Grantwriting

While writing a grant request and needing to support the statement "The group or organization submitting the application clearly explains its qualifications and/or experience which makes it capable of successfully implementing this project," Aaron's internal, cynical, bitter commentator goes overboard:

____ has been running the Financial Fitness program for five years. This is where I need to write about how good we are at running this program, while simultaneously not making it sound like we don’t need the money to run it. Something like, “We’re good at doing this program, but we’re not so good at funding it.” Please, sir, may I have some more? With mittened palms cupped in supplication, ____ reached out to the stern Foundation, who held a ladle in a fashion that wavered between gently poring gruel into little ____’s bowl and crashing down upon the non-profit’s cold, uncovered head. It was a seeming impossibility to discern which result would logically occur...

Weird happenings

Two weird things happened this weekend.

1. I went to the local wine store to purchase some wine (duh.) I got a bottle for a present, and a bottle of local pinot noir for Aaron and I to try. By the way, I broke my $10 sale rule - you know, only buy wine normally over $10 but on sale for under $10 - and plopped down $20 for this bottle. But, it was 15% off day. But I digress. The weird thing is not that I bought wine - it's that I was almost NOT ALLOWED to purchase said wine. The guy at the counter carded me - and then thought my license was fake. He asked if I had an Oregon driver's license and said my Minnesota one looked weird. In fact, the word he used was "flimsy." No matter the holograph or scan bar on the back, he refused to accept it. I had no other way to show that I was over 21. He also claimed "I looked young." Apparently there had been some stings or something going on where local people got busted with $5000 fines for selling alcohol to underage people. In the end, I just didn't leave and he finally sold me the wine. I was tempted to take my business elsewhere, but it was 15% off day. I mean, come on. I'm buying over forty dollars worth of wine. I'm not some underage kid looking to subvert the system. I would have gone to the grocery store for that and not spent $40. And, I've been 21 for two years now. So there. (After he was ringing me up, I found my Michigan Alumni Association membership card. I graduated from college, does that count for anything?)

2. We got a free loveseat on the side of the road. This makes our free furniture count go up to two. In fact, our best pieces of furniture are these two items. The new loveseat is the same one that Aaron's mom has in her sitting room. It's a quality piece of furniture, and it was like 200 feet from our apartment building at a neighboring complex. How fortuitous!

We might give in

I'm posting illicitly from work since our stolen internet at home is becoming more and more unreliable. We might do what we vowed to not do: buy internet at home. The way we figure, though, we waste more time fiddling with bad connections and reloading things we've lost than we would spend on the internet if we had a good connection. We can afford internet, barely - but we don't want to spend our time at home on the internet.

Because of this poor internet at home, I can't upload pictures - and I have a ton from Thanksgiving! I had a really nice time in Atlanta, and it was great to see my sister again. And, of course, the other family, especially my mom since I won't see her over Christmas. Hopefully they all come out here soon...

I had a great birthday - lasagna, nice presents, hiking, and bike riding - what more could a girl ask for? I'm now 23. How weird is that? Really weird.

Anyhow, on to the quick update. This past week was pretty fun at work. I'm getting into some thorny philosophical issues on the community land trust new development, and Aaron and I spent a lot of time coming up with new marketing ideas for the microbusiness program. We had a successful grantwriting meeting with the other people in our organization so now we are all more on the same page - in the past, the grant writing process was a mess. I also am going to spend more time writing as our organization comes up with new brochures - they hired a copywriter and the stuff they gave back was horrible. I volunteered/was volunteered to help write it, because as it turns out I'm not half bad at writing. We also went to the Mid-Valley Development Professionals (read: grantwriters) annual meeting and signed ourselves up to be members. Now we get to go to more useful workshops!

Two weeks ago I started volunteering with an older Russian couple to help them practice their English and they'll help me with my Russian. It's really fun. Last Thursday I met with them again and talked some more. I think this is going to be a mutually beneficial and fun friendship. This weekend was spent picking out a Christmas tree and setting it up (whee!), working on my last grad application essay (boo), sleeping, baking cookies, mountain biking on logging roads (very fun), and other stuff. I haven't been to the Humane Society for a while, but I plan on going next weekend. Too busy!

Yesterday we had an OMEN training in Salem where we got to see all the other VISTAs. It made me realize how much I miss them, so we are hosting a VISTA holiday party next weekend. Let the good times roll. Once we decided to do that, we ran out to Goodwill and bought a new chair and endtable (we had to use up $20 of store credit by yesterday)so our friends won't have to sit on the floor. And, we got more bowls and a corkscrew. All for $20!

This week I have to come up with some compelling arguments re: my philosophical CLT dilemma, finish the marketing section of my CLT business plan, and call some foundations about possible funding for the CLT. And, I really need to do laundry.