An irreverent, inclusive, alternative parenting community

Odious Tasks... and Silver Linings

I thought it would be nice to share something that we're dreading and/or putting off doing this weekend, and then, for balance, something we have to look forward to. Here's mine:

I've been dragging my heels for weeks on editing this thesis chapter for publication in a book. The editor sent me her comments and there are so many, and many of which make me think she read it only sentence by sentence and didn't stop to think that paragraphs actually relate to each other. That or I'm just a really crappy writer. Gah. So this weekend my project is to deal with each of these edits one by one and emerge with a completely publishing-ready piece of work.

The positive thing is that my deadline coincides with my departure for vacation this coming Thursday (although I'll have another thing to work on while I'm there). I can't wait to experience beaches and sea breezes. We're going to Eastern Canada to spend time with family, and for me to be a bit of a recluse, truth be told.

What are you dreading and looking forward to?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Boring User Name on June 30, 2012 at 9:58pm

Well, I just this evening completed my odious task. I needed to re-arrange the kitchen a bit. The cabinets needed a bit of help to accommodate things like baby bottles and I wanted to move to storage things like the roasting pan that we never use. I almost had that project completed when my spouse said, "Why don't you do the fridge, too, like you keep saying you want to do? If you stay up late, you can sleep it and I'll take the morning shift?" So, I did. Beyond getting rid of old and gross things, I rearranged the shelves to create more things at eye level. In other words, the shelf that is at eye level is really short because you can see everything anyway. And the shelf below eye level has extra space so that you can see almost to the back now.

Theoretically the silver lining in all of that is less wasted food and more healthy snacking. We'll see if it works.

[Vacation is a much better silver lining, though. And your more odious task even sounds more interesting. All of which reminds me of my next odious task: update the resume and get a job!]

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on July 1, 2012 at 12:44pm

GG, responding to editor's comments always sucks. Always. The only thing I can do is make a list and start down it while cursing and muttering the whole time.

I feel like this week has largely been tasks like this, as comes with moving and buying a fixer upper house. I suspect there will be years of these kinds of things ahead. Today I need to finish recovering the dining room chairs and spray them with Scotch Guard. Recovering them is a pain, made worse by my mother-in-laws attempts to "help" (she cut all the fabric too small). But they're gross because they had cream colored fabric and the small person constantly put his hands down on them while eating.

What I'm looking forward is going back to work tomorrow. I have a lot of stuff to get done in July and haven't been able to do any work for the last two weeks.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Zealflyer on July 1, 2012 at 7:37pm

Well, we're kind of out of the weekend now, but I'll just carry this into the week. Totally dreading: finishing painting the porch. I did one coat of red paint on the porch last summer and it has looked like crap since then (turns out that one coat of red paint is worse than no paint at all.) So I have sworn to finish it before I go to the cabin next week and have been doing a little bit every night despite the fact that it has been so stinking hot.

Something that I'm looking forward to: going out to the lake and having the summer off work. I know that I'm putting the lack of running water and the smallness of the cabin out of my mind. But with it being hot and sticky in the city right now, the lake just sounds so good.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by G.G. on July 10, 2012 at 8:15am

I hope you finished it all and came out with a nice shiny piece of work :)

I think you're already back from your trip - which I hope was fantastic.

Odious tasks... the list is long and mighty here... mostly to do with school registration bullshit, dental work and cleaning the house. Today is the dental appt... so I may give myself a break until Friday on the rest.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by hermit crab on July 10, 2012 at 1:15pm

We have the classic odious task and silver lining: selling a house that nobody wants (yet! Yet!) and buying a house we're so so sosososo excited about. Well, it's not that nobody wants our house exactly -- more like they don't feel like paying anything close to what we'd like. We're going to be losing a whole lot of cash on it because we bought it in 2006. Alas. Odious task is really getting used to dealing with that, I guess.

However, silver lining is so silver and wonderful that I think we'll be forgetting the pain of the financial loss pretty quickly. That is the major value of moving to a much less expensive area, for sure.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by guinnessgoddess on July 10, 2012 at 4:47pm

I just submitted the article. I have lost all sense of whether it's awesome or crap. Sigh. But it's done, and only after working on it for 3 hours a day since I started my vacation. Still 8 days left of vacation to go! Now is the time I decide whether to shoot for another publication deadline for July 15 or just forget it and enjoy vacation.

I also realized that the issue I've been having is just an ultra-sensitive mouse in the case of this computer: I've lost a ton of e-mails and other things that I'd almost finished, and it keeps coasting me "back" several pages whenever I try to look on my facebook newsfeed. Aggravating. The same annoying issue is happening with my mouse on my laptop. I know how to make that one a bit less sensitive at least. So the problem is not with something on this site: it's just annoying touch technology, which I hate! Hate hate hat. Hope all of your odious tasks are near completion.