Eye'm Not So Sure

I really wish I could say that I was busy spending this weekend with my unexpected guest from Idaho, which had caused me to not blog for a day or two.

Or... wait... I don't want to say that I wish she was stranded in Minneapolis. That's not exactly true. I really wish that she had been able to fly over to her conference in Belgium. But, on Friday, she never even left Idaho. After being assured by her airline (no naming names, but let's call it "Schmelta") she left home at 6am and drove 2 hours to the airport, where the Schmelta representative informed her that they had already rebooked her on a 6:50am flight through LA.

I know what you're thinking, because I know you're all good at math. You're thinking: She left home at 6am, and it was a 2-hour drive, so she missed that 6:50 flight. And you'd be sort of right, because she did miss the 6:50am Friday flight. But the 6:50 flight they had re-scheduled her on wasn't going to leave until TUESDAY, getting in during the afternoon on Wednesday. Why hadn't Schmelta told her this when she called in before leaving home? Yeah. We're not so sure why they didn't do that, either.

So, instead of hanging out and playing, I spent all day, yesterday, working on some freelance editing. It's a full-length manuscript. And, although it's full of interesting stories, it's also full of some huge problems. When I wrote up recommendations for the author to address before the edit, I pointed out a number of formatting things that needed to be addressed. Some of them were simple (like changing the single-spacing to double), and some was more intense (for no obvious reason, he's got all sorts of random words both bolded and italicized, which have to be addressed word by word).

How many of those things did he address? Let me put it this way: NONE.

After spending 10 hours (I almost typed "years") on it, yesterday (and I had already done the massive formatting previously), I'm still less than halfway through. By the time I gave up, I had taken a couple of small breaks (about 45 minutes for a trip to the Post Office and Grocery store), and my eyes were beginning to burn.

Waking up this morning, my eyes were still burning and itching. I was about ready to blame this on the editing. Or the volcanic ash. But then I found out that we're in a "Very High Pollen" alert for trees right now.

Even so, I think I'll blame the ash and editing. After all, pollen is so mundane.