Writing Wednesday: Not Again!

Back in January, I posted about what it's like to be on a writing deadline and how my brain gets so consumed with my fictional story that I do all sorts of stupid things in real life. Back then, I  had accidentally somehow washed a box of large kitchen trash bags with my laundry.  You'd think it couldn't get worse than that...

...Until the other day.  Once again on a deadline, this time for the galley edits of the same book, I did something even dumber: I left the refrigerator door open all night long. Worse, said fridge apparently has some sort of energy-saving shut-off feature, because by the time I came downstairs the next morning and found it that way, the entire interior was downright warm.

The sight that greeted me in the morning

Even worse, my husband had JUST done the grocery shopping the day before, so it was packed from top to bottom with fresh food.

Even worse than that, so that I wouldn't have to worry about fixing any meals until after the book was done, I had used some of those groceries to cook up a huge batch of homemade vegetable soup.

Even worse than that, it was no ordinary soup. Rather than using cheap stew meat for the base, I had sacrificed a steak so that the whole thing would be extra savory. Talk about heartbreaking!

Homemade vegetable and deviled eggs, all ruined

It was the soup, in fact, that did me in.  Unlike the trash bags in the washer, which will forever be one of life's great mysteries, I know exactly how this happened.  Once the soup had cooled, I ladled it into various containers and stuck them in the fridge–then I simply turned and walked away without closing the door.  Don't ask. These days, it's par for the course whenever my mind is fully immersed in a story.

In the end, my only choice was to throw out every single thing in the entire refrigerator. Lest you think I overreacted, trust me, I tested stuff first. The definitive moment was when I found a stick of butter from deep inside and gave it a squeeze to see if it was less than completely hard.

To my surprise, it was practically melted. Like I said, it wasn't just not-quite-cool-enough in there, it was actually warm, probably thanks to the interior lightbulbs, which shone all night long.

What a waste–of food and time and, sob, an amazing batch of homemade vegetable soup.

Oh well, at least I got my edits in on time.  Sniff.