Stay safe and warm, everyone getting a storm today.

Steph, can you send her the revised proof, ask her the questions again, and inform her the paper cannot be published until you receive responses to all the queries? That's what I do with these snippity authors. I get a lot of them.

She replied this morning saying "I am out of the office this week (as well you know), and you are making it impossible for me to complete this task while taking vacation time to care for my sick family. I cannot answer your questions without a copy of my extensive edits."

So, (1) I didn't know she was out of the office, because her email didn't bounce back with an OOO message; (2) I'm sorry her family is sick but maybe I should get to be even shittier to her in return since my cousin fucking DIED on Tuesday; (3) she doesn't actually need a copy of her changes to answer 4 simple questions; and (4) if her changes are so frigging important, why didn't SHE keep a copy?

Good god. So I did, of course, send a copy of the PDF with all her changes, but I want to punch her so hard. I have never, EVER had an author be this difficult, and I'm sorry her family is sick, but OH MY GOD.

Maybe her family is just sick of her?

My boss said "Now we know why she's so stressed," and the thing is, I think the author is just a shitty person all the way around. It's too bad her family is sick, but that's no reason to act like a whiny entitled petulant jerk in every single interaction with us. I think she's always like this, because adults can manage to act professional even when they're under stress. Give me a fucking break.

I'll stick everything in the fridge outside!

It's the way of my ancestors. You could make traditional pelmini! The recipes all end with "put outside to freeze".

Some authors are just jerks, I guess. I don't suppose "maybe we should wait until you are back in the office to publish this" is a permissable response.

I'm in that weird limbo time where husband thinks the interview went well, but we're waiting to hear back, but we still want to plan a bit in case things happen fast, but we don't want to plan too much and then have all of the planning be for nothing, but you still can't help thinking what if.

It's exhausting.

Holy crap. Bus service is suspended midnight until Monday morning. (I'd heard they were going to stop @ 5, but apparently not.)

All my damned devices are going batshit with alerts.

Hey, everything just caught up to me all at once. Woo.

Work has BLOWN this week (not just the horrible authors from hell, but also my boss has been diligently sending me feedback of all my errors -- stupid, tiny shit, like hyphens, and every time my inbox pings I want to punch the screen, because -- HYPHENS??? really???). We still don't know if Tim has rheumatoid arthritis or gout. And I'm actually doing a terrible job at handling the fact that my cousin died (she was, as it turns out, only 8 months younger than me, which freaks me out HARD).

I would take an Ativan at this point, because yeah, I am a hot mess, but I have work that I have to turn in by a certain time, and Ativan would make me fall asleep because I'm already sleepy. So I'm drinking more coffee to try to counteract the existing sleepiness, but I think it's a bit counterproductive.

And I'm not sure if my teeth hurt from my sinuses being unhappy about this storm coming, or I've been grinding my teeth in my sleep from stress. Or, you know, both.

This week, man. It is ON THE LIST.

And I texted my brother to tell him all that, and if he replies that I should meditate, I am going to get on a plane, fly to Colorado, and kick him in the shins.

Definitely kick him in the shins. Maybe you could outsource to your SIL? As a proxy?

I need to do some work, and figure out what I'm packing for this dance weekend, and then drive to Vancouver with some straight boys. Um.

Her sick family may be why she's stressed, but it's not the reason she's being a dick.

HYPHENS??? really???

um, sorry. I apologize on behalf of hyphen-aware editors everywhere. There are probably people in India right now screaming, "HYPHENS??? really???" at my edits too. I've relaxed on the hyphens a lot lately, though, I swear.

And I'm actually doing a terrible job at handling the fact that my cousin died

I hear you. I did a terrible job handling Ginger's death. She was only a couple years older than my sister and that's freaking me out now as I write it.