Saturday, August 27, 2011

Sucky Days and Campaigns


Friday was just one of those days. I'm usually an "up" person, and I'm old enough to have confidence in myself as a person and in my abilities specifically. The week had been crazy at work with a city council meeting on Tuesday and my first poll worker training on Thursday.

Elections are always a little nuts; it's the nature of the beast. I know some recorders who don't live in the communities they work for, and they say it can be easier because they're not so emotionally involved in the campaign issues. However, I am a resident, and I am emotionally involved. But I can't be involved anywhere but inside my head because I'm also a city employee and the election official. *sigh*

So that sets up my mood on Friday. I hadn't slept well earlier in the week, so I was tired. I'd finished the line critique for WIP #1 with my edits earlier in the week, and I'd started reading it to hubby Thursday night.

The changes sucked.

Not the suggestions. The way I fixed them. So I'm going to have to fix them some more. More than a little bit. How could I have messed up all those great ideas?

The next thing was an email from a peer asking if one of my candidates had really called someone a "witch" in the voter information pamphlet that began hitting homes on Friday. I rushed to the original document and, yep, the word "witch" was there. It should have said "which" but somehow I'd missed it even though I'd read the dang thing several times (as had other people, but it's my responsibility).

The thing that hit the hardest was the email received from one of the poll workers about the training the day before detailing all the ways it had confused the attendee, had sent him home with more questions than he'd come with. You know, the training I'd spent two weeks working on. The one that I'd thought through, agonized over, and fretted about.

Epic fail!

The email included good feedback because I sincerely want the training to be useful. The timing sucked, though. It felt like confirmation that I was a waste of space.

I posted on Facebook after I read the email:

This is one of those days where I feel my children were right. I really am the stupidest person God put on the earth. What am I thinking?
I felt like a failure on so many levels.

It's interesting how a few negative things can hit you when you're already feeling a little tired. I was already dragging and ready for the weekend. Suddenly I was spiraling down, down, down.

Though, I have to admit that everyone in my office did have a good laugh over the "witch" remark once I got over it and told them about it. I wonder how many of the 20,000+ homes that flier went out to will catch it. lol

My deputy was off on Friday, and she's always got great suggestions, so I'll bounce some ideas off her to see what we can do to improve the training before the next session on the 30th.

Perhaps the best thing came last night as I continued reading WIP #1 to hubby. I liked the section we were in much better than the ones I'd read to him the night before. It was a salve to my wounds. Maybe there was hope after all.

Campaigns
Click here for details
I've got a lot of blogging friends who've decide to participate in Rachael Harrie's Campaign and have encouraged me to do so. I've met such wonderful people in other events, I gave in. As Rach says in her post:
Length of the Campaign

This Campaign will run from August 22nd to October 31st. I'll be closing the List of Campaigners on August 31st, so join up before then if you want to come on board!

Organized Campaign Events

During the Campaign, I'll be running Campaigner Challenges and the Campaigner Notice-Board. Other than that, go for your life! I've set up a Campaigner Yahoo Group here, for you to chat among yourselves, and there'll be lots of Twitter-talk at #writecampaign.

Mark these dates in your diary now:

  1. First Campaigner Challenge - Monday, September 5
  2. Second Campaigner Challenge - Thursday, September 22
  3. Third Campaigner Challenge - Monday, October 17

So, what about you? What are you up to this weekend? I hope I'm finally going to get see the movie The Help.

23 comments:

  1. Sorry about the sucky day. The good news is next week will probably look a whole lot better in comparison. :)

    I too succumbed to the Campaign. Didn't want people having all that fun without me.

    And, um, is that guy really waist deep in that elephant's backend? Wow.

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  2. Yuck! I hate to hear that you've had a bad week. I guess things like that help us appreciate when things do go right. (They're never fun to experience, though!) Here's to hoping this weekend is better. :)

    P.S. Those first two pictures are precious. The last one, not so much, but that's to be expected. *grins*

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  3. I'm sorry you had a sucky day, but at least you aren't that guy in the photo! I'm doing the Campaign too. I'm excited and a little nervous.

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  4. Sucky days are always better in retrospect... no avoiding the lessons they teach, but most of all, they help you enjoy those days of lemonade in the shade. Hope it's better next week.

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  5. I'm sorry to hear you had a sucky day. :(

    I joined the Campaign, too! Looking forward to Campaigning with you.

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  6. Oh my goodness.. what a crazy week. I feel for you. I really do. I hope you enjoy the weekend and enjoy watching THE HELP! I just finished the book and I can't wait to see the movie! I hear great things! Hang in there!

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  7. One good thing about your week...it's over! I too will be joining you on the campaign. Doubt we're in the same group, but we can commiserate together.

    I haven't been that close to an elephant's back end, but I did have the circulation in my arm cut off while palpating a heifer in Ag class. Teacher nearly lost his watch. :) hehe, made you smile.

    Melanie

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  8. I had one of those days yesterday, but hey 24 hours later I feel great,

    Yvonne.

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  9. Sorry you've been having a hard time, Donna! I hate those days. Sending happy thoughts your way....

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  10. That's too bad that so many things seemed to be going wrong at the same time. Hope things are looking up now on all fronts. I was planning to join the campaign, which sounds terrific, but my husband and I are going to be traveling on two of those challenge dates, and it would be hard to keep up. Maybe next time.

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  11. Sad truth - I bet hardly anyone noticed it was misspelled.
    And yes, the guy in the elephant's butt has a far worse job.

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  12. Sorry you had such a bad day. They can really weigh on you. Hopefully today has been a better one for you.

    Try not to be so hard on yourself, Donna. Maybe I should try taking my own advice, lol. *hugs*

    p.s. You bought a big smile to my face with "Which Witch." I had that game as a kid and had forgotten all about it! Thx!

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  13. It's odd how those little things that we'd normally brush off can gang up on us when we're not feeling 100%.

    Looks like you were able to find the silver linings to those sucky things, though, witch is half the battle, after all ;)

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  14. Welcome to the sucky-day-club. For some reason, I can't seem to escape it this week.

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  15. Here's hoping for a much better week this week! You definitely deserve a break after last week!

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  16. Cheer up-deep down I hope you know you're awesome. Come on. Fess up!
    That elephant picture is soooo gross.
    Yikes. The person who made that typo must have had a 'freudian' slip. Is she kind of witchy?

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  17. You know, it always seems like when it rains it pours - all on the same day. Sorry it was a bad day for you and here's to much better days ahead!

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  18. Ah yes, in the end there is always hope. So glad the next time you read you felt better about the content you'd written. :)

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  19. That elephant picture is about how my mom job is feeling right now. Sigh.

    But you're right: it was just a few days. And they'll be followed by good ones. That's the nice thing about time marching on.

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  20. Fellow campaigner here and new follower. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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  21. Can you believe after all that yuckiness last week- this week is almost over? I hope you enjoyed the movie fellow campainger here. I just joined your blog. I love this post will be back to visit soon! Smooches!

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  22. Hi there,

    I love your blog, looks great! I was already following your RSS feed, but i have followed your networked blogs.

    i have just changed to WP this week so for all the campaigner visits my site is now changed.

    I would love it if you could pop over to the new blog here and add in the new RSS as it has changed.

    http://www.sarahketleyauthor.com/

    many thanks and happy campaigning

    sarah

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