Friday

I know that my writing style tends to involve excessive descriptive words, run on sentences and expression of feeling. I suppose I write this way because I tend to view the world in an image or a feeling instead of analytically. I find it most interesting that I do not speak this way when I am talking; I love lists; and I earn a living writing grants that are typically research-based. I have never been able to master the art of chit-chat and I often clam up when forced to talk intelligently with someone I barely know. Yet, 1 hour later, I could write a 15 page letter to the person describing my entire life story with all the laughter and tears adequately painted on the paper. I often joke with my coworkers about my need to yet again cut 10 pages out of a grant narrative that was originally supposed to be only 10 pages to begin with. I believe that having to revise my writing by slicing out entire sentences and paragraphs is the most painful part of my job. Ok, maybe that and when I have to write about something I truly know nothing about and have no inspiration on. So, I thought it would be funny to share what I found out today about a new grant we are looking at. This grant will be funded through the recovery act funds to the National Institutes of Health, so obviously they have a lot of money that they want to distribute quickly to directly impact the economy. This agency is also widely known to be the slowest federal entity (ok, maybe the IRS beats them in this) to distribute money. So, I was shocked to see that they only want a 6 page research plan – seriously? 6 pages!! How in the world I am going to write a plan that typically takes me 25 pages to describe in 6 pages (keep in mind that I probably would have written 40 pages to begin with & then spent hours cutting pages)! I seriously started to hyperventilate a bit. I’m already trying to formulate a plan on how I can fit more words in and still meet their page & font size requirements. I’ll probably get more grey hair because of this J. I met another grant writer one time and made a comment to her that I don’t “speak in bullets.” I swear that she thought I was completely lying about being a grant writer because you have to “speak in bullets” when you write grants. So, here is to all of you bullet speakers out there – enjoy your 6 page guidelines while you can! Someday, us “way-too-long” speakers will rule the world and I won’t fund your grant application because you didn’t include at least 10 adjectives per sentence.

Caleb has had a great week with his algebra. He received an 83% on a test and a 100% on a quiz. I’m hoping he can keep this up. Unfortunately, I received a call from the assistant principal today at work. Caleb has had a detention from over a month ago that he keeps forgetting to serve. I believe the detention was originally because he was “swept” a specific number of times that quarter. Being swept means that they did not make it into their classroom by the time of the last bell. The teachers “sweep” up all the kids still in the hall & they have to go into another area of the school. When this happens, the student doesn’t get to make up anything they missed. Unfortunately, this happens to Caleb often. I believe it is because he is just too busy getting lost in the shuffle and the “good times” to pay attention to the time. He has always been that kind of a kid. Well, because he kept missing the make up times of this detention, he now has to serve an out of school suspension. On Monday morning, he has to report to Joe Foss school for the day. Lucky for him, he has a doctor appointment, so will have to go late that day. I am sure this will be a very significant wake up call for him. Or at least I hope it will!

Positives for today:

1. Very quiet day at work with little interruptions
2. I get to go to bed early tonight!
3. I got a very nice thank you from a coworker for helping him out with grading some of the student papers. Always nice to know when we are appreciated.

Healthy Living Update: Caleb and I took Cena for a nice long walk tonight. I don't know if I can continue counting walks with that dog as exercise - I think he pulls me along the entire way :).