Where's Radzer?

[radegund]

Scuse me. Fell off the planet there for a bit.

Since I last posted, I have mostly been

(a) wheezing and snuffling;
(b) voting and lamenting;
(c) scheduling and laughing.

For (a) it is hay fever season. Oho yes. I mean, I don't mind plants having sex, but must they do it right in our faces? This, says my doctor, is a particularly bad year for pollen - the weather, although lovely, doesn't help - and I've been suffering more than somewhat. I fucking hate being, to all intents and purposes, allergic to air. It wasn't too bad to start with, but whatever's been strutting its funky stuff over the past week is particularly pernicious to my tender tissues. Any other year, I would've gritted my teeth by this stage and reached for the antihistamines (which, although I detest them, do get the job done), but they're contraindicated in pregnancy. So I'm guzzling Nelson's Pollenna. And streaming. And itching. And wheezing like a creaky door. And breathing, much of the time, with a rather alarming sort of bubbly rattle. And coughing those horrible muffled coughs that do nothing to clear anything but hurt the head and leave a metallic bloody aftertaste at the back of the throat. Lovely.

For (b) we have (in my humble opinion) needlessly, heedlessly and over-hastily voted away our inclusive citizenship provisions, on the basis of government disinformation, spurious factoids, irrelevant arguments and ever less apologetic racism. Others have spoken far more eloquently than I can about this, so I won't say more than to note that I woke up on Sunday morning with a heavy feeling in my stomach, as though this were less my country than it had been on Friday. The comprehensive sickening of Fianna Fáil in the local and European elections mitigates a little, granted, but even that is offset by the worrying strides of the Shinners.

For (c) I have a grand total of twenty-eight (28) working days left before I go on maternity leave, and the number of things that need to be done in that time is truly daunting. Hence, I've been scheduling, and then laughing at how impossible the task before me is. Meanwhile, our best freelancer has declared her unavailability for work this summer on the grounds that she's aiming to submit her PhD thesis in August (and more power to her, obviously, but it's a blow to lose her), the person we were on the point of hiring on a bacon-saving short-term contract has been offered another job, and my colleague whose career break ends in August probably won't be coming back after all (but we may not know for certain until mid-July). Anyone know of an excellent copy-editor, with experience of academic material, based in Dublin and at a loose end for the next six months? Any idea how one would go about finding such a beast? (puritybrown and barsine, I'm looking at you...)

And yet, you note, I have time to update my LJ. Well, I got bogged down in a densely written archaeology paper, found myself staring at the same paragraph for the third time and decided I needed a break. What can I say?

Comments

[ainetl.livejournal.com]

must be difficult with the allergies and not able to take anything. hope you are feeling better soon.

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

glitzfrau sent me! First to say, "Hi!" So, "Hi! Again! We met at the concert - I was the American woman in the dirty yellow raincoat."

She had shared your a bit of your post above, "For (a) it is hay fever season. Oho yes. I mean, I don't mind plants having sex, but must they do it right in our faces?" A brilliant observation and one I think would be fun to be able to quote in a short story (of fiction) I'm working on.

May I?

If it turns out I use the quote, I'm not sure how I'll credit you... well, we can talk about that, e-mail me if you like, the address is on my user page.

Thanks in advance!

Crazy(and not much liking the pollen, either)Soph

[barsine.livejournal.com]

Hello! I was away until this morning. My former boss (TQ to you) and a former workmate from another Irish publishing company are both taking freelance work if that's any help to you?

[radegund.livejournal.com]

You might try asking my parents

I might indeed. But I have a few more specific leads to follow up, which may bear fruit.

When does the job become available?

Oh, about a month ago... :-) Basically, whenever we find someone suitable. Why - you interested? (Part-time is also a possibility.)

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yes, it's tough, I must admit, on top of everything else!

[radegund.livejournal.com]

May I?

Sure, go ahead.

Not sure how one would go about crediting someone in a short story. It might seem a bit precious. And anyway, what happened to "artists steal"? :-) I'd like to read the story when it's finished, though.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Could well be - thanks. I may e-mail you for contact details...

[*checks user info page*]

...if I can find an address. Care to divulge?

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Will make sure I arrange this. Since my main character is going to be housebound because of her allergies, it might just be that she reads it on-line... that might not be an exact credit, but you and I (and a few select others, *chuckle*) will know the original source of that line.

I figured, "artists' steal" would have applied only if you weren't so conveniently consult-able.

Crazy(now, must really knuckle down to drafting that questionnaire for my story's research...)Soph

[barsine.livejournal.com]

I'll mail it to you!