Femme Friday – Grant Writing Edition

So there’s this grant proposal I’ve been tinkering with on and off for the last few months, but haven’t really pulled together yet.  I thought it was due November 15.  I met with my boss Wednesday to discuss ways to frame our project.  She reminded me of some administrative paperwork I’d need to do before the 15th.  When I started that paperwork, I realized that the deadline was actually November 1.  You know, next MONDAY.

Then I realized that the grant proposal is due in a different time zone, so Monday there is Sunday here.  Then I realized that my recommenders can only fill out the recommender form after I submit all my crap, so I should really submit it by today or tomorrow if my mentors are going to have any chance at all to fill it out.  Then I realized how absolutely unreasonable it is to ask my mentors to do recs in a 24 hour window with less than three days notice.

Luckily I have the best mentors on the planet.  When I suggested waiting until the next round of submissions so that they would have a reasonable amount of time to do a recommendation, they told me NO WAY DO IT NOW WE’LL WRITE YOU AWESOME RECS SUPPER FAST SEND US DRAFTS OF YOUR PROPOSAL AND WE’LL GET BACK TO YOU WITHIN HOURS!

So, I’m submitting a grant proposal really soon thanks to my awesome mentors.  There’s going to be a lot of writing in the next few days.  Obviously, this calls for an outfit that inspires confidence and seriousness.

Unfortunately, deadlines don’t leave time for ironing wrinkly skirts.