Blame It on the Day Job
*October 25, 2007
Today I received a card in the mail from my new salon, thanking me for paying them a visit. It was on fancy stationery, and when I turned the card around to look at the salon's contact information, I found a typo. Instead of Mockingbird Lane, they had "Mockingbird La ne." They apparently thought this error not egregious enough to reprint the stationery. Or maybe they did reprint it, but since I got only a cut, not a cut and a dye or a cut and a dye and a perm (God forbid), I got the error stationery.
I was seized with panic when I saw the error because I assumed that it was my fault. It took me a few seconds to slow my pulse and realize that no, this particular error was not my fault. Other errors may be my fault, but this one wasn't.
I've been a copyeditor for more than two months now. In the past couple months I've been victim to numerous copyediting dreams (nightmares, really) about proofreading marks and where they go, similar to the dreams one has after a long Tetris-playing session. The letters never stop falling into typos. The trademark lines are always wrong. Oversized carrots and serial commas haunt me.
But this is a whole new level of wackiness. Now, apparently, I think it's my job to proofread the entire world.
EDIT: In looking over this entry a couple hours after publishing it, I glanced through, saw "Mockingbird La ne," and started panicking all over again as I thought for one second that I had published my entry with a typo. I. Need. Serious. Help.
I thought I was the only one who had dreams of tetris!
- Posted by Lauren | October 25, 2007 4:49 PM
I'm comma whore. There it feels good to say it. I use them all the time, when they are needed and when they are not. Now I feel like I need to stop throwing them out all over the place when I come and comment. I do not want you to feel the stress that a misplaced comma induces! I promise I will work on the comma thing if you try and remember you are not responsible for the typos of the entire universe. But can I just say that I do love that you got something in the mail after getting your hair cut? That's cool!
- Posted by brandy | October 31, 2007 3:50 PM
Aw, welcome to the world of editing!
And take it from me: Never EVER get a job as a copy editor for a newspaper. That'll give you some serious nightmares.
They actually keep a file for you of things you missed. The thing that sucks is they don't keep track of how many times you totally cover their butts.
Hey boss, what about the time the governor's name was misspelled? I fixed that! What about the time this columnist attributed something to the wrong author? I found that too! And those song lyrics the writer added in a lame attempt to be clever? I realized they were WRONG! And I fixed it.
Where was the file on THOSE?!
Almost a year after I ended that nightmare, I still have issues.
Welcome to the club, editor. :)
- Posted by my life is brilliant | November 6, 2007 11:01 AM