Good Wednesday

Since it has been forever since I blogged anything on this board, I have been getting desperate. Needing to come up with something quick, I hit on the idea of randomly keeping track of what I did during one workday. Here goes.

8:00 a.m. My coat made a clanking noise getting out of the truck. I discovered a left over lunch spoon in a pocket. Yellow stuff has dried on it. I don’t have anything to eat with today. I’m going to use it (after a little scrubbing.)

8:49 a.m. Presently, my computer is the platform for an Adobe Acrobat war between Acrobat 5.0 and 7.05. Neither of them wants to install completely, so that .pdf files are automatically assigned to them. Well, 5.0 is a little more aggressive in this respect. Both reinstall every time I use them.

9:15 a.m. Finished readying the troops for the reception and sending-to-proof for a long overdue manuscript. The similarities between being an editor and playing dodge ball didn’t occur to me until just now. Watching various employees sign on to AIM (AOL’s instant messenger client, which many of us use as a form of inter-cubal communication.), and sending “Good Mornings” because I can.

9:20 a.m. Noticed the emissions report for my truck. I’d stuck it in my pocket to leave in the glove box. Funny that a state with more smokers per capita than I’ve seen in over a decade (most of them women) is so interested in emissions testing.

10:20 a.m. Dad called & we have a great discussion about influence and mission in the workplace. I’d mentioned the book Lead Like Jesus, and picked up a copy from our display shelves on the way to the production meeting. I also resolved to finish Barna’s Revolution and blog about it as soon as possible.

11:15 a.m. The administrator of type reading gave me some pointers on how to read the production schedule – quite helpful! Then we commiserated on the difficulties of converting data into XML.

11:45 a.m. Reading blog comments on George Barna’s silly little book. More a holiness tract than a legitimate sociological investigation, and with less scriptural argumentation!

12:35 p.m. Eating lunch at my desk due to the realization that I have three manuscripts to read in the next five days. Broccoli and pork tenderloins in a teriyaki sauce. (I found plastic utensils.)

12:58 p.m. Scribbling a hasty to-do on the back of a stray piece of paper while sorting out my Outlook tasks. I task everything!

2:00 p.m. Editing a foreword to a manuscript. I’ve spent an hour checking silly things like whether to capitalize “rock” as in rock music, and verifying the rules for placing commas after introductory phrases. Wishing I had a few days to do an intensive seminar on the Chicago Manual of Style.

2:49 p.m. A friend of mine and I stop to consider patience as the outcome of submission to the provident care of God. A refreshing thought given the list of to-do’s.

3:28 p.m. I just remembered that my oil pressure gauge was dangerously low this morning. Speed demands I reduce my usual standards, so I Yahoo yellow pages a Jiffy Lube and give them a call. I have plenty of manuscripts to read. Maybe, as L. said to me once, they will give me a flower. (It’s an inside joke.)

3: 45 p.m. Deleting Adobe 5.0.

3:53 p.m. Wrote a “thank you” to some friends for a gift which proves quite useful here on the job.

4:01 p.m. Updated the Outlook tasks list to reflect progress & add deadlines on new projects. Began reading a manuscript per an acquisition editor’s request for a “theological read.”

4:07 p.m. L. calls, tired and out of it, too much unpacking too many days in a row. I’d be tired, too. I feel sympathetic and tell her so.

4:10 p.m. I leave to get the truck’s oil changed. The truck alarm is set off during the process two times. I try and get through some of the opening remarks in February’s First Things and pay attention to overhead CNN commentary on the State of Union address at the same time. A guy named Alan Mittleman writes: “Paul and his theological descendants describe a Judaism that Jews cannot recognize.” Well, the temple and its sacrifices were still standing when Paul was alive, so that makes sense. Jamnia was still a long time coming.

5: 15 p.m. I make it home at seemingly the speed of light. The President was at the Opry, and they shut down Briley Parkway so that must have redirected much of the traffic that keeps me sitting between 5 and 6 p.m. Wouldn’t you know, I left that emissions report at the office.