HIRED!

Amidst the chaos of a death and a wedding in one weekend, I got a phone call while stuck in gridlock traffic. It was an editor from SF Weekly, the San Francisco equivalent of the Village Voice or the Boston Phoenix. Before the conversation was over, I had a new job as a part-time writer for SF Foodie, the most-read food blog in the Bay Area!

I applied for this position a week earlier but after the 7×7 letdown, my expectations were low. Especially because the job opening had been advertised on SF Foodie itself, guaranteeing a trillion applications from every starry-eyed blogger from Cancun to Calgary.

I did use all my resources to get the inside track. I e-mailed an influential food writer, a friend-of-a-friend, and asked if she could put in a good word for me. I also sent the editor an e-mail and offered to do a “test” blog post. (It’s funny how aimless I used to be; sometimes I’m confused by this new-found tenacity.)

Anyway, I got the job. It doesn’t pay great but 100,000 (!) people read this blog each week, and it’s a great entryway into the SF food scene. My “beat” will be food-related events, ranging from coffee tastings to cheesemaking workshops. I’ll write short previews of upcoming events, as well as attend some of them and report back.

HOWEVER, this is a loose beat. The editor made it clear that he is open to anything food-related I would like to write about: “Just send me a pitch.”

2011 has some good things in store…