The past month

It's been about a month since I really posted, and here's why - the last four weeks were four weeks from hell.

I had ten videos due on Friday, May 18. These were hefty, hour-long videos of Utah classroom lessons. I honestly have a lot more respect for TV and movie editors now, especially TV editors. Turning out that much material that quickly? Crazy.

The weekend before they were due I took a wonderful trip to LA to see my brother Danny graduate from dental school - yay, Danny! Though the trip was tons of fun, it put me back a couple of days on my work. Then, as luck would have it, I caught the stomach flu and spent all Wednesday morning vomiting. Fun stuff. But I had to finish the videos, so I went in to work in the afternoon. Stupid, I know, but remember I'm the girl who has only ever gotten one B in my life. With the help of Jack, one of the other editors, and a really long Wednesday and Thursday at work, I had all of the videos ready by Friday morning - a miracle in itself. However, I had neglected to account for how long each would take to export (hey, I'm still a relatively inexperienced editor). Each program was going to take about 6 hours to export. So I was looking at 60+ hours of export time, and they needed to be done by 4:00 PM. It was completely my fault that I has underestimated the time it would take. I seriously almost passed out, i was so stressed and still reeling from my flu. I went out into my car and cried. I just felt so awful that we were going to miss the deadline. My wonderful co-workers calmed me down and some lent me their computers for the day - I had commandeered five by mid-morning and was exporting like a possessed fiend. But even with all the computers going, the videos wouldn't been done until Saturday morning. I sheepishly told my producer, and she talked to the client who then said he would be willing to pick them up Saturday - miracle of miracles! So Saturday morning I drove on down to work and delivered the videos. Then I went home and collapsed. Due to my diet of strictly oatmeal, the vomiting, and the stress, I lost 5 pounds that week.

Those videos were only the beginning. I had 12 - yes, 12 - more hour-long videos due the following Friday. Just five work days away. And I had not started on any of them. Insert panicked scream here. It felt like the worst finals week I have ever had. The worst part that it wasn't just me I was affecting - it was the entire company. Yikes. So I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday pulling 12 hour days and exporting overnight. No more last minute exports this time. All I did was sleep and edit, and there wasn't much sleeping. I gained back all five ponds lost the previous week.

Thursday came and I felt pretty confident that, with Jack's help and a long day on Thursday, I would have them all done Friday. I mentioned this to my producer and she informed me that I needed them by Thursday...of the next week. Wow. I had a whole week left to finish the videos! I was actually even ahead! I wanted to laugh and cry, I was so happy. And actually I was frustrated too because I had spent all those long hours the days before. But mostly I was happy. Friday was a much more relaxed day, and I actually had a weekend. It was lovely.

I turned in the 12 videos on Thursday and asked for the day off on Friday because of all the extra hours I'd accumulated the week before. It was a good thing I stayed home on Friday too because I contracted a rather miserable cold. I would've preferred to spend my day off doing something more fun than lying in bed all day watching Alias (my new TV show I'm catching up on), but you take what you get. And I lost five ponds again with this latest illness. I've never been so sick so frequently in my life.

During these four weeks I was also trying to figure out loan stuff for school, register for classes (which I still haven't done and it's making me anxious), get back in shape, and prepare to go through the temple for my endowment. It's been a rough month. So I rewarded myself with an iPad, from which I am writing this post. Pretty great reward, I think. And yes, these weeks have been difficult. But seriously, my life is a cake walk compared to so many other people's lives. If all I have to worry about is meeting work deadlines and which classes to take, then I'm in pretty good shape. Sometimes it's hard to see that when you're in the midst of what feels like hell.