an exercise in burying the lead

Okay, the book review post will go up next week. I'm holding myself to this so you all keep me accountable. It's going to be another doozy, though slightly less so than expected since I ended up setting two of the books aside for content concerns.

For the last week and a half I have been on what I refer to as the "middle shift" at work. My morning counterpart moved to another office within our department so while we wait for the hiring process to run its [incredibly circus-like] course, I'm working 10-3. I actually enjoy having this shift every once in a while because it's a more consistent flow of tasks and lets me off with more time in the afternoon; even if that also means that I have to shower in the afternoon which I am not a huge fan of. The adjusted schedule, combined with a full general schedule and Thursday evening choir practices for a Relief Society activity this last Saturday, heavily influenced the lack of posts in the last two weeks. I've committed to spring cleaning my schedule and priorities this week, though, so here I am once again scrambling back onto the bandwagon.

It's occurred to me many times before that I have so much time in a week, a day, and I generally use it so poorly that I hardly get the things I need to do done, let alone a lot of things I want to do. So this weekend I sat down and scheduled out my time, parsing down to the things I have to do each day and then looking at the time left over. Guys, it's atrocious - how much time I've been wasting. It can't continue or I'm just going to spiral completely out of control. Up until Saturday our counters had been entirely taken over by dishes that had been sitting there for up to two weeks. Two weeks you guys. As embarrassing as that is to admit, I get really tired of not being honest with people so there it is. I suck at doing dishes and sometimes there are weeks that even looking at the counter threatens to send me into a panic attack. People struggle with different things. So one of the items I've included on my must do list is dishes and I'm tackling this challenge the same way I've tackled writing in the past: time it. I figure if I wash dishes for 20 minutes a day I'll get through the bulk of them every day which will prevent the dreaded build-up. And 20 minutes doesn't feel like too much. Knowing that, regardless of how many dishes are left at the end of that time, I won't beat myself up for stopping at that 20 minute mark takes some of the stress out of it.

Another of my must priorities is exercise. I've been doing a little hodge-podge workout for a few weeks but I need more cardio than that's currently affording so I finally used the recumbent exercise bike that we got last week. [Thanks TiAta!] I don't think people generally believe me when I say that I'm out of shape, simply because I'm skinny. [From experience, skinny does not equal in-shape.] Before I had even been on the bike for five minutes my legs were begging for the sweet release of death. Okay, it wasn't that dramatic but it took a lot of willpower and youtube videos to get through 20 minutes of that. Guys, I hate sweating. Like. Really really hate sweating. Unless I'm swimming or taking a bath/shower I do not like to be wet. I honestly can't remember the last time I purposefully did something [aside from having to stand outside in the summer for any amount of time] that made me really sweat. Suffice to say it was not a pleasant experience. This is going to take some getting used to.

There are a few other things I'm hoping to set aside more purposeful time for, but I have to be careful not to over-schedule myself or I'll just revert back to bad habits.

Things are really gearing up for the student journals I'm working with. One started type-setting last week and the other [once a few more edits are done] will begin that process when we get back from Spring Break this week. I've never done type-setting before so I imagine it'll be a bit of a scramble to learn and still be helpful enough to get the journals ready to print in time. But this isn't their first time going through the process so I'm not overly worried. It's really exciting to see an issue come together like this.

If you remember the mention I made in my last post of some exciting news about one of my short stories, this is where it comes in. One of my short stories was accepted for publication by another journal on campus.

Flynn Rider's sarcastic enthusiasm is all the validation I need.

So I've been working with an editor to polish and tighten the piece, including writing additional material for the end of the story - a request that initially surprised me but I'm now wholly supportive of. It's been a very interesting experience thus far, trying to communicate and understand the comments and suggestions of someone else on a piece you're so familiar with. It's made me more aware of how I have comported myself as an editor and member of workshops in the past.

Constructive criticism is always good to hear, even if you don't choose to change what's noted, but areas where you might suggest different wording or additional material might sound great to you when you write it out but to the author the additions will stand out clearly because it's not in their voice. That's why they're suggestions, of course, so the author can take and play with the idea you're trying to encourage. But it had never occurred to me just how obvious the difference in voice could feel until reading some sections and phrases my editor has suggested. In my work for these other journals they've really stressed being careful not to change the voice of the piece and I'm learning just how easy it can be to do that unintentionally - so be careful out there, kids!