Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Editing and sweltering.

So, on Monday I went to a one-day training on improving editing skills. It was the first editorial class I've ever taken, and I was expecting it to be boring, but actually? It was great. And the best part? Was that it was a class full of editors.

I haven't been surrounded by editors, well, ever really. Both my post-college jobs have been in very small communications departments for bigger firms whose main focus was something else entirely. At most, I've worked with one, maybe two other editors at a time, and we were always so busy actually editing that we never really discussed the finer points of what we did.

But in that class? We talked about dangling modifiers, and everyone was totally engaged. We were all equally fascinated by what we were discussing. We had long discussions about the exercises we were doing, and we discussed minute little details that non-editors wouldn't even notice, much less care about. We had a whole conversation about APOSTROPHES, and the miracle is that NOBODY WAS BORED. Each of us was more nit-picky than the next and we could have had detail-oriented conversations for ages about things that I normally never dare discuss, for fear of losing all my friends to death by boredom.

In short, it was GREAT. And now I want to go to another class. Seriously.

The less great part was the horrible, awful, totally oppressive weather. The temperature has been near 100 degrees for several days straight, and although there was a big thunderstorm last night that supposedly pushed the heat wave out to sea, I am not yet convinced that it's really gone. It's been so humid that I start sweating the second I step out the door. It took several very loud shrieks of horror before I managed to convince Torsten that no, opening the window will NOT let in fresh air when it's 98 degrees with 70% humidity, because there is no such thing as fresh air under those conditions, unless you count the air that comes straight out of the A/C unit, which I absolutely do.

It feels too hot to work, or move. We went for a walk on Sunday but only made it about four blocks before we were ready to keel over and die. And yes, Torsten DID try to open the window when we got home. Freak.

But the thing is that I really shouldn't be complaining, because remember those thunderstorms I talked about on Thursday? Well, they knocked out power for a lot of people in the area, and as of Monday night? Thousands of them STILL didn't have power. That's right. They spent the WHOLE WEEKEND suffering through record-setting high temperatures without the benefit of air conditioning, or even a refrigerator to stick their heads into.

I know that I am spoiled, and believe me when I say that I fully recognize my own privilege of having been born in the age of technology. I know there are a lot of problems with the world right now, but oh my god do I ever love living in the time of the internet, central air, and advanced modes of transportation. I hate heat and humidity, and I love nothing more than collapsing on the couch in my air-conditioned apartment on an insufferably hot summer day. I am happy (okay, that might be too strong a word) to run on a treadmill, but the idea of running outside in the elements makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry. I'm lucky that I don't have to brave the elements to get to the gym, because then I would be much less likely to go.

My point is, I can't imagine dealing with heat like this without the benefit of air conditioning. I truly believe that such conditions should be considered insufferable, and I do not understand how people are surviving like that. They can't even plug in a FAN to cool themselves off. They must be reduced to sprawling naked on the floor, fanning themselves with a stray piece of junk mail.

I cannot even imagine what women did centuries ago, when they were forced to wear big, heavy dresses that covered them pretty much entirely, and they were sweltering in houses with nothing to cool them. Even as I sit in a lightweight skirt and sleeveless top, typing this in the air-conditioning, the idea of a heavy petticoat and an ankle-length dress that buttons all the way up to my neck makes me want to tear at my own skin.

S0, I know it sounds petty, but let me just say: I am so thankful for air conditioning. And for having the electricity to operate it.

41 comments:

  1. This reminds me that I'm going to need you to do another one of those editing posts, and if you need some ideas for things that your readers SUCK at, JUST LET ME KNOW.

    Also, I have a secret, and that secret is: I enjoy my accounting professional development stuff too.

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  2. You've got to think though that centuries ago when women had to wear all of that clothing they didn't have car exhaust or global warming to make them swelter :)

    My mother and I debated this on Saturday. I won.

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  3. Take it from someone who knows... surviving this heatwave without AC has NOT been fun.

    Well, I have one ancient and decrepit AC that vaguely managed to suck some of the humidity out of my diningroom, but unless I wanted to sleep curled up under the table, that really wasn't all that useful. Though I did strongly consider the idea on Monday night.

    Basically I've been walking around naked and drinking lots of water. One of the perks of living alone :)

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  4. When I think about wearing heavy clothing in hot weather, or when I see someone wearing jeans and sneakers on a 90 degree day, I literally feel nauseous. I DON'T KNOW how people do/did it! I get hot so easily (and cold so easily too - ugh) that it makes me want to barf. UGH.

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  5. I'm going to assume that you've read Eats, Shoots and Leaves - http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592400876

    It's a great book on puncutation and grammar, with ties to editing, and it's really funny too!! You should def read it if you haven't yet.

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  6. I would love a class like that. Love it! I have a couple of nerdy friends who can and do discuss such grammatical details at length, but beyond them, you're really out of luck if you have an insightful comment about a misplaced modifier when you're with any other random group of people.

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  7. OMG, you have me drooling over that class. Seriously. Though my title isn't editor, I EDIT THE HELL out of everything at my company. All our marketing materials and client presentations and white papers and blah blah blah. People think I'm the red pen Nazi (which I kind of am). I seriously need to look into one of those classes here in Chicago...

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  8. i seriously don't know what i'd do if i lived in days of yore. the hottest weather i've endured was in morocco, where it was about 112 each day, BUT that was without any significant humidity... and i STILL got sick while i was there. i've had heatstroke and sunstroke before, and that was while wearing hardly any clothing, NOT while burdened with petticoats and high collars. i had to wear pants in morocco instead of long skirts, because skin-to-skin contact in that heat gave me such debilitating heat rash on my legs that i couldn't walk.

    so.... yeah. i hear you. i have no idea how people used to manage. am spoiled.

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  9. I, too, loathe heat and humidity. But I have to wonder: in the days of yore, in addition to not living in concrete jungles (so much hotter!) there has to be some element of adjusting to it, right? All this going back and forth between air conditioned and not air conditioned makes it impossible for us to adjust to the heat. If we all went down to like Mississippi for a week with no a/c, we'd be miserable for like 2 days but then would adjust eventually, right?

    (But I'm no apologist for petticoats and corsets. That's just crazy talk.)

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  10. Oh, the editing class sounds wonderful. Ok, maybe not exactly that class, but I understand. Finding kindred souls who can wax poetic for hours on a subject that fascinates you is... aaaahhhhh, bliss!

    Heat. Not a big fan of it, but I must admit that at this moment, I'm missing some sunshine. The weather out here has been less than stellar: overcast, rainy, WINDY, etc. Lovely stuff.

    Somewhere I read that the antibellum skirts the southern belles wore actually kept them rather cool, because the hoops kept the material away from their legs (and the pantaloons kept their modesty). Same thing for the Bedouins and their long dark robes. All that fabric keeps the sun off their skin.

    Or whatever it was I read might have been a pile of shit, who knows? But it sounded logical to me at the time.

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  11. There are a lot of technologies and conveniences I would not even miss, but air conditioning is definitely NOT one of them. I don't mind getting uncomfortably hot, but knowing that eventually I will be somewhere cool is very nice. :)

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  12. You weren't kidding about not being able to live without the AC!

    My coworker does a lot of editing and she gets to go these editing workshops. She comes back so excited to talk about the changes in the world of editing. I must admit it all sounds pretty interesting, and I always ask to take a look at the notes they hand out and her workbooks.

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  13. OMG, I feel you. We even looked up where those emergency cooling stations are here in NYC in case we lost power. I would seriously die with my AC this week.

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  14. We're one of the lucky few also who haven't lost power. My poor dog is going to lose all her hair if we keep getting these violent storms! She gets so nervous when the thunder claps.

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  15. My boss and I used to be grammar freaks - it actually amused us at how nerdy we were.

    I think whomever invented AC should be made king of the world. Best. invention. ever.

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  16. Life without AC would be unbearable, especially in Georgia. The summers are always ridiculously hot and humid. I seriously don't know how people can survive without AC. I have it in my house, and I'm still hot and sweaty.

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  17. "They must be reduced to sprawling naked on the floor, fanning themselves with a stray piece of junk mail." Haha I love that imagery. I don't have air conditioning, and I haven't for the past three summers. I don't know. I deal with it. It's cooler up here, definitely, but one summer at camp (no fans even!) we were the hottest place in North America for a week. (45-50 degrees!) I hate the cold. I love the heat. I will go running in the sunny park at noon in August.

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  18. I just bought an air conditioner on Monday night and I have never been so happy in my life!

    That class sounds like great fun!

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  19. I would find a conversation about apostrophes endlessly interesting, as I am obsessed with them. Unfortunately, I still don't even get it's/its.

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  20. Oh, an editing class! That would be awesome.

    My favorite thing to do is hunt and kill all instances of passive voice in documents.

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  21. I may be wrong, but I tell myself that back when the big heavy dresses were in fashion, global warming hadn't started and the temps never crept so high. I also think houses were laid out better for cross ventilation way back when.

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  22. It sounds so nerdy, but learning is fun! Especially when you are learning more about something you enjoy. I recently took an intensive marketing seminar and I wanted it to last at least three more days.

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  23. Oh, your class sounds awesome.

    And I totally agree on the AC. I can't imagine life without it.

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  24. I am SO. JEALOUS. of your class. Positively green.

    Heat in the city is misearble - you can feel it radiating off the buildings and concrete. Oh, stay inside and turn the air conditioner up HIGH. Hang in there!

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  25. I love the A/C too. I do not want to think about what it would be like to live without it. Ugh.

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  26. ME TOO re A/C. There are a lot of things that I get accustomed to and forget to appreciate (like well-stocked store shelves with no ration lines or whatever), but I don't think I EVER forget to appreciate the A/C. I probably think of it a dozen times a day or more.

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  27. Oh, AMEN, sister, on the air conditioning! Every winter I'm all, "It's no big deal that we have only a wall unit a/c, we have lots of shady trees over the house, and i love this sweet old house!" And then every summer I remember, "Oh yes, I DO hate you, house, with your sucky, only-cools-one-room-of-the-whole-house wall unit!"

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  28. I think those women forced to wear all those heavy clothes fainted a lot. :)

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  29. I also love the AC. However, my place of employment likes to keep it cold in here year round. Meaning my space heater is on right now!!

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  30. One of my favorite things about having another editor in the office is that she totally gets all my stupid editorial jokes. Everyone else just looks at me and shrugs. Hooray for finding people you can nerd out with!

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  31. That editing conference sounds awesome! Also - I am SO with you on the heat. Thankfully, it seems to have passed up here in Philly. I hope it does the same in DC!

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  32. When I grew up in Charleston, SC, with 100 degrees plus 100% humidity, we had AC. HOWEVER, my mother WOULDN'T USE IT. WTF? I guess we were poorer than I thought, because we also had three bedrooms and only two fans. Guess whose fan got taken every night to cool the parents when THEY went to bed? Hint: NOT MY BROTHER'S. Did anyone consider buying a third fan so darling daughter wouldn't SWEAT TO FUCKING DEATH every night? NOOOOOO. But I'm not bitter or anything.

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  33. Yes be very thankful for air because you don't know how much you miss it until it is ripped from your hot sweaty hands! I am living that hell at work right now and it's not pretty.

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  34. I hate hot weather when I can't escape it, especially when I have to work. It seems you get all nice and pretty and do your hair then flop! You go outside and it's all ruined! Agrh!

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  35. Seriously, your class sounds fabulous. Jealous!

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  36. Torsten is so German wanting to open the windows and let in the fresh air.

    When I lived in Austria, the women at the church I attended were funny that way, too. They'd open up windows between services to air things out, even if it was 40 below! I use to think they were crazy. Now, not so much. I open the windows as often as I can.

    But, I'm with you. When it's 98 out with humidity to match, what's the point?

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  37. Oh, I concur! Heat is one thing but add in humidity? ugh! It's horrid! I'll never forget last summer when my inlaws came to visit and my MIL was so overheated that after two showers she still walked around our house in her underwear. oi. THAT is something I'd surely rather not repeat.

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  38. Your blog inspired me to ask my grandmother about Georgia summers in the 30s and 40s, when she grew up. She said that they were not acclimated to air conditioning, so they did not miss it. She also said that houses were built differently, so the breezes inside were stronger.

    I still do not understand how they made it without A/C. I'm such a wimp!!

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  39. Oh my goodness, the air conditioning!!! Can I just tell you that that is the one thing that's been keeping me sane lately? Because it most certainly is.

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  41. It's great to be surrounded by your peers!

    As for wearing lots of clothes in the summer... I think it's different when you don't have air conditioning: your body adjusts and you learn to move more efficiently, shower more, and dress differently.

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