I don’t know if it’s the Windows Easy Transfer app or my husband I have to thank for it, but the transfer of all my stuff from the old computer to the new one was so freaking easy it was silly. I have to install programs, which I’m doing in order of priority, but I practically danced when I downloaded/installed iTunes 9 and up came all my music files AND my folder labels. Wow! I thought it would be treacherous given copyright concerns and protected data files. Not so. There it all is. Amen. I’d downloaded three new CDs a week ago. I was worried.
The only real resolution I’ve made this year (I know, I know, I hate resolutions) was to take control of my time and mental well-being. For that reason, today is a day off for me. It’s easier coming back off a long vacation if I pace myself, and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve been busy this week, but I’ve made sure not to kill myself to get it all done in one day. We have relatives staying overnight tonight and I’d much rather spend the day with them than worry about yet another deadline.
It’s been a good week in general. Work has started to appear without my seeking it, amen. And projects long held in limbo are beginning to roll. I suspect the next few weeks will be busier. There’s breaking that recession myth to bits!
How’s your week back been? Anything new to report? Any concerns you’re trying to beat down? What’s the climate at your keyboard?
Frustrating. Problems with the webhost. Illness in the family. Not as much time at the page as I'd like, but I'm trying to remedy that today.
Mercury retrograde, too. Ugh. I hope Mom and Elsa are doing better soon, Devon.
Isn't it thrilling when computers actually do what they're supposed to do? This year should be awesome, even with Mercury slapping us around this month. Hold out until the 15th, there's a solar eclipse that will clear everything out (not that I believe in that).
First time on your blog. I can see helpful information in my future!
PS We in MO are at about 10 degrees below and hope that Joseph's information is correct. I need a good clearing out.
I hate coming back after a long holiday. It makes the daily drudge judge well, drudge. It's hard to get back into the swing of things for me, too, only because I'm still in vacation mode.
But so far, the year has been good. I've not keep my promise to myself that I would write every day and that stinks. I *have* however begun the process of purging things I don't want to do anymore and that's very liberating. I would love to be done with one particular task in about a week but I don't know if that's going to happen because I have to depend on someone else to get it done and that's frustrating. I'm a get-it-done-now kind of person and I want it done NOW.
So. I wait. And it sucks.
And I'm trying to make myself drink more water and less coffe. Ha. Right. Like that's going to happen.
I said "drudge judge" and I have no idea why I typed that. It's the fingers, you know. They have a mind of their own. 😀
Joseph, things are going pretty well for me even WITH that nasty retrograde! I hope the new moon brings new opportunities.
Journaling Woman, welcome! Glad to have you. Ouch – that's some cold! Yes, as I've said before, I don't button the coat until it goes down to 20. I bet you're ready to see spring! Love MO – was there not long ago.
Michelle, I think you've coined a new phrase. 🙂 I like it!
My week's been frustrating, but also good. Good in that I got a new assignment on Tuesday. Bad that there are still three outstanding unpaid invoices from 2009 – money I'm counting on to cover a couple of bills.
What has really irked me this week is the utter incompetence of this one woman. She's a manager of someone I needed just one or two quick quotes from. Over two months ago, she told my editor she would be able to arrange it. I initially contacted her November 7 with my official request. A week later she called, asked me to e-mail her the two brief questions so she could get right on it. I did that immediately. No reply, but I waited until Thanksgiving had passed to check back. No replies to my calls or e-mail. I kept trying through December, reminding her I needed the information by mid-December. (My piece wasn't due until the end of the year, but I was going to be gone after the 23rd.) Still nothing. My editor said to try again after the first of the year.
I called all of her numbers and e-mailed her on Monday. No reply. My editor contacted the person who had said she was the only way to get the quotes we need. He said this manager had been on an extended vacation. Then why didn't her voice mail or e-mail say that, or offer an emergency contact? Monday night she finally replied by e-mail, saying she'd been on vacation and would have the answers for my on Tuesday. Well, honey, now it's Friday. No answers. No replies to my follow up messages.
Sure, I can write around this guy's blatant absence. Had she told me she couldn't get his one or ten sentence quotes to begin with, I would have had this job finished, sent in, and invoiced by December 22. And the money would already be in the bank. Yet here I sit, waiting to see if she sends anything in today so we won't have to use the write around. And THEN I can send it in and invoice it and be paid a month later than I should have been paid.
I will NEVER use any of her clients as sources again.
I'd tell her so too, Paula. In fact, I'd tell the person who first said she was the only way to your source. It's a shame when they don't pick up all the threads. Their companies/clients suffer for it.
Oh, my editor made it clear to the person who said that woman was the only access. She let him (and the manager) know that none of the eight other equally busy people had any problems doing quick e-mail or phone interviews with me well before my December deadline. And she said if she had to she'd simply cut him from the article.
The update: No reply, so I did the write-around and the editor told me to invoice them for a few hundred dollars more than I'd expected. So perhaps the headache was worth it….
Struggled with a bout of writer's block for a few days. However, Mozart and Bach awoke my muse and now the words are flowing. The total word count for my MS. is now at 62,000 and counting.
Best wishes
You've got a supportive editor, Paula. That's great.
Andrea, those are good muses. 🙂 I think also the new moon arriving could open things up. Plus there's that mental block we've overcome – the notion that the calendar had to change in order for us to shed the economic stigmas that held us back last year.