On the road again

Tomorrow I leave for my third (and hopefully last, for a while) marathon trip to New York. Remember the story of the old woman who lived in a shoe? Well, this is the summer that I have lived out of a suitcase.

I did a few loads of laundry on Friday, most of which were clothes from the last trip. When I was done, though, rather than hang things up, I pretty much just folded everything and put them right back in my suitcase. I thought that was kind of sad, but hey - I guess I've gotten the hang of this packing thing.

The good news is that I'll be going home next weekend, in between the two work weeks, so I'll be able to do my laundry there, and therefore can pack a bit lighter than I have been. Also, thank goodness it's summer, as clothes are all lightweight and it's easy to fit more into my suitcase.

After 9/11, I went about a year and half without getting on an airplane. I didn't travel much for work then, and consciously didn't plan any vacations beyond driving distance. The first few times, after that, I was admittably nervous, but then I started traveling all the time and unless there was a bad bout of turbulence or a few too many turbans in the terminal, flying became as routine and mundane as anything else I might do on a daily basis. Now, though, with everything going on in Israel, Lebanon, the Middle East, I really wouldn't have minded staying grounded for a while.

On that note, is the Mel Gibson thing as big of a news item in the rest of the country as it is here in LA? It's all anyone has talked about all day.

On Friday, I met a friend of mine out for drinks who does PR for random TV shows, cable channels, actors, and the occasional restaurant or club. She was telling me that she had just gotten a new client - a famous and outrageously expensive rehab center in Malibu. (I'm not going to name it, but if you read the celeb weeklies or gossip blogs, you'll know which one I'm talking about.)

I was asking her how she garners publicity for that kind of client - I mean, it's not like you can just send out a press release or host a press party on the premises. She said that, among other strategies, she offers her client as a resource for stories on addiction, treatment, recovery, and that sort of thing. I can only imagine that she had a field day today, pimping her client out to maximize the media opportunities available from this kind of news story.

Sometimes I am so glad I only work in beauty.