Working in a coal mine...

[gwyn]

This weekend I had copy desk duties, so I was essentially working a late shift Friday, then having to check in and publish a couple things on Sat and Sun mornings. The problem was that the person who used to do weekends by herself (and I think this new rotating plan is a good one, it's just that after years of one person doing it, you get complacent) neglected to inform us of a few crucial details, which I, in my usual unerring overthinking stupidity, could not fill in the blanks of, and I spent over an hour on Sat morning in a blind panic because I thought I broke the table of contents page. The main page of our global online magazine. Yikes. Of course, none of the staff numbers have been updated on the spreadsheet, but through sheer luck and dogged persistence I finally found one person's number and she was around and was able to rescue me. Turned out I hadn't broken it, just done something misguided because the TOC looked wrong -- and it was. The guy who publishes the morning wrapup of papers had disappeared and someone else was going to try to write one and post it later that afternoon. But by then, I was off to see Hitchhiker's Guide, so I didn't find his big typo till 7 pm eastern time. Sigh. Weekend duty isnt supposed to take more than 20 minutes, but I ended up spending over an hour just on Saturday. I was tired and whiny.

Then there was total disaster with the Buffy vid I was starting in FCE, but I finally found, after copious weeping and hand-wringing, a painfully slow and tedious workaround, but one at least that works, I hope, if something else doesn't go wrong with it. Stayed up way too late working on that and sending frantic mails to killabeez. And then today I decided to work on the vid a little, and then would start gardening work before a a friend came over, and much to my pleasant surprise, alexfandra and mockerbee showed up on my doorstep with gardening implements and a lovely potted plant, and told me they were ready to spend the afternoon pulling weeds with me. And what an amazing job they did, too -- for the first time since my sister got sick last August, I can see pathways in the overgrown garden in back, and all the feverfew and catchfly that are crowding out and killing the plants I wanted more of are pulled up and much grass dug up, and huge dandelions the size of small dogs are 86'd. it was so kind of them, when they already have their own yards, to help me. By the time they left, mystic_savage was pulling up, and she cleared out all the tiny weeds and grass pockets in the side area, and took on some huge clumps of grass.

There's still much to do, but this is the first time in over six months it hasn't looked hopeless. I could never have made a dent in it without them, and I got all weepy because it was so thoughtful of people to do this. I know people say you have to ask, but I gave up asking a long time ago when the folks I asked for help from were always busy when the time came for me to take them up on their offers, but today reminded me that real friends will work up a sweat for you. (When she first found out that I'd broken my arm a few years ago, sherrold and her partner came over almost immediately and mowed my ginormous lawn.) I have no idea how to pay my friends back for this, but I hope they will allow me to when they need any kind of help. Many steps still to go here, but at least now there's a pathway through the overgrown grass.

Now if I can just fix that vid stuff...

Comments

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Real friends do gardens. It meant so much to me when friends pitched in last month to plant some of my garden and helped me shop for the plants. I am glad people are doing the same for you.

I took baby seps today in FCP - fiddled with keyframing.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it's finally been proven that not everyone will crap out on you when you call on them. Yay gardening!

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Let me second mlyn's comment. I'm glad that people are helping you and I hope that they can also help you through this dark time of grief. Believe me - I do understand. When my dear cousin died several years ago, it took over a year before I felt "right" again. But an interesting dream helped me on my path toward acceptance. He was a dance critic for one of the local newspapers and he had been working on a critique of Romeo and Juliet that was printed just a few days before he died. In my dream - months after his death - I dreamed that we saw the ballet together, that he looked well and healthy, in fact, as he had before his illness. When the ballet was over, he kissed me on the cheek and said "I have to go now, I am going home. " Now, I am not a big believer in God or the Goddess; in fact, I don't know what I really believe but this dream gave me such joy. I cried, and I still do when I think if it but in some way, it told me that Eric was "home." I pray to all the Gods and Goddesses that you will find peace and acceptance in your heart and that you will be able (some day) to remember the love and joy. Please don't think that this is just a banal platitude. I'm not negating your grief - just saying while I know the present is full of pain that I hope that it will not always be so.

namaste SF Nancy