We all know it is frustrating when you order something important online, especially if you run a small business, and it has still not arrived after several weeks.

You track the package and cannot get any help from doing so.

Your item seems to have been lost in the cosmos—and worse yet, you have already shelled out good money for it.

What do you do?

DON’T panic. This does not help you or anyone else. It’s also unattractive and can be perceived as unprofessional. (Even if you are self-employed and work alone, you should always act like the professional you are.)

DON’T stew and call the people at the company from which you ordered or the delivery service bad names like “stupid” or “incompetent.” This will produce bitterness in your heart, and believe me, you don’t want that—no matter how powerful it might make you feel for a little while.

DON’T call the company from which you ordered and yell at them like a mad dog. See my note above about being professional. Besides, your call is most likely being recorded.

DO realize that mistakes can be made, and orders can be lost. It’s not like you have never made a mistake in your professional life.

DO take care of the problem right away. Otherwise, it may slip your mind and the issue will not be dealt with. Plus, your order will fall farther behind.

DO be courteous when you call the company. Chances are that you are not talking to the person whose fault the problem is, so if you are rude to them, that is not fair.

DO be calm. Simply answer the person’s questions, such as what the order number is and the date the product was ordered. Have your receipt in front of you on your computer screen, or printed out as a hard copy where you can see it.

What do you do when a product you ordered online won’t arrive?

That would be me. I turned 51 last week.

So what is it like to be 51?

Honestly, 51 does not feel much different from 50. Last year’s birthday hit me much harder in terms of getting older.

This has been said before, but I believe that if you haven’t grown up by the time you are my age, you don’t have to. Actually, this is only partially true.

However, who says I cannot watch Disney movies and play Centipede in the local retro arcade (Spinners, for those of you living in Frederick, Maryland)? Who says I cannot wear Converse (I would if it were not so expensive) or chew bubble gum?

Each year should have its accomplishments. Fiedler Editorial had a very dry summer from a business standpoint, but my accomplishment in that desert was being bold enough to send out hundreds of cold emails to university biochemistry/molecular biology department heads offering my editing services for their research manuscripts. I got exactly two positive responses and I was elated by them. I also got one “please remove my name from your mailing list” response, which stung, but did not keep me from moving on.

Another accomplishment in the desert was not having a single month where my earnings were zero. (Thank Heaven for small favors, right?)

I just had another accomplishment yesterday; I finished editing a scientific literature review. The number of abbreviations in the review made it quite challenging, and so did formatting the review. However, it was quite informative and I learned a lot. And I did what I do best—editing.

Do you have any accomplishments since your last birthday that you wish to brag about?

As nearly everyone knows, a few years ago the mail began slowing down. At Christmas 2020, it nearly ground to a halt. I remember seeing news footage of truckloads of mail waiting to be processed by woefully understaffed personnel. This was, of course, not the fault of these postal workers. But I would rather write about how this mail slowdown affected yours truly.

On January 9, 2021, my husband and I went out to eat at our favorite authentic Mexican restaurant. We had agreed prior to the meal that we would pay with my credit card. At the end of the meal, I presented our server with my card, on which I suspected no unsavory activity and which I knew had not been maxed out.

The server returned to tell me that the card “didn’t work.” Now, nothing screams “DEADBEAT” like having your credit card rejected at a restaurant. I politely asked the server to run the card again. Again, it was declined.

If you are thinking that my husband and I had to wash dishes that afternoon—you’re wrong. That was because we were able to pay with my trusty debit card. On the way home, my husband and I stopped at a CVS Pharmacy to pick up some medicine. Guess what? The credit card didn’t work there either.

Upon arriving home, I called my credit card company in a panic. I was informed that my last payment (which I had mailed on December 12) was not received by the due date (December 28!). I explained when I had mailed the payment (which had to go from my hometown in Maryland to Charlotte, North Carolina, and not Kathmandu) and the operator was extremely kind, not only believing me, but canceling the late fee and the interest.

I then called a friend and she said she had heard about the same kind of thing happening all over the country.

I was getting Christmas cards in February 2021.

How have you handled something like this, if it has happened to you?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to birthday commemorations, I will be away from my blog until November 24, 2024. Have a great two weeks, everyone.

Did you know that most editors are also writers?

Editors love words, and while we love the words of others, we also like to put them together to create our own works. Several people I know from my professional editing organizations have written novels. I think that is awesome. Others have written nonfiction books—equally awesome.

I have written an unfinished novel that is in desperate need of a developmental editor, and I am waiting for more money to come into my bank account so that I can hire one. Then I can finish the novel and hopefully self-publish.

In the meantime, I have been writing things like short stories when I am not editing. There is a creative streak in me that really needs to be released once in a while.

“But what are you writing that people actually read?” you ask.

I am writing the newsletter for the condo community where I live. The community is called Talbots II and the newsletter is called The Talbots II Times. Most of the content consists of reminders of the community rules. I spent six years on the community’s Board of Directors, and during this time I got a lot of feedback from the other Board members regarding what to address in the newsletter. I also lifted some content from the (huge) packet of condo regulations, including what kinds of dog breeds are not allowed on the property: American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, or any dog cross-bred with any of these breeds. Whew! What a list!

My newsletter, which I formatted and wrote myself from scratch, has been praised by the Board members and our property manager, and I was asked to keep making it even after I stepped down from the Board. Thus far, I write one every fall and every spring, although much of the content is the same from letter to letter. This is because the same violations keep coming up.

If you are an editor, what do you like to write?

We all have those times when we just can’t concentrate.

For some people, such as those with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), this is a lifelong struggle. For others, it is a passing condition that resolves itself in a short matter of time.

Editors who have deadlines to meet, like me, often feel that they are in big trouble when they cannot concentrate. It is true that we editors can get in over our heads when we fail to pay attention to our work. So what can you, as an editor, do when you just cannot focus?

1. Be aware of your surroundings. If you are at work, or at your desk in your home office, remember where you are and why you are there. Say to yourself, “My desk is not a place for daydreaming.” In that way, when your mind starts to wander, you can snap out of your reverie quickly.

• Listen to your body. If you have the urge to use the bathroom, your body will distract you until you do, so turn off your timer (if charging by the hour) and “go.” In the same way, if your back or rear end starts to hurt, you have probably been sitting too long in that desk chair, so turn off your timer and walk around. Stretch. Your body will thank you for it.

• Give in—but only temporarily. If you are in love, this strategy applies especially to you. If you just can’t get somebody out of your mind, you may need to turn off your timer, go into another room, sit down, and think about your special someone for five minutes. (NOTE: This is only acceptable if you work at home. If you work in an actual office, see #1 above.)

What do you do when you have trouble concentrating on your work?

To the left of my work desk is a utility shelf, on which rest several boxes and storage containers (we had to downsize when we moved into our current home, and we were not very good at it).

Taped to said utility shelf is an 8 1/2-by-11-inch copy of my all-time favorite poster, which is “believed to be” in the public domain according to the US government website on which I found it.

The poster, which appears to have been created by a very artistically gifted child, depicts a large orange fish (with green eyelids) smoking a cigarette, through which is a fish hook. Very faint puffs of smoke can be seen above the cigarette. The fish looks extremely morose, as if it is thinking, “Why me? Why am I so addicted?” The big yellow letters in the upper right-hand corner read, “DON’T YOU GET HOOKED!”

Hooked. Get it?

I first saw this poster in the nurse’s office in junior high school. I thought it was so beautiful—very artsy. By the time I went back to class, I was in love with it. The poster was also in the nurse’s office in my high school (I guess the county schools had bought them in bulk). Years later, I had a friendly acquaintance who had seen the same poster in a Baltimore County school. She, too, thought it was beautiful.

So, why I am going on about a poster with a fish smoking a cigarette?

The copy next to my desk inspires me. I just love having it there. I named the fish Fred, and sometimes, between tasks, I talk to him. “Life is hard,” I will say. “Isn’t it, Fred?”

Or maybe, “AI is so scary, Fred. Don’t you think so?”

I am well aware that Fred cannot move, let alone answer me. But I still find it therapeutic to breathe a single sentence to him once in a while. Some people talk to their pets; I, not having any pets, talk to my poster copy.

How do you cope with stress while you are working?

We need to stop putting down people who work slowly (or more slowly than we do).

I am not talking about people who are lazy and work slowly even though they could work faster. These folks are another whole animal. I am talking about people who work slowly because they are meticulous or because they have a disability of some kind.

Some people have invisible disabilities that cause them to work slowly, and these people are often the victims of bullying in the workplace (and other places) because others cannot see the disabilities that slow them down.

Even fast-food jobs are not ideal for these people, for these jobs are just that: FAST.

One such workplace where people who work slowly are often discriminated against is the scientific laboratory. In the industry, a lab worker is expected to work quickly and correctly; in other words, the employee is expected to work efficiently. A meticulous lab worker may be fired from an industrial lab if they cannot fulfill a quota of, for example, X cell transfections completed in one day. Never mind that this worker has never contaminated a vial in their career or if every single transfection they have completed has yielded wonderful results. “We are not paying you to take your time.”

Even in academic labs, pressure is often put on meticulous workers to “speed it up,” because “we only have a year and a half left on our grant. You want a job in a year and a half, don’t you?”

Such bullying and taunting is, simply put, ableist behavior.  And sadly, it is not limited to science. If you have ever scoured the job search engines while looking for employment, you have probably noticed that seemingly 80 to 90 percent of jobs advertised require candidates to “be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment.” This is not good news for the meticulous or disabled person who works slowly.

Do you know anyone who works rather slowly but regularly produces quality work? Are you that person?