deal was that there would be no disclosure of the financial side of the deal, which I figured was pretty standard so I didn’t worry too much about it. Well…the next day we all wake up to an article in Advertising Age with the headline: “TV Guide sold for a buck.” And it was true. We were sold for one dollar. One dollar. Which I actually thought was a joke at first and laughed. No one else in the room laughed. Apparently the company who bought us are taking a considerable amount of debt (100 million) to own us, so that was their “payment.” Once that was explained, I understood, but none of the articles are including that vital piece of info! So we had a PR nightmare. I had people calling from the NY Times, the WSJ, the Post—it was insane. I’ve never said “no comment” more in my life (and just for clarification—they were calling to talk to my boss…not me. I’m not that important.). It just makes us look like a joke. And that is never good for a magazine that survives because of ad revenue.

Also, we have this cover party tomorrow. Which we didn’t realize we were having until the end of last week. Apparently some of the sales reps wanted to have a “happy hour” and started planning and it got out of control and somehow someone mentioned a cover party in the invitation to clients. Now, a “cover party” is something very specific in the magazine world. You have talent. You have alchohol. You have food. It’s a real party. And the cover they were celebrating was for 30 Rock, which is a really hot show right now. You don’t just walk up to the set and expect to get Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey to come to your “happy hour.” And that’s what we needed. Because that’s what everyone is expecting. Beccuase it is a “cover party.” And you expect the stars on the cover that you’re celebrating to be at their “cover party.” So, in short, it has been super insane. We finally got the talent to agree, we secured a venue and we think we have everything under control. But…whew. It was a crazy week. The only thing left is to actually go to the party…which shouldn’t be too stressful. I’m just supposed to “babysit” the talent. Whatever that means. I hope they’re not divas.

Anyway…that has been my life for the last week. I’ll update again tomorrow with further scintillating details.