mercury retrograde

alot of things happened on that day
digital collage by trish moreno

ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right? i had one of those today. after solving 3 unexplained computer crashes this morning, i left to pick up some supplies for a design project. when i returned, my cat had vomited on my work. i found it somehow amazing that out of all the places in the house to vomit, he chose my design notebook. my husband was having a similar day...first thing this morning, he put the video short he edited last night for the wga (writer's guild) speechless campaign onto a disc and delivered it. come to find out, the disc was unreadable, and had to be remade. when he went out to his car to deliver the new disc, he noticed his tires had been slashed. all this, and it was only 11am! there's only one explanation for a day like this, and that is mercury retrograde. when mercury goes retrograde, all kinds of things go wrong. communications go awry, confusion sets in, people misunderstand each other. a few rules of thumb are best applied during this planetary misalignment. from now until february 19th, its best to put your attention on things that start with re: as in, reorganize, redo, re-edit, repeat, relent. better for you to have a head's up that mercury is going retrograde, and to get all your important projects in forward motion before it hits. usually success may be had in those cases, even during the retrograde period. projects that begin during mercury retrograde have a tendency to be flawed and require repeated effort, often are fraught with miscommunication and anxiety. at least, knowing this, you will be less likely to over-react when things get dicey. just be aware in the midst of the craziness of the next couple weeks, that it is temporary. smoother waters are ahead. read up on your personal astrology to see how mercury retrograde is affecting your sign.