Life in general

I ended up calling Steve last night to ask him how he's doing. In a nutshell, it sounds like his condition makes it so that he's been aware of the prospect of immediate death for most of his life, and that things never get better, that he just gets lulls. So when he says that it's never been worse, it's to be expected and may mean he's still got decades ahead of him. For what it was worth, I hope that having a good support system (as he seems to) helps alleviate the stress which is only increasing the aging process. The plan is still to have a birthday celebration for him this Saturday, so we'll be seeing him then.

Matt and I have heard nothing about a funeral for Paxton, yet. I suspect the autopsy they're going to perform, which I overheard Matt telling Steve about, is what's holding things up. For his part, Matt doesn't seem to want to talk about his death any further than he already has. I'm not sure he's done processing it yet.

In work-news, Scholastic's lack of time-management skills is so pathetic is laughable. When I was first hired on, I was given a production schedule for each month, and Wednesday of last week was the original due date for December's project. On Wednesday of last week, I'd already been waiting 1-1/2 days for my first round of revisions to come back. It was returned on Monday morning. I provided the first revised proof for further revision yesterday morning and am not remotely surprised to find that it still has not been returned to me. This, with the editors calling for a Friday sign-off for most projects (not going to happen). It's not like I'm letting it ruin my day/work-experience, or anything, it's just remarkably stupid. The great thing about working as a freelancer is that you ultimately feel divorced from whatever inter-office B.S. you find at each placement. This is why I can sit back and have a giggle about how completely inane the timing is here -- it's their problem, not mine.

Also, if I can find the time this week, I promised Bruce a slice of the chocolate-tofu pie so he can vouch for its awesomeness.