The One Where I Didn't Get My Act Together

*Sigh*
So, I didn't get my act together.
This is NOT the story of my life. I'm typically very organized and ready for what may come. Except when it comes to this writing "thing". No one I know does this or has even attempted this type of career. There is absolutely NOBODY I can call on the phone and ask a quick question or shoot off a text or email when something pops up. Authors and agents on Twitter say it's ok to email them with questions, but I'm not too sure. I mean, they're busy people they don't need my whiny questions and low self-esteem issues.
Except, despite my childhood, I'm one of the most confident people you'll ever meet. If ever given the pleasure ;-}
Anyway, I didn't get my act together. I have this query letter. Its terrible! Or maybe it's not. The problem is I don't know. The even bigger problem is that one of my Twitter friends (wait, that's Facebook); one of my twits, twitterers, tweeps, whatever, offered on her blog a critique of query letters, manuscripts, etc. Why didn't I enter this contest, you ask?
1) I'm a little sensitive about the dumb query being posted in the comments section. (but that's not really it)
2) The deadline was July 19th and I only found out about it July 18th (although she'd started the contest a week prior. I've got some pretty intense personal issues going on right now and I haven't been tweeting consistently)
3) The reminder came at 10:00pm on the 19th and with my narcolepsy once I'm almost out, that's it. She was nice enough (and really, soo nice) to say that I had a little more time, but medically speaking, I could no longer get back up and go to the computer to retrieve said letter. (I had been viewing Twitter on my iPad)
4) I'm not real sure I did the query letter right anyway.
But this wonderful and generous person could have told me that, or at least pointed me in the right direction! To top it all off, she is represented by one of my top five dream agents!
Aaaarrrrgh!!!
To sum it up, I didn't have my act together.
But what lesson can be learned here?
1) I have learned that for me (and my brain that runs a mile a minute) I need to write a query letter BEFORE I write the manuscript. Before I get so involved with the characters and their backgrounds that I want to put too many details in the query that I end up glossing over everything and writing a 65 word letter. (slight exaggeration)
2) Always take an author or agent up on a critique. ALWAYS. Duh.
3) Whether I know what I'm doing or not (not), if I want to make this happen for myself, I have to figure it out. Which means I'm going to have to stick my neck out and take a chance. It'll mean so much more to me when things finally start to happen.
So don't be checking your inboxes for an invitation to my pity party. It won't be there.