REAL feedback

This morning I received an email from Sandra Ruttan at Spinetingler and attached was my story 'Blue Diamond Pool' with a wealth of editor's notes (not Sandra's - someone else took the electronic equivalent of a blue pencil to it). I've only had a cursory look at her suggestions, and while they are full-on, most of them seem worthwhile ... the sort of changes a writer just can't see with his or her inherent subjectivity. There's one section she recommended I cut, and I must have spent half an hour agonising over it myself before I sent the story off with this scene intact. It was a darling that I just couldn't quite bring myself to kill, even though I knew it was tantmount to a cliche and little more than exposition dressed up to look like something else.

I technically have until January 5 to finish the rewrite, but I might even try to do it this weekend. This feels almost like the Big Time, real feedback from a proficient editor. Is it right that work should be this much fun?