Rose! Congratulations!!! What wonderful news!! I am thrilled for you - what do you mean you were ‘going’ to call us…this deserves a celebration!! Let’s talk later!!O, did you make it back ok? It was a quick layover and a fabulous lunch, thanks again!
After lunch…I do have to say I was a little ‘K.O’…so I decided to spend my afternoon following-up on those contacts from Saturday night’s ab-fab-penthouse-cocktail party, over hot cocoa at Via Quadronno.
During the cocoa pause, however, I got a BBM from a great friend, ‘D’, from Paris indicating she was in the city and NEEDED to see me ASAP for diner…I didn’t know what to think…It had been a while since we last spoke…I had NO idea she was going to be in town!
We met around 20h at the Grammercy Park Hotel and when I saw D. step out of the car, I knew something was not right…We quickly made our way through to the Rose Bar…apparently she needed a drink…badly…
And so, over one, two, three…four Martinis she let loose and told me everything…why she was in NY…why she was so frantic and anxious…why she looked so…well….bad.
D. is a ‘tough cookie’, who’s passion for art and photography led her to work for a premier contemporary art gallery in London. When she accepted the job, we were all somewhat jealous…she was going to be living a life of veritable glitz and glamour…rubbing shoulders with Gagosian, Jeff Koons…perhaps even Brangelina? The job seemed perfect, she seemed fit for it. A life of Eternal Interning behind her…and then out of the blue, she arrives in NY and announces to me, sitting at the bar, over one too many Martinis, how that “perfect” employment gig, was just so “un-perfect” in the end…
The story she retold took me straight back to The Devil Wears Prada…a young promising girl, giving it her all, working for a dictatorial, egocentrical, demandingly aggressive Superior…Cafe fetching, call answering and travel organizing is what had become of this supposedly high-status associate director position…
Under intense pressure, the aggression of her Superior and stories uncovered of past gallery’s “associate directors’” fate…D. resigned with 2 weeks noticed…left the gallery…left London and left what was supposed to be a promising career of Eternal Employment…
As I heard her story, saw her un-manicured bitten nails, and witnessed a tear stream down her Terracotta bronzed cheek, I realized that Eternal Employment isn’t indeed all that it’s made out to be.
It’s very likely better to remain an Eternal Intern until that proper, perfect, ideal Eternal Employment situation comes around…don’t rush…take your time…
Seeing D. in such a state was heartbreaking, but she's a brilliantly strong and resilient girl and, D.: you’ll be fine! Keep your head up High, your spirits shinning…hell you’re American and can work in NY…you can rule the art world in this city in no time! You know the E.Is are here if need be...
Signing off for now,
Flora...a happy Eternal Intern there for her friends...
Photo credit:
http://kellydevinethomas.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/christies.jpg
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