Hang On, Lucille, Hang On!

We've reached that familiar point in the production process for WHY when Lucille is about to strangle me. It happens around this time every two months. My copy is coming in late, and Lucille is starting to get nervous (rightly so) about getting the issue online on time.

"Any copy coming in today?" she asks politely, when I know she wants to hit me over the head with her laptop and shout: "Let's go, already, woman!"

"It'll be fine," I tell her over the phone, knowing that she is sadly shaking her drooped head at me. But I really do mean it.

The problem is, I've been trained by this godforsaken business to be deadline oriented, which means I tackle the dire emergencies first, then the semi-emergencies and so on. It's my little triage system of getting thing done. Therefore, a December 27 deadline seems years away, although I really know it's not, and then suddenly it's upon me, and the pressure is on, and then I buckle down, focus and bang it out.

But I know that not everyone works that way. And I know that tending to the dire emergencies first and neglecting everything else somehow creates a never-ending chain of dire emergencies -- things are on the back burner until they're not and on fire and demanding immediate attention. Then add hungry kids, piles of dirty dishes and laundry and a neglected husband to a raging deadline, and suddenly all I want to do is lie on the couch and watch reruns of House.

Just bear with me, Lucille, and hang on! The copy will get done. On time. Before Christmas. Don't be sad. At the top of my New Year's Resolutions for 2009: Stick to deadlines. Get back on track. Deadline Dina, that's me. You'll see...