Friday, August 03, 2007

Exhausted and Aggravated

So normally I don't rant on my blog, but today I'm going to.

I'm tired of traveling and at the moment, I really hate my job. I have had one full week off the road since the middle of April and that's ridiculous. My allergies keep me sick and my doctor has said there's not a darn thing he can do unless I stay in one place. Allergy shots are geared for the place you live. He can't immunize me for the entire US.

And if that's not bad enough, I had a serious computer malfunction. Wednesday night I got on a roll and finished my first chapter of the new wip I was working on. Since it's the beginning of the story (and something different that what I normally write), I went back and edited and polished. Did all the research that I need to do on names and some historical data. Anyway, long and short - it was about five hours of research. So before I dozed off, I emailed the chapter to Cindy, one of my cp's. Saved it one last time and went to sleep.

Thursday night I get email back from Cindy on the chapter and I'm confused. Some of the things she's bringing up are things I DID do in the chapter. So I open the chapter to see if I can figure out what she's talking about and all of my work from the night before is gone. I mean, totally and absolutely gone. I did a search on my entire pc for all text files and it's simply not there. Not only that, what I emailed to Cindy didn't have any of the changes either.

Now I save about every two sentences when I'm writing, so I simply don't know what happened. And normally, I would save to flash drive, but I was writing in bed and broke my cardinal rule of backup.

So that's it - I lost a full night's worth of work and I was sick. I really, REALLY loved what I had done and I know I will never get it back the way it was again.

So between the exhuastion and losing my work, I didn't know whether to drink or cry. But ultimately, I was too tired to go get alcohol and too tired to cry so I just sat. A couple of hours later, I rewrote the chapter, redid the research and got back to where I was, but I'm not happy with it yet. And who know, maybe I never will be.

All I know is I really want to board and plane and go home. Even though it will only be for a couple of days.

10 comments:

Jaye Wells said...

Not sure what to say that won't seem trite. That totally sucks. I hope you can rest up this weekend and spend some quality time with the hub.

Jana DeLeon said...

Thanks, Jaye. I'm hoping for some quality time too, even though it will be short. And maybe I'll get happy with the chapter again. Maybe.

Anonymous said...

*hugs* sweetie.

Just to change the subject, I thought about you last night because our local news had a story about the new alligator hunting season starting up here in Arkansas soon. *g* Frankly, I can't see why you'd WANT to, but obviously somebody wants to go hunting gators.

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi tori - well, I knew a guy in college who hunted gator during the appropriate season and made about 70k in two months time. Then he took the rest of the year to attend school. The meat and the skins are worth some money if you kill them right. And it's really good to eat. :)

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

Hey Jana, sorry about everything! It's tough when you feel lousy and I hate to lose work too! I hope you get to go home soon. :) :)

Jana DeLeon said...

hi kelly - I just landed at the airport - only six hours in transit (yuck).

Jae Arronson said...

I'm so sorry, Jana. So sorry. Being on the road all the time, being sick most of the time - that's all bad. But losing work you were really happy with - that's horrible. I hope you've gotten some rest over the weekend and that next week will be better. And I hope you get that chapter back to where you love it again. Thinking of you...

Jana DeLeon said...

Thanks, sassy! I've rewritten the chapter - not quite delirious yet but I'm working on it. It was definitely the worst part of the week.

Dona Sarkar-Mishra said...

Hugs, I'm sorry girl!

You're still pretty though (does that help any) =)

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi dona - well, if being pretty would sell books (or write them), it might help. :)

 
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