This has been a stressful week for many reasons. I had several design projects that clients wanted wrapped up and finished after months of not hearing from them. So Monday was spent struggling with that, a long day hunched over the computer keyboard in my less-than-ergonomic desk chair, which is now partly broken and pinches my leg every time I sit. This day culminated in a migraine that wouldn't quit.
Tuesday was client work in the morning then a luncheon for Equal Pay Day at a local restaurant, which was fun. But by the time I got home it was 2:30, I hadn't eaten because of my strict and ridiculous diet regulations, and I had another headache.
Wednesday I wrangled with a client all day and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why he had hired me to help. Basically all he wanted me to do was interpret his ideas onto paper, all of my creative ideas were rejected in favor of something lined up and centered on the page, something his high school kid could have done for him. I quickly dubbed the day Cranky Wednesday, because I was in no mood for games.
The high point for the week, however was receiving a voice mail that showed up on my phone from the weekend. I have this issue with AT&T, sometimes messages get "hung" somewhere. I have no idea, and it is days before I get them. My mom tells me "seems like this just happens every time I leave you a message." "No, mom, it's not JUST your messages. It happens all the time."
Anyway, the message was from a man who I interviewed while writing a story that had been assigned to me by our local paper, The Franklin Favorite. I write for them as a stringer reporter and while it doesn't pay the mortgage, I love it and I am getting paid to write. That's a first for me, and my piggy bank likes the small donations. The part I love most is that I get to meet all kinds of interesting, wonderful, and amazing local people when I go out to do these interviews. This particular man was hesitant about being interviewed from the start. I finally got him to give me an appointment, and my friend Amy (photojournalist extraordinaire) went with me to meet him and take pictures.
He requested that I send a copy of the story to him to "approve" which I did. Apparently he called me over the weekend, and left a message along the lines of "you are an idiot and suck as a writer, how embarrassing for you". Well, ok, not exactly that. But he refused to approve the story, and rather than just saying that told me that my writing was "unreadable and circuitous, historically inaccurate, and just plain wrong."
Now, the thing is y'all? I have been through design school. I am a 43 year old woman, I can take criticism. If you tell me a sentence uses the wrong verb tense or that I run on too much or sometimes use my punctuation incorrectly, I will say "yeah, I did, I will fix it." But to say something like this to me. Y'all, it was just plain mean. And meant to hurt my feelings. And I do NOT like that. It was personal. And it hurt my feelings.
But the best thing is that I had been chronicling my Cranky Wednesday on Twitter. So of course I posted about this as the capper to my day.
TinfoilMagnolia Marsha Herndon
And the capper on my day? Just got v/m from a guy I interviewed last week saying how sucky and unintelligible my story was.#crankywednesday
By the time I was finished crying on hubby's shoulder I logged in to find these in my Twitter stream:
@TinfoilMagnolia tell him that it was maybe just his life that was that way and not your story...
@Tinfoilmagnolia tell that jagoff hating the media is so 2005
@
@TinfoilMagnolia what an ungrateful jerk he was.
Through my tears, I immediately had to laugh and smile at these folks. Only one of the three have I actually met in real life. The other two are 100 Word Challenge buddies. They don't know me except online, but they totally had my back. Wow. How much do I love that?
Just to be fair, my real life friends took up for me as well. I spoke to friend Amy and apparently the man claimed to the paper's editor that I made up stuff in the article that he actually told me and thank goodness she was there to say "Yes, you did say that. I was there." She told the editor that everything I wrote was accurate according to what he told me that day and the editor stood up for me and had my back. Thanks, Amy and Charlie.
This is what life is about, guys. Things don't always go our way, do they? Maybe my story did suck, I am a novice after all. Maybe he just thought that I would write some sort of Architectural Digest article with complete historical documentation from 1901 until present. I don't know. I just think it was thoughtless and mean to say those things to me. But I love the fact that I have friends who stick up for me.
Friday I attended a writing workshop locally and my creative batteries are again charged up, I need to be able to do that kind of thing more often. You know I listened to one of the speakers, Ad Hudler, and realized that life isn't always what we expect it to be. Or want it to be. Sometimes we ourselves aren't what we want to be. Sometimes our own actions surprise and disappoint us. All we can do is just move on and keep living life. Thanks, Ad for your perspective on this.
I have friends who take up for me, whether I am right or wrong. And I have friends who call me on it when I am wrong, telling me to snap out of it. That's what I love about life. Everything, everyone we need is right here. We just need to reach out for it.
My week ended with some really really good news, and some really bad news. Neither of which I can talk about here right now. But when I can, I will. Because the best support you can have in life is that of the people who care and love you.
My wife and I think the word of you and Mitch. If we lived near each other we would be great friends.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry you had abad week. Constructive criticism is great. Mean spiritedness is inexcusable.
Thank you for reading my stuff and your great comments. They inspire me to keep going.
Cake, thank you for the comments, we feel the same about you two! We were just talking about it the other day.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all your great encouragement as well. So glad out paths crossed.