Thursday, December 27, 2007

Disease, Messes and Journal Rejections

We watched the girls yesterday after Little One spent the night on Christmas. I spent 3 miserable hours on the couch, trying to find a way to sleep on my tummy with my arms arranged as I require them. Dad, bless him, went to work at 2:15 (yep, AM. No wonder I'm all weird.) and I quickly scampered to Mom and Dad's room to take over a real bed.

Brother called at 9 to inform me that he was bringing Smallest One over then.

"No." I said firmly. "Mom's still at therapy and Little One isn't feeling well either. I've tried three different breakfasts for her - none of which she's eaten - so now Chienne is full of breakfast casserole, scrambled egg and milk from cereal. Smallest One is miserable with her cold and I can't deal with them both at once on my own."

"You'll be fine." Brother said, eager to get to work.

"Really, really, really, really not." I informed him, lowering my voice to let him know I was serious. "You may come over and hang out, but you may not leave - under any circumstances - until Mom gets home."

She did arrive as scheduled, knees aching, but too busy with children to deal with it. We walked and sang and tried desperately to soothe Smallest One. The poor dear is so stuffy and coughs and sneezes and whimpers with pain. It's awful - absolutely hideous. Little One isn't quite so miserable, but she is cranky and out of sorts. We played games and watched movies and scattered new toys around the floor while I sleepily tried to organize into boxes and baggies.

Mom and I sat across the room from each other when Brother arrived yesterday evening to take them home.

"I'm so tired." She said.

"Me too." I sighed, flopping to the couch. "And it's such a mess in here."

"I know." She replied, leaning back to rest her head against the back of the chair.

Today I tried to get some work done. I made it partway through a spreadsheet I'm building and answered some neglected emails. I applied for the industry job I want and winced when Mom called and said I was to report to Brother's house. Little One wanted Aunt Katie and since she'd had to go to the doctor for medicine, she deserved what she wanted. So I put away my laptop and notes (I've finally started keeping my notebook online - it works delightfully well for me!) and drove over.

I returned home - several hours of fetching and carrying, singing and playing later - to get rejected from the journal I really thought would take the work. I was invited to resubmit the work and told it would be assigned new reviewers. I spent the evening rewriting certain sections - taking some text out, reorganizing others, adding to still others. I have one final point to address - one that will take some time and work - but I think it's still strong enough to publish. So I sent it to Boss tonight to ask for advice. We'll see what happens. Any ideas on this resubmit and start from the beginning stuff? I really think the journal choice is good so I hate to abandon it when I can make the paper stronger. But I'm unsure here.

So I'm tired. My throat is sore and I've almost certainly contracted the cold from hell. The clutter has begun to be cleared out - many trips to the garbage and much organizing later - and we had more leftovers for dinner tonight and are starting to see some room in the refrigerator. Tomorrow we have a funeral and more therapy to attend, so the Christmas stuff will have to come down this weekend. The plan is to drive home on Monday. But for now, Chienne is snoring on the couch next to me. I have completed some work, which makes me feel slightly more productive. I'm not overly exhausted right now, though I am looking forward to bedtime. The rejection is weighing me down, but it's not nearly as bad now as it was when this journal rejected my first paper from grad school. So perhaps that's progress. Or maybe a sign that I'd take the industry job and leave all of this behind. I can't quite figure it out right now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

so sorry for the journal rejection and that you are sick too. i hope you get better soon, colds suck.

Mad Hatter said...

You've just been tagged for a meme! :-)

Wayfarer Scientista said...

ooftah. Rejections are hard. I notice though that when everything else is crazy hectic they are less. Good luck getting it in elsewhere. Also, what do you use for your online lab notebook? And one more question based on your comment on my blog: which feed reader do you prefer and why? Hope you get some sleep!!

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