The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 23-27, 2016

This week I cried tears of frustration over a document I was editing.

Multiple times.

Sure, I could tell you about the other stuff I did. I could tell you about proofreading the Conference program. I could tell you about rearranging the office and moving furniture. I could tell you about killing the many-legged water bug hanging out in the corner. I could tell you about moving flags into my office from across the compound. I could tell you about the really great chapel on Thursday about the Homes 4 Haiti project. I could tell you about the red nose I wore into the office on Thursday because it was Red Nose Day.

But these were all temporary things. They took small amounts of time. 

Whereas the aforementioned document took no less than 75 percent of my time this week. Probably more. 

What was so difficult about it that I was moved to tears?

I'll tell you. 

Firstly, there were actually two documents. One was a short proposal document. The second was appendices to the first document. 

Secondly, the total number of pages was 115. 

Thirdly, the appendices were a compilation of documents, copied and pasted into one document without regard for formatting. This will be important later. 

Fourthly, the appendices were largely legal documents, filled with heretofores and shall nots and Signatories. I've heard enough horror stories about legal documents to know that a misplaced comma can be the difference between liable and not liable. So it required slow and careful perusal.

Fifthly, the documents made multiple references to one another. So I had to make sure all of the references were correct and pointing to the right page numbers. Page numbers that kept changing because...

Sixthly, seriously, the formatting was a beast. I've had enough experience with Word to know that the bullets and numbering feature can be a bit testy. But every time I changed something, something completely unrelated would happen. Whole paragraphs would go bold. Numbers would appear and then disappear. 

I pulled every trick I knew. Every back door, every hack, I Googled until my fingers bled. 

All to no avail. 

Also, it was due today. 

So I stayed late, did what I could, and emailed it back to its owner. 

But not before purging the bad juju from my body in the form of tears, punching things, and saying thesaurus-approved bad words. 

Needless to say, I really need this three-day weekend. 

Just don't be surprised if I spend the majority of it thinking about that document.