Pins and Needles

There were a pile of student papers to read, correct, grade, okay, not really a pile since they turn them in via e-mail. Maybe a mailbox full. Instead, I worked on my reviews. Though I am known for getting student papers back within a couple of days, these were mostly freshmen paper and they are not familiar with my work habits yet, so I had some leeway. I just sent in my reviews for Frommers: hotel, restaurant, museum. Only the first two were requested, but I am anal retentive at times. I thought the third would be an opportunity to say, "Hey, I am an overachiever." The deadline was May 7th, but I thought sending them in today would show my seriousness about deadlines. It should be of importance to an editor. The guidelines for writing the reviews was 35 pages long and I pored over them again and again. They have strict requirements for the formating, which took as much time as the rest. The fonts and sizes are different for various parts of one review and there are codes that need to be implanted here and there. It took me two days to write the 250 word review, having edited it again and again. I made mention of this when I sent them in to give him the idea that I do take this seriously, but at the same time will take direction for editing and rewriting. I also mentioned that the hotel was quite adamant about not being helpful, but after charming three people, I got my way. This was to show my tenacity, hopefully. The guide emphasized using humor, so I tried to instill some in my note as well as with the reviews. As soon as I hit the 'Send' button propelling them into cyberspace, I had misgivings about what I wrote, how I wrote it, life in general, my purpose on earth, and the beat goes on.

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