The lack of blogging can be attributed to year-end madness. Harvard is smack in the middle of Reading Period, a ten-day period in which we cram, write, and study our hearts out … that is, if we’re conscientious students. Unfortunately, Reading Period is also House Formal Season and I’ve been hitting up a different formal nearly every night. Not the best way to wake up refreshed and ready to work. Definitely not the best way to get over writer’s block. Anyhow, here are quick updates in lieu of a proper entry:

* For the locals out there, pick up a copy of this weekend’s paper. My piece, “Meet the Roommates”, is running in the Coupling column on the back page of The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine.

* Summer plans are being hammered out. Looks like I’ll be in New York from June 1st until August 15th. Then I’m home for a few days before departing for a two-week trip through China (Beijing, Shanghai, & Hong Kong). Quite excited!

* Haven’t done any interviews for the past few weeks but there’s a blurb about me in the Spring issue of 02138 Magazine. Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to view it online, but I read the thing in the newsstand.

* Keep your eyes out for next week’s issue of New York Magazine. There should be a letter to the editor from yours truly. Commenting on what? The Sex & Love issue, of course.

* Speaking of, expect published sex diaries from my dear friends in the next couple days. I am in the process of compiling the titillating collection.

* Recently purchased the domain name LenaChen.com, which now redirects to this website. This is obviously the next step in my conquest of the worldwide web.

* Crashed the Eliot Fete last night and crashed Lowell Bacchanalia tonight. Had a fabulous time at both Houses but the best part was sneaking in. While at the former, I re-met this charming chick duo who are fans of the blog. Facebook me, girls!

If you’re a SIRIUS radio subscriber, then give me a listen on Playboy Radio this Wednesday at 3pm EST. I’m going to be a guest on the Afternoon Advice show with Tiffany Granath. Unlike my previous radio gigs, this one will be on satellite which means anything goes. Thank goodness I don’t have to self-censor. At the rate I’m going, I’m definitely going to land myself on the FCC’s Most Wanted List!

I already get the feeling that this will be one of my more memorable interviews. In addition to discussing all the vitals of Sex and the Ivy, I’m also going to be giving advice to callers. If you’re a fan interested in asking a question or a friend who wants to embarass me, call the show hotline at 877.205.9796 when I’m on.

The Details:

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
SIRIUS Channel 198
Afternoon Advice Show
3pm EST (12pm PST for those on the West Coast)

For all those interested, here’s a link to Boston University’s article about me in The Daily Free Press, their student paper.

Reporters typically ask me the same ten or so questions (How did you get started? What does your family think? How does this affect your love life? What’s it like being famous?) My professional aspirations, in the rare instances they’re discussed, have never made it into print. The last paragraphs of this article constitute a first:

[Harvard junior April Yee] said she encouraged Chen to submit a piece to the Boston Globe Magazine’s Coupling section, the magazine’s relationship-oriented segment, after learning it was looking for college-age writers.

“She’s funny, and she’s smart and she’s hard-working. She was a really good voice for the Coupling section,” said Globe Magazine assistant editor Anne Nelson about Chen.

Despite her popularity, Chen said she does not aspire toward a career in writing about sex. In recent posts, she has moved away from the controversial topic.

“It’s really hard to keep the separation between my online life and my real life,” she said. “It’s good to have a certain distance. I don’t want what I start writing about to start impacting my personal life.”

I find myself conflicted. On one hand, I’m really glad someone’s finally addressed the fact that my writing ambitions aren’t a by-product of Sex and the Ivy, but have rather been years in the making. On the other hand, I want my professional pursuits to have little to do with this website because if I actually make it in the ultra-competitive literary world, I’d like it to be a result of talent, not accidental fame or Harvard’s marketability.

I don’t like discussing on-going freelance assignments because even contracts don’t guarantee publication (and quite frankly, I’m freakishly insecure about my writing), but I’ll be a bit candid for the purpose of explanation. In the past few weeks, I’ve signed on to several new projects, most of them a result of solicitations from editors who have heard about my blog. As a young writer, I am in the extremely enviable position of getting paid to do what others would gladly do for free, and there is no doubt that it is due to Sex and the Ivy’s popularity. I wouldn’t trade my position for the world.

Simultaneously, however, I am very uncomfortable with the idea that I really have no barometer with which to measure my actual merit as a writer. Sex and the Ivy is so powerful as a brand, as a revolutionary symbol, as a small-scale phenomenon that it overshadows its producer. I sometimes question whether it makes a difference how well or how poorly I write or if editors would be equally eager to work with another individual were someone else responsible for this website.

I hope I don’t come off sounding like an ungrateful brat, because I am very happy to be in these shoes (black patent leather pumps, in case you were wondering), but I am fully aware that no one would give half a shit if I weren’t blogging on a controversial topic at a highly visible institution. For example, it’s no secret I’m working on a book proposal (and by “book proposal”, I mean ten-page Word document I’ve ignored since intercession). When people ask me how I expect to sell it, I explain, “It doesn’t matter if I’m a good writer or not. Put the words ‘Harvard’ and ’sex’ together and the book will sell even if I have the IQ of a third-grader.” And it’s true. If I land some lucrative book deal, it is less a testament to my abilities than it is to my marketability.

So although I’m really flattered by what my editor at the Globe said about me in the above article, I almost wish she didn’t find out about my blog. There is something extremely rewarding about knowing that I pitched, wrote, and revised a column for them, all without the Sex and the Ivy name as support. Futile as it may be (especially knowing Google’s permanence), I sometimes wish that the line between casual blogging and professional writing could avoid the fate of blurring as intensely as the line between my virtual and actual life. But as this website nears its eighth month of existence, that divide is becoming harder and harder to preserve.

* After the Radar piece came out, CollegeHumor posted the link on its frontpage, thus leading to a flurry of Facebook friend requests and pokes. Ah, the Internet — you always make me feel so violated.

* Reader participation time! Please nominate me for the Sex Blog Awards (see sidebar) so I can win a stint on Playboy Radio. After all, this is a public service I’m not getting paid for — getting misquoted is just a perk — and admit it, you live vicariously through my cunt. (Thanks Marcus!)

* The whole Kyle series ends in tragedy (psst, he dies in Book 4!) so don’t get attached. Some might say I’m being prematurely cynical; I call it realistic. But he does exist, contrary to speculation that I fabricate everything. When in doubt, believe headless photos I snap of my illicit lovers:

* I’m starting a new iCal category for sex. Need to find a hookup for Saturday night! I have a lunch/sex date for tomorrow, dinner with a 2L on Sunday, and ex sex with Berklee on Monday. I figure I might as well shoot for four nights in a row. Single Crimson men, Facebook me. (I am completely serious as usual, as I no longer have undergrad booty calls.)

* But none of the above action, is occurring in my room, mind you. The week before break was a complete travesty. I hate hosting! Stray wrappers, used condoms, smeared lube — I’m washing my sheets first thing when I get to the dorm. DormAid needs post-sex maid service.

* It’s barely 2007 — hate mail already? I’m ahead of schedule! FYI, the emails informing me that I’m grossly overweight and unattractive would be a whole lot more convincing if 1) you weren’t writing anonymously and 2) I stopped getting male attention long enough to give a shit. Besides, you really think you’re going to destroy my self-esteem more than my Chinese mother already has?

* Can someone (ahem, roomies) please send me condoms? This harlot has a heart and her frequent contraceptive donations last semester have led to a severe shortage. I think of it like Pay It Forward and it’s time for the favor to be returned. No Lifestyles, Trojans are kosher, Kyle uses Durex, and Kimonos would be le bomb. (You can request free Trojans online — thanks to Sam Jackson Yale ‘11).

* Before I depart from Los Angeles in a few hours, I’d like to leave you with this season’s anthem, played on my ride home from Arizona — it rings all too true:

I’m coming home from my hardest year
I’m making plans not to make plans while I’m here
And this life has been no holiday, a complicated situation
I’m fine with all my memories
Still I could use vacation

It’s Christmas in California
And it’s hard to ignore that it feels like summer all the time
But I’ll take a west coast winter to remove my splinters

It’s good to be alive
It’s good to be alive