EYEHEARTZOMBIES

No, I’m not dead. Not even close. Yeah, the usual excuses apply. You’re used to them by now, though, so don’t have to tell you about the deadline last week. Or the new video games that are taking up my time ( Ghost Recon 2 is freakin’ addictive). I guess I don’t really have much else to tell you about, then. Wow, that really destroys my posting ability.

OK, I guess I’ll tell you anyway. Last week was the never-ending deadline. On Monday last week I get notice that I’m supposed to create a full-page ad for another paper for one of our clients. Wouldn’t have been a big deal if it wasn’t deadline week and the ad wasn’t due that day. But, it was a big client that we need/want to keep happy so I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Oh, and I had no usable source files to build the ad from at first. I think they were finally emailed to me around 4 pm or so and I finished the ad around 6:30. That was on Valentine’s Day, so that was a bit of a let-down. Elaine and I came home and spent the evening together not really doing anything.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we got into work around the normal time and left between 8 and 10 pm. That’s pretty late for non-deadline nights but it helped us get some important stuff done. We probably would have been there a lot longer on Wednesday (we had packed for it even) but Elaine had come down with that cold/flu that seems to be hitting people at random. It’s like sharpnel or something, attacking at random. She was sick Wednesday through Sunday or so, but she’s feeling better now.

Thursday I went in by myself at 10 am and the other designer that helps out part time and I spent the whole day in a mad panic to get stuff finished. I left around midnight to get Elaine ’cause she was lonely and I wanted out of the office for awhile. We got back to work around 2 am and that’s when I got sick. I spent the next three hours alternating between the work computer and dry heaving in the bathroom. My stomach and back muscles are back to normal now, but it took a few days. I went home at 5, leaving the last edits in our assistant’s hands.

She calls us around noon on Friday and has a few problems. I walk her through ‘em on the phone then pass out again. Things are worse when she calls again at 2, so I go take a shower and go into work, dropping Elaine and Poly off at her mom’s beforehand. See? We’re not completely stupid. It’s faster to drive from work to her mom’s than from work to home, and I knew I was going to be there for a long time, so I didn’t want any crazy drive in front of me.

Get to work at 5 and there are still several pages to finish. Our assistant and I trade back and forth on the computer until a little after 1 or 1:30 am, when everything is finally finished. She and the boss leave for the night and I sit there for another 3 hours collecting the last two sections (12 pages each this time) and sending them to the printer. I got back to my mom-in-law’s around 4 in the morning (Tulsa is actually nice to drive through at the time of night. Especially when it’s misty out) and I ate the first food I had had (other than a Coke and some Red Hots) since around 5 pm on Wednesday.

See, I have this nasty habit/condition. If I’m stressed, I can’t eat. If I’m tired, I can’t eat. If I’m in a rush, I can’t eat. What happens if I do eat? You don’t want to see. I get very sick. So, during deadline which is a rush and a lot of stress, I don’t eat. And, as deadline typically goes for a day or two, I get tired, too. Wow, look, all three symptoms in one convenient activity. Anyway, I ate a few bites of microwaved chicken strip and a biscuit before going to bed around 5 am.

I work up about 3 pm, just in time to see Elaine and her mom off to some garden exhibit in Tulsa. I spent the day dicking around with some HTML for Ray and just surfing the web at excruciating dial-up speeds.

The weekend, what was left of it, was pretty ordinary. I decided to treat myself after the deadline and I picked up a couple of new Xbox games. I’ll write more on them later ( Ghost Recon 2, Mechassault: Lone Wolf, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2) after I have a chance to more thoroughly play them.

Anyway, we have had some excitement this week, but I’ll leave that to Elaine to tell you about. As for me, it’s just more of the same laziness and procrastination that you’re all so used to. I have finally nailed down some more ideas for the redesign, but they may end up on another site. We’ll see. I keep thinking about bringing the MP3 of the Week back, so maybe that’ll give me something to make myself do soon.