The way this line crosses my mind all too frequently . . .

The emotional wrestling, the health stuff, the business stuff—it's all made for a very intense November for me.

But thankfully this is my last hectic week. Hopefully this test will go well, the week will go on, and I'll be back to normal posting come December. 💜

So this is always a hard week for me. And it's made harder because I'm going in for a biopsy today—the anniversary of her going into the hospital—to hopefully figure out what's been causing my own health issues.

That's a weird thing to wrap my head and my feels around.

The next day, Thanksgiving, we found out she had stage IV colon cancer. I couldn't be there with her and my dad due to C19 restrictions, so I sobbed alone on the floor of my kitchen in front of the oven where I had cooked everything anyway, knowing they would need food when they got home.

That's fine! There's some kind of texture there!

You've got this!

Thankfully for me it was just some mild language changes in my contract. But this, plus stories from other editors, etc. have made me a lot more cautious.

Right? And to be ~planning~ for it already, before you've even found someone! 😱

I hope so too. That's why the contract is so important. Mine makes it very clear that I am paid for the hours and the work, and that the outcome is entirely subjective.

I hope so. I flagged the issue to them, and they tried the, "That's not what I said," and like . . . girl, I can read.

I think I'm particularly sensitive to it because another editor recently had a client pay, acknowledge the amount of work, and then do a CC chargeback for the full amount.

Yup!

I know! It was too much for my morning mind. 😭

If someone put the hours in, you don't get to just decide not to pay them. That's grounds for a lawsuit. If you're ever truly not happy, talk to the person about why and see what can be done.

I changed my contract earlier this year so that the second half of the payment comes to me before I release my report and comments. I'll happily provide proof that I'm done, but after a few near-ghosts I had to push for payment, I'm no longer giving full feedback before I'm paid.

I hear you. Anything with soy is iffy, so I try to avoid too much of it, but a lil here and there hopefully won't do too much to you.

That looks amazing!