Talk about down to the wire! Here it is, days until Christmas, and two projects that have been hanging over me for weeks — preventing me from sneaking out and getting my Christmas shopping done — are FINALLY done.
One was a summary of a three-year project. I had interviews with about six people over a couple of weeks, pressure to reach certain ones by a certain date, and eight pages of notes to turn into a readable account for an employee newsletter. I had some of the article done by Monday morning, and vowed, “Today I am FINISHING this article!” And I did! I knew the first draft of 1,400 words was too long so checked how many words I could have. Early answer: 500 to 600. Oh, ha, ha. I wrestled it down to around 900 words and negotiated 500 words on the front page and a continuation inside. Phew.
Project two: I’ve been trying to reach this fellow since November 21 — yes, four weeks of phone calls and e-mails to various people trying to pin down an elusive interview for an online employee newsletter. Original optimistic deadline was December 1. I finally got time with him: yesterday, when I secretly didn’t even want to talk to him any more. You’ll be happy to know I was professional about it and worked on it much of yesterday, vowing again this morning, “Today I am FINISHING this article!” Only six pages of notes this time but no less tricky trying to fit in all the facts and interesting comments. I’ve passed the draft along, and although there will likely be some back-and-forth activity, the heavy lifting is done.
Now if only Son#1 wasn’t out in my car, doing HIS Christmas shopping, I might be able to sneak out and finish that too. Sigh.
