I actually had an evening of my own last night. I was feeling a little scattered and not sure what to do with myself, but I decided to try to get some writing done. I've got a story (possibly a novella -- I haven't done a word count yet) for which I really like the concept, and the plot only needs a little tweaks here and there to tighten it up, but there's this exposition section right at the beginning where I have to let the reader know what's different between our world and the story world, so they can go into the story with that in mind.
It's necessary, especially since this is a short piece and not a novel, where things could unfold more slowly. But that exposition, as it stands, is really, really horrible. It's boring. And it feels contrived. And worse than that, it feels oddly patronizing.
But about a week ago, I had a flash on how I could fix it. Yay! Except it means completely rewriting the whole scene. Boo... But in doing that, I could also fix a couple of other minor points that the story has (like needing to give some more background on one character, explaining some societal differences that come about as a result of the core concept in the world, sketching in some early hints of one of the plot points. Like that. So yay!
So I took a stab at that. I'd started this a couple of days ago, got a few paragraphs in, and found myself painted into a corner. So I erased it and started over again. I started writing a little before 9. I took a short break around 10, when Matt moved his DVD from his laptop to the TV (the DVD player in his laptop is getting aged and pissy) so that I could move upstairs.
At about 11, I was pretty much done with the section. Or at least a draft of it -- I still need to read back through at some point and make sure I at least touched on all the salient points. I'm pretty sure there's one thing that needs to be explained in more detail. But I'd gotten the skeleton of it out there, at least, and most of the meat.
Just out of curiosity, I checked the word count. I'd written over 1800 words.
That's more than I've written in a single session since before Penny was born. I'd just about resigned myself to having lost the ability to write more than a thousand words in a sitting. Looking at that wordcount, I nearly cried.
This morning, I'm back to work and back on the treadmill. I've got a software delivery today, this proposal still breathing down my neck (one more week...) and a half-dozen other little tasks that need to be done. Plus I really, really need to get to the gym today. So it's back to Crazytown for me.
But last night was a much needed, much appreciated breather.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Where I Am
I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Having my feet in stirrups at 8:15 is exactly the way to start a day, eh? This was a followup to the biopsy I had about six months ago. The doctor says the red patch he saw before is still there, so he did a swab-test that'll go to the lab to see if it's still abnormal or if he needs to go in and remove it. So now I'm waiting to hear what the lab says. Whee.
On the plus side, having an 8:10 appointment got me in and out very quickly; I was at work less than fifteen minutes late. So hopefully I'll be able to chug through my work for the day early and not have to work late to meet my deadline.
Also, today is (more or less) my diet anniversary. I posted comparison and progress pictures over on the diet blog. It's actually fairly astonishing to look at a whole year's progress at one time like that.
That's all I got, today. Time to dive into this work and hope I manage to finish it on time.
On the plus side, having an 8:10 appointment got me in and out very quickly; I was at work less than fifteen minutes late. So hopefully I'll be able to chug through my work for the day early and not have to work late to meet my deadline.
Also, today is (more or less) my diet anniversary. I posted comparison and progress pictures over on the diet blog. It's actually fairly astonishing to look at a whole year's progress at one time like that.
That's all I got, today. Time to dive into this work and hope I manage to finish it on time.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Flicker
I love fall, stupid spiders aside. (And the stupid spiders are out in force this year, and have been hanging out much longer than usual. Usually the birds have gotten them all by now. What gives? Aren't the birds hungry this year?)
But I love fall anyway. The weather these last couple of days has been just perfect - crisp and chilly in the mornings, warm and sunny in the afternoons. I've got Honeycrisp apples for my afternoon snack all this week. I've been burning tea candles in my gorgeous little crackle-glass holder at work for the past week. There are Hallowe'en decorations going up everywhere, and the leaves are finally starting to change colors. (Must make time in about a week or so to go for a few walks with my camera.)
This is my favorite time of year, for about the next six weeks. I need to remember to enjoy it.
I talked to my aunt yesterday for a while, and hashed out a few details on my trip to Atlanta in mid-November.
I'll be taking Penny with me, and my aunt sounded very excited to be expecting us. We'll only be there for a few days (fly down Thursday, fly home Sunday), but she was talking about trying to meet up with some of my cousins, and looking into various things that I could do with Penny. There's a children's museum close by their house, and of course there's the aquarium and the Atlanta zoo. (Penny seemed especially excited by the idea of the zoo, when I mentioned it to her.) I expect it will be a busy trip, but I expect it to be fun, too. I'm looking forward to it. Now, to make my flight reservations, and figure out what I'm packing and how to pack it...
But I love fall anyway. The weather these last couple of days has been just perfect - crisp and chilly in the mornings, warm and sunny in the afternoons. I've got Honeycrisp apples for my afternoon snack all this week. I've been burning tea candles in my gorgeous little crackle-glass holder at work for the past week. There are Hallowe'en decorations going up everywhere, and the leaves are finally starting to change colors. (Must make time in about a week or so to go for a few walks with my camera.)
This is my favorite time of year, for about the next six weeks. I need to remember to enjoy it.
I talked to my aunt yesterday for a while, and hashed out a few details on my trip to Atlanta in mid-November.
I'll be taking Penny with me, and my aunt sounded very excited to be expecting us. We'll only be there for a few days (fly down Thursday, fly home Sunday), but she was talking about trying to meet up with some of my cousins, and looking into various things that I could do with Penny. There's a children's museum close by their house, and of course there's the aquarium and the Atlanta zoo. (Penny seemed especially excited by the idea of the zoo, when I mentioned it to her.) I expect it will be a busy trip, but I expect it to be fun, too. I'm looking forward to it. Now, to make my flight reservations, and figure out what I'm packing and how to pack it...
Monday, October 5, 2009
Back To It
Saturday didn't go so well.
I wanted to go to the Fall Festival at Newport News Park. Penny was enthusiastic, and Alex is always happy to get out of the house, so it seemed like a good idea. I even thought to pack lunches, so we wouldn't have to guess at carbs for Penny or points for me.
Walking up to the festival, though, routed us straight through a playground. Alex saw the swings, and from that point forward, all he wanted was to go back to them. Have I mentioned that he's starting in on Two-ish behavior? Yeah. There was a lot of sobbing and crying and whining until Matt gave up and took him to a playground to swing.
And Penny wasn't too keen on the crafts that I wanted to look at, and she didn't want to stay in the kids' area while I wandered around to look at stuff. She had fun in the kids' area, at least -- did some crafts and got some free takeaways. But I'd been hoping to wander more. I've found some really cute things, in previous years. But by the time Penny was done with the kids' area, Alex was in a near-continuous state of meltdown, and we decided to just give up and head home.
Alex fell asleep in the car about halfway home, unsurprisingly. And then, having had a ten-minute nap in the car, he completely refused to take any more nap once we got home. Matt took him along to the comic store in the afternoon, and he fell asleep again, but once again refused to nap at home.
You know what kind of mood you get out of a toddler who's had two ten-minute naps? A Very Bad Mood, that's what. The rest of the evening was horrible. We gave up on the notion of going out to eat for dinner and got takeout instead. And then the takeout place forgot my soup, and the thing I'd ordered was not remotely appetizing. (I don't even know why I ordered it. I can't blame that part on the restaurant. Seriously - I don't like spicy food, I don't like peppers, I don't like mushrooms, and I'm not the biggest fan of spinach salads. So why would I order a chili-lime chicken spinach salad with peppers and mushrooms? Major brainfail.)
The only unalloyed good thing about Saturday was that Penny pestered me to keep my promise that we could decorate for Hallowe'en. I started out feeling like it was yet another chore, but her enthusiasm was contagious. We hung streamers and various doodads all over the house, and by the time it was done, I wanted more.
Sunday was some better, though Alex continued to demonstrate his near-Twoness for us. But I took a trip to Target to pick up a couple of things and wound up buying more Hallowe'en decorations while I was at it.
And a costume, too, which was a triumph in itself -- I haven't been able to buy an off-the-shelf costume since I was still trick-or-treating. (There were the no-money years, and then there were the fat years.) I was so excited to be able to buy a costume that I wanted to buy about four of them. It took me a long time to decide. I thought about a fairy costume so Penny and I could match, but the adult fairy costumes are -ahem- short, and proud as I am of my lost weight, the skin on my legs is still kind of... saggy and baggy and not really what I want to be showing off. Same problem with the pirate wench costume. The tavern wench costume had a long skirt, but didn't really appeal. The snow queen costume was gorgeous, but looked hot. The Cleopatra costume was pretty, too, but I didn't think Penny would get the reference, and since she's about 85% of the reason I'm getting a costume in the first place... no go. I finally settled on a Gothic robe and told Penny I was going to be a witch, only without the pointy hat. She was very impressed by the spiderweb detailing.
It seems slightly ridiculous to buy a Hallowe'en costume just to have something to wear while I stay at home and hand out candy -- there isn't even a chance of wearing it to a party or to work, since Hallowe'en is on a Saturday this year. But I'm okay with being slightly ridiculous, if it'll keep this odd sense of enthusiasm going.
Who knows? Maybe I'll even be inspired to decorate for Christmas, this year.
I wanted to go to the Fall Festival at Newport News Park. Penny was enthusiastic, and Alex is always happy to get out of the house, so it seemed like a good idea. I even thought to pack lunches, so we wouldn't have to guess at carbs for Penny or points for me.
Walking up to the festival, though, routed us straight through a playground. Alex saw the swings, and from that point forward, all he wanted was to go back to them. Have I mentioned that he's starting in on Two-ish behavior? Yeah. There was a lot of sobbing and crying and whining until Matt gave up and took him to a playground to swing.
And Penny wasn't too keen on the crafts that I wanted to look at, and she didn't want to stay in the kids' area while I wandered around to look at stuff. She had fun in the kids' area, at least -- did some crafts and got some free takeaways. But I'd been hoping to wander more. I've found some really cute things, in previous years. But by the time Penny was done with the kids' area, Alex was in a near-continuous state of meltdown, and we decided to just give up and head home.
Alex fell asleep in the car about halfway home, unsurprisingly. And then, having had a ten-minute nap in the car, he completely refused to take any more nap once we got home. Matt took him along to the comic store in the afternoon, and he fell asleep again, but once again refused to nap at home.
You know what kind of mood you get out of a toddler who's had two ten-minute naps? A Very Bad Mood, that's what. The rest of the evening was horrible. We gave up on the notion of going out to eat for dinner and got takeout instead. And then the takeout place forgot my soup, and the thing I'd ordered was not remotely appetizing. (I don't even know why I ordered it. I can't blame that part on the restaurant. Seriously - I don't like spicy food, I don't like peppers, I don't like mushrooms, and I'm not the biggest fan of spinach salads. So why would I order a chili-lime chicken spinach salad with peppers and mushrooms? Major brainfail.)
The only unalloyed good thing about Saturday was that Penny pestered me to keep my promise that we could decorate for Hallowe'en. I started out feeling like it was yet another chore, but her enthusiasm was contagious. We hung streamers and various doodads all over the house, and by the time it was done, I wanted more.
Sunday was some better, though Alex continued to demonstrate his near-Twoness for us. But I took a trip to Target to pick up a couple of things and wound up buying more Hallowe'en decorations while I was at it.
And a costume, too, which was a triumph in itself -- I haven't been able to buy an off-the-shelf costume since I was still trick-or-treating. (There were the no-money years, and then there were the fat years.) I was so excited to be able to buy a costume that I wanted to buy about four of them. It took me a long time to decide. I thought about a fairy costume so Penny and I could match, but the adult fairy costumes are -ahem- short, and proud as I am of my lost weight, the skin on my legs is still kind of... saggy and baggy and not really what I want to be showing off. Same problem with the pirate wench costume. The tavern wench costume had a long skirt, but didn't really appeal. The snow queen costume was gorgeous, but looked hot. The Cleopatra costume was pretty, too, but I didn't think Penny would get the reference, and since she's about 85% of the reason I'm getting a costume in the first place... no go. I finally settled on a Gothic robe and told Penny I was going to be a witch, only without the pointy hat. She was very impressed by the spiderweb detailing.
It seems slightly ridiculous to buy a Hallowe'en costume just to have something to wear while I stay at home and hand out candy -- there isn't even a chance of wearing it to a party or to work, since Hallowe'en is on a Saturday this year. But I'm okay with being slightly ridiculous, if it'll keep this odd sense of enthusiasm going.
Who knows? Maybe I'll even be inspired to decorate for Christmas, this year.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Addendum
I got so caught up in ranting about the proposal that I forgot to talk about the whole reason I was writing about it at all:
However dark the cloud, there's always at least a glimpse of silver. In this case, I have so far encountered two little sparkling stars that make me smile every time I see them:
1) My main point of contact with the other company we're working with on this proposal is Mr. Moneypenny. I swear I'm not making that up, that's his honest-to-god name. (I usually avoid using the full/real names of people I encounter at work, but this one is too good to pass up. And not likely to score very high in a google search, heh.) I've so far avoided making any Bond references in my communications with him -- he's probably pretty sick of it, I'd imagine. But the temptation to do so anyway is really quite incredible.
2) While compiling a list of various contracting officers for assorted contracts -- most of whom are located in the DC metropolitan area -- I discovered there is a town in Maryland actually called Suitland. Suit-land! Ah-hahahahaha! How very appropriate! How the hell did that slip through?
However dark the cloud, there's always at least a glimpse of silver. In this case, I have so far encountered two little sparkling stars that make me smile every time I see them:
1) My main point of contact with the other company we're working with on this proposal is Mr. Moneypenny. I swear I'm not making that up, that's his honest-to-god name. (I usually avoid using the full/real names of people I encounter at work, but this one is too good to pass up. And not likely to score very high in a google search, heh.) I've so far avoided making any Bond references in my communications with him -- he's probably pretty sick of it, I'd imagine. But the temptation to do so anyway is really quite incredible.
2) While compiling a list of various contracting officers for assorted contracts -- most of whom are located in the DC metropolitan area -- I discovered there is a town in Maryland actually called Suitland. Suit-land! Ah-hahahahaha! How very appropriate! How the hell did that slip through?
Proposed
I hate working proposals. Hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it.
Hate.
For those of you not in the government-contractor world, this is how it works: The government issues a Request for Proposal, which is anywhere from 50 to 300 pages of dense legalese explaining what the project is that they want to get done and exactly how they want the proposals built and what criteria they'll use to choose among the submitting candidates. We then have about a month -- that's an average; I've seen them as short as a week and as long as three months -- to put together our company's proposal, which is generally about the same size as the RFP. It's much more complicated and messy than this, of course. Especially because all the usual work we have to do doesn't exactly stop while we do all this proposal stuff, so you have to decide what falls through the cracks, and more often than not, even after you've eliminated or postponed the cruft, lots of people still have to work overtime. (And we're all salaried, of course, so that's unpaid overtime.)
The first time I was asked to work on a proposal, I worked 12-hour days for the better part of a week to get my section done. When I'd finished, I turned in my section... and the manager in charge of the proposal decided she didn't like it, threw it all out, and had someone else rewrite it.
This is not remotely uncommon, though I didn't realize it at the time.
HATE.
Alas for me: my boss has apparently decided that no major proposal shall be submitted without my stamp on it. So to speak.
Usually, he just has me review stuff that other people have written, to fix grammar and make readability suggestions. Sometimes, if we've got a tight pagecount limit (the RFP will tell us how many pages we're allowed to submit for various sections, and usually also tells us exactly what font and point size to use, too) he'll use me to help trim wordy bits down.
This time, he put me in charge of gathering and polishing the resumes for our key personnel. I've already bitched about that, but it wasn't going to make me work late.
Then I looked at the proposal outline and realized I'd been written in for a few other paragraphs, here and there. It made sense -- they were paragraphs on QA, and Risk Management, and other things that are closely tied to process, which is my job. That was enough to push me to some overtime, but not a lot. I've done these for previous proposals; all I had to do was pull some old files and rearrange them so they contained all the keywords from this particular RFP. A few hours, tops.
And then they decided that they were going to put me in charge of the Past Performance section. This is, in essense, the company's resume. We list a (specified) number of contracts we've already worked, and describe how they relate to this contract, and explain how wonderfully we did them. And there's a questionnaire we have to send to our customers from those previous contracts that they fill out and send back to the government (so we can't see their answers) so the government can find out whether we were really wonderful or what.
So now I've got to come up with seven 2-page project descriptions, in which I have to try to make us sound amazing! and cutting-edge! and indispensable! and most of all relevant! The seven projects we're showcasing have already been chosen for me. One of them belongs to the subcontractor we're teamed with on the proposal, and another is for a project in another division of the company. Someone else will write those, but I'll have to vet and edit them. (One of them has already come in. It's 4 pages long -- somehow, I have to figure out how to cut it in half.) And I'll more or less be writing the other five myself.
And it'll all be due before the end of next week.
On top of all the other work I've got, which has not exactly been scarce, lately.
Which is why I expect to be working some this weekend.
Yay.
Which is why I'm wearing my bearmonster shirt today.
Hate.
For those of you not in the government-contractor world, this is how it works: The government issues a Request for Proposal, which is anywhere from 50 to 300 pages of dense legalese explaining what the project is that they want to get done and exactly how they want the proposals built and what criteria they'll use to choose among the submitting candidates. We then have about a month -- that's an average; I've seen them as short as a week and as long as three months -- to put together our company's proposal, which is generally about the same size as the RFP. It's much more complicated and messy than this, of course. Especially because all the usual work we have to do doesn't exactly stop while we do all this proposal stuff, so you have to decide what falls through the cracks, and more often than not, even after you've eliminated or postponed the cruft, lots of people still have to work overtime. (And we're all salaried, of course, so that's unpaid overtime.)
The first time I was asked to work on a proposal, I worked 12-hour days for the better part of a week to get my section done. When I'd finished, I turned in my section... and the manager in charge of the proposal decided she didn't like it, threw it all out, and had someone else rewrite it.
This is not remotely uncommon, though I didn't realize it at the time.
HATE.
Alas for me: my boss has apparently decided that no major proposal shall be submitted without my stamp on it. So to speak.
Usually, he just has me review stuff that other people have written, to fix grammar and make readability suggestions. Sometimes, if we've got a tight pagecount limit (the RFP will tell us how many pages we're allowed to submit for various sections, and usually also tells us exactly what font and point size to use, too) he'll use me to help trim wordy bits down.
This time, he put me in charge of gathering and polishing the resumes for our key personnel. I've already bitched about that, but it wasn't going to make me work late.
Then I looked at the proposal outline and realized I'd been written in for a few other paragraphs, here and there. It made sense -- they were paragraphs on QA, and Risk Management, and other things that are closely tied to process, which is my job. That was enough to push me to some overtime, but not a lot. I've done these for previous proposals; all I had to do was pull some old files and rearrange them so they contained all the keywords from this particular RFP. A few hours, tops.
And then they decided that they were going to put me in charge of the Past Performance section. This is, in essense, the company's resume. We list a (specified) number of contracts we've already worked, and describe how they relate to this contract, and explain how wonderfully we did them. And there's a questionnaire we have to send to our customers from those previous contracts that they fill out and send back to the government (so we can't see their answers) so the government can find out whether we were really wonderful or what.
So now I've got to come up with seven 2-page project descriptions, in which I have to try to make us sound amazing! and cutting-edge! and indispensable! and most of all relevant! The seven projects we're showcasing have already been chosen for me. One of them belongs to the subcontractor we're teamed with on the proposal, and another is for a project in another division of the company. Someone else will write those, but I'll have to vet and edit them. (One of them has already come in. It's 4 pages long -- somehow, I have to figure out how to cut it in half.) And I'll more or less be writing the other five myself.
And it'll all be due before the end of next week.
On top of all the other work I've got, which has not exactly been scarce, lately.
Which is why I expect to be working some this weekend.
Yay.
Which is why I'm wearing my bearmonster shirt today.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Fall
Hey, it's the first day of October! And the weather couldn't be more perfect - crisp enough to need a sweater in the mornings, blue skies and fluffy clouds... Weirdly, the leaves haven't started turning yet. Not even random little bunches here and there. Which means either everything will turn brown and fall off the trees all at once sometime in the next three weeks, or we're having a late fall and everything will still be perfect and gorgeous for my birthday.
You can probably guess which one I'm hoping for.
I'm slowly crawling out from under the stress. The PMS seems to have faded, and yesterday's contract closings are done. There's still the proposal (and my boss added a whole new section to my responsibility list for it yesterday) but I took some of it home last night and managed to get several paragraphs drafted, so that puts a dent in it, at least.
(I also very carefully shaved off enough points to have a couple of drinks last night. I emptied two "airplane" bottles of liquor, and didn't even feel a buzz. You'd think, as much weight as I've lost this past year, that I'd have turned into a cheap date, but apparently not. How very frustrating - I don't drink often, but when I do, I really want to feel it! Oh, well. At least I wasn't hung over this morning.)
I have a list of administrivia tasks as long as my arm to wade through today, but it's all low-key, low-urgency, in-my-own-time stuff. Here's hoping that helps me relax some more.
Penny got into her jewelry kit last night, and made me a necklace, a bracelet, and a "headband", all of which I dutifully wore.
"Daddy, look," she breathed, awestruck. "Isn't Mommy almost pretty?"
You can probably guess which one I'm hoping for.
I'm slowly crawling out from under the stress. The PMS seems to have faded, and yesterday's contract closings are done. There's still the proposal (and my boss added a whole new section to my responsibility list for it yesterday) but I took some of it home last night and managed to get several paragraphs drafted, so that puts a dent in it, at least.
(I also very carefully shaved off enough points to have a couple of drinks last night. I emptied two "airplane" bottles of liquor, and didn't even feel a buzz. You'd think, as much weight as I've lost this past year, that I'd have turned into a cheap date, but apparently not. How very frustrating - I don't drink often, but when I do, I really want to feel it! Oh, well. At least I wasn't hung over this morning.)
I have a list of administrivia tasks as long as my arm to wade through today, but it's all low-key, low-urgency, in-my-own-time stuff. Here's hoping that helps me relax some more.
Penny got into her jewelry kit last night, and made me a necklace, a bracelet, and a "headband", all of which I dutifully wore.
"Daddy, look," she breathed, awestruck. "Isn't Mommy almost pretty?"
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