On That Feeling of Relief

I poured myself a cup of coffee this morning.

I stirred in some sugar. I poured in a dollop of milk.

And I had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I sent three publications to press on Thursday and Friday at the office.

And I had this gut feeling that I’d gotten some very, very wrong.

It’s just one word, but it’s an important word. And it would have been far too late to fix.

Oh, gahd, what if I’d gotten it wrong? I wondered.

The only thing I could do was to check the printouts on Monday, send the appropriate e-mails to alert various and sundry departments of this mistake, and see the chips fall where they may.

Until I realized that I had e-mailed the files to various personages on Thursday. And I could access my work e-mail outbox from home.

I pulled off the file. Opened it up.

And that single word?

“February.”

I smiled. It was exactly as it needed to be.

I enjoyed my coffee after that.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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