my life as a grantwriter, part i

i'm a grantwriter. well, actually my job is much more than that. my official title is "grant development coordinator" because i'm responsible for coordinating the proposal development teams. this, of course, is not a simple job.

the toughest thing i've learned about being a GDP (haha, that's funny) is that my life revolves around deadlines. there are the grant deadlines (which are non-negotiable), my preferred submission deadlines (at least two or three days before the non-negotiable grant deadlines), deadlines to get things to teams, the teams' deadlines to get things to me (which most people ignore) and...department related deadlines. it's a lot of stress. it means i have to stay organized, i have to work my butt off while at work (and sometimes from home) and i have to try to remain calm. as if remaining calm is easy for me. (that actually stresses me out more)

and then...AND THEN you have the people from a unmentionable department who think YOU DO NOTHING and HAVE NO DEADLINES and CAN DROP EVERYTHING to write something for them YESTERDAY. never mind the fact that i'm working on a $1.2-1.3 million grant that's due in april (which is practically here in grant world). never mind the fact that i'm starting a $900,000 preliminary proposal that's also due in april. never mind the fact that i'm going to start several other grants that are due may and i have 900 other things i'm trying to work out. please, please, never mind all that. i love when people give me things at the last minute.