Ladies Night Out

Last night, with two of my newish city friends, I went to dinner at Yum Yum - a Thai restaurant in Hell's Kitchen.

One of them, who works at a cable channel owned by MTV/Viacom, fancies her and her friends a nouveau version of the Sex and The City girls. I, on the other hand, see us as a younger, broker East Coast rendition of Girlfriends (shoutout to all cancelled UPN/CW shows!)

Either way, we'd gathered that evening because our other friend - stylish like Charlotte, all prim and proper pearls - was in the city to interview for jobs and wanted to make the most of it. You see, right now she lives on the Jersey Shore with her parents, but she (like most young adults within a 100-mile radius) would love to move to Manhattan.

But instead of discussing romance and the social scene as we usually do, the conversation for the night turned strictly to jobs and negative media industry trends. (I should mention, the friend from Jersey is a hardcore PR chick; she's interned at Edelman, Time Inc. and a number of other star companies. Holla' at me if you know of any job openings for her :o )

We scoffed at the belief that anyone thought print was going to last, as I told them that sadly 600 people at Time Inc. are set to lose their jobs over the next few months. But, secretly I wanted to cry into my drink about this - as it's been my dream to be a print (newspaper or magazine) publisher and editor since at least 14. We weighed the pros and cons of our current freelance statutes at work, and discussed independent health insurance options. We lamented the fact that we each have to make budgets now, and that none of us have a lot of money to budget with. But most of all, we commiserated over the realization that our childhoods are truly gone. We are single women, living in a big city, who each must stand on her own two Steve Madden-heeled feet.

Not exactly the glitzy cosmo-drinking story you thought I was going to share, right?...Well, that's (real) life for an (aspiring) media maven in the Big Apple. See, I told you we're more like Girlfriends! (You know that except for Joan, all of them were broke or in debt most of the series.)

Don't let my current troubles dissuade you from pursuing your glamorous dreams though. We did still eat delish food and drink yummy spirits (try the Sexy Asian Bartender if you're naughty ;- )