Out of the Frying Pan

Have you ever started doing something after a long time of NOT doing it and had that rush of forgotten skills come flooding back to you?

Knitting was like that, for me. I had done a lot of knitting when I was 12 and then basically none at all until 30 years later. It amazes me that my hands knew exactly what to do--how to hold the needles and the yarn and how to control the tension of the yarn as it flows through my fingers. Actually, it's really funny because I am what is called a "Continental" knitter, which means I hold my working yarn in my left hand, and since I am the only Continental knitter I know (and I think the only one in my knitting group), if knitting hadn't come back to me as easy as breathing, I would have NO ONE to ask for help. But it did, because some skills are just part of the fiber (hah!) of who we are once we learn them.

I have another skill like that: I can write grants.

In fact, I am a very good grant writer and in my L.B.K. (Life Before Kids) I raised literally millions of dollars for various non-profit organizations. And then I had my girls and I stopped doing that because, well, I really didn't want to do that anymore. It's hard, tedious work (mostly) and you have to swing at six million pitches before you ever get a base hit (Oh. My. Gosh. Clearly, I am overwrought if I am now making SPORTS ANALOGIES. I'm going to go drink a glass of cold water and come back when I'm calmer.)

(Insert "hold" music... "Oh.... Mandee--well, you came and you gave without taking...")

(Sorry about getting you stuck on that song.)

Anyway, as I was saying before my Psychotic Break, grant writing isn't really about anything so much as it is doing research and then writing and submitting grant proposals-- lather, rinse, repeat. It's kind of boring, really, and incredibly time consuming and no one wants to do it. Especially on a volunteer basis.

But guess what I'm doing this year?

I am chairing the grants committee for Ana's school. In fact, as it stands now, I AM the grants committee for Ana's school.

I know, I know, what if it cuts into my blogging time?? But I have to get involved in this new community in which we live and it's not like I have very many other skills I can offer. I can't even make copies! No, seriously, I have some weird Copier Death Ray and I can break a copy machine faster than you can say "add more toner." Once, I was walking PAST the copy room at my job and the door to the copier fell off of the machine. I am serious! There was no one touching the copy machine and all I did was walk PAST it and it broke. It got to where my staff would see me heading to the copier and they'd form a human barricade in front of it. "Step away from the copier and no one gets hurt!" You should see what I can do to a FAX machine...it's really ugly.

So, that's out. I'm not sure what else I could do--knit socks for the student body?

At any rate, here I am, dusting off some old skills.

It's funny, though, because I went to a Meeting this morning to learn about the committees at Ana's school and at some point, I heard something that sounded sort of like a click as my grant writing gear dropped into place. I began thinking of all the things the school needs and how easy some of them would be to fund. And then, boom, I was backing out a timeline and planning some strategic meetings and here I am, doing research and pulling out my old grant proposals and so on.

I think maybe I'm a grant writer again.

I wish my WEIGHT LOSS/EXERCISE gear would click into place... Maybe I could fund a home gym.