Chilly Chicago

Holy cow it's cold in Chicago. This morning I woke up to a brisk 3 degrees. To think, yesterday morning was a seasonably warm 50 degrees in Ohio.

I've been slugging back tea all afternoon in an attempt to stay warm.

Unfortunately I'm still stuck in the airport waiting, not so patiently, for my 9:30 flight. Only two and a half hours to go, and I've been here since 5 ish. They didn't have any 8 p.m. flights and I thought anything sooner might have been cutting it close if the workshop I was at ended at 5 p.m. like it was supposed to.

I attended a writing workshop for my job, and it was a great reminder of how I WANT to write but often am too rushed to give it the thought it requires. Definitely guilty of taking the easy way out of a story just to get the copy up on time and move on to the next assignment. Unfortunately, with too much to write and too few to write it, sometimes speed trumps all.

I'm definitely a copy churning queen, but I'm looking forward to putting the ideas I got today into practice and become a copy churning queen with INTERESTING stories, too. Given the bad news I received two weeks ago, hopefully I'll still have a job in the New Year and hopefully still be writing. Neither are givens.

Obviously, since I'm traveling I didn't cook. I didn't even pack a camera. My small carry on and laptop bag are STUFFED. So I'll share a photo of these salmon cakes I made last weekend. I have the recipe, but I'll have to add it in tomorrow when I get home. They were just "meh" anyhow. I really want to love Clean Eating magazine, but their recipes are sometimes all over the map. In case you're wondering, those are Green Giant boxed teriyaki veggies on the side.

Question: Since I spent most of the day in a writing seminar, I have writing on the brain. We talked some today about how, since blogs grew in popularity, the definition of "the media" and "journalist" has changed. People, who have no formal training in journalism are now taking that role, thanks to blogs. I know most bloggers aren't writers in their day jobs so... if you have a blog, do you consider yourself a writer? Or, if you don't have a blog, do you consider bloggers to be writers?

I write for a living in a corporate setting, so I'm lucky to be a "professional" writer. I've considered myself a writer, though, since I was 12. That's when I discovered my passion for it, and even competed in fiction writing contests. (Yeah, I was THAT nerd.) Is it odd I knew what I wanted to do for a living when I was 12? Anyhow.. tell me your thoughts.. I'd love to know.

In the meantime, I think I'll get another cup of tea.