The Ballad of an Exhausted Slide-fitter

There's this job I've been doing lately, which is fitting a slide to the barrel after it gets gas-blocked. The job is basically file, file, file, file on a 45 angle, file on another 45 angle, and then straighten it in a fixture. However, there are slides that just don't want to fit easily onto a gun no matter how perfect and straight they are. Sometimes it's the gas block that needs to be replaced, but sometimes the slide can be made to fit through some furious efforts of hammering it or beating it into shape, and I've gotten reasonably good at it. There are few times I can't get a stubborn slide to fit onto a barrel.

And it's this exact thing that I'm doing to Chapter 4 currently. Almost everything that needs to be fixed in the whole book, as far as details of setting and characters and whatnot, begins in this chapter. If I can straighten it all out here, then the rest of the book should have a much easier flow. And so I'm filing, and straightening, and hammering the fuck out of everything to get it into proper shape so that this chapter will slide up and down the rest of the book like butter. How's that for a metaphor, huh?

I've pretty much figured out what to do about the hospital crew thing, even though I'm sure I dropped an employee somewhere along the way in one revision or another. Right now my crew stands at nine people, not including a cook, who I still need to replace with somebody (this person doesn't have to be drawn from the FMC pool, either), but I have tomorrow to figure that part out.

Here's who we have right now:
-- Kelly (me), the team leader.
-- Gwen (Jessica), 2nd in command and food service aide.
-- Alexis (Tina), works in the nutrition office.
-- Brian (Walker), pot washer and fsa.
-- Matt (Russ), fsa and pot washer.
-- Willow (Meredith), runs the cafe.
-- Parker (Malisa), runs the cafe.
-- Maxine (Charlene), works in the nutrition office.
-- Dana (Meghan), fsa.

Doesn't it seem as though I'm a fsa short? I do have Lindsey (Jacquie) coming in later, but not for another ten chapters or so. Trying to cram someone else in there now might be pushing it. I still need a cook, though, because there's no way I'm cooking the food.

I also think some changes to the Kim character need be made. At this point she's essentially there just to be broken up with so that Kelly and Alyssa can hook up, but I don't want to make her too unlikeable. The person she's based on (Betsy) isn't anyone I feel any animosity towards, so making her a complete hag (which I haven't, I don't think) is out. I also hope people reading feel a little sympathy for her character after the break-up scene. What I need is a balance between people thinking that going with Alyssa is the better option while thinking that Kim isn't a terrible person. I also don't want Betsy reading this book someday and thinking I just slagged her for no good reason. But as far as what small tweaks to make on the character, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

And that's where we are.