I may have figured out a way of re-framing the rejected paper to make it more publishable. I haven't decided yet whether to e-mail the editor of the journal that rejected it and say, "I am thinking of changing the paper in such-and-such a way, is it worth re-submitting?" or just finding an alternate journal and submitting it there. (I do think I will save a file copy of the original paper when I do the re-frame, just in case the alternate journal - if that's where I send it - wants it a different way).

I think part of my frustration with publishing is it pushes all of my people-pleaser hot buttons. I WANT to make them like my paper, darn it. And sometimes they don't, for reasons not entirely related to the quality of the paper. I guess it's that I fundamentally think life should be "fair," in the sense that if you follow the rules and work hard and do good work, you should be rewarded, but sadly, it doesn't always work out that way.

My stomach is STILL bugging me. I still feel kind of queasy and not-wanting-to-eat.