Orange

I've been asked to provide editing for another proposal -- this one is due out Wednesday this week, so there's absolutely no chance that I'll be asked to work any weekends, though I did take it home last night to do some editing.

I didn't even complain about that, really, because I'm planning to take at least half a day off on Friday (if not more, depending on how the schedule goes) to pack and shop for the writing retreat, so a little extra work from home early this week just means that's less vacation time I'll have to burn.

So I settled in with a plan -- I wanted to get through a solid 25 pages of this 55-page proposal -- and only then realized that I'd taken home the proposal, the statement of work, and the proposal request, but had forgotten to bring a red pen. And, apparently, I didn't have any red pens stashed at home.

And this proposal is in desperate need of editing. Lots of it was filled in by someone who works for the small company we're partnering with for this proposal, and that person... is a really horrible writer. Even the stuff that I could tell had come word-for-word out of their marketing slicks (which was a little too oily for a proposal anyway) had grammatical mistakes and consistency issues.

I'd done my printing on both sides of the paper, to save paper, but that meant I couldn't go with my first impulse and use a Sharpie to do my editing.

Luckily, I have kids. I rummaged in Penny's arts-and-crafts drawer until I found her bag of colored pencils, and dug out an orange one.

It's been a while since I've used a pencil. It's been even longer since I used the kind of pencil that needs to be sharpened. Working on a printout of Times New Roman font at 11 points and trying to write in the margins, I was sort of surprised at how often I had to re-sharpen the pencil to keep my notes legible.

Ah, well, I got it done. If nothing else, it renews my appreciation for mechanical pencils and ball-point pens. I need to remember to grab a couple of extra red pens and stash them at home somewhere.

And to thank Penny for the loan of her orange pencil.