I don’t mind taking the medication, the tests are kind of interesting because they reveal a lot about my inner chemistry, but the stubbornness of my body in clinging to the ever present ten pounds I have been trying to lose since forever drives me crazy.
I cannot lost weight.
For years, I have been dragging myself out of bed in the morning darkness to run five miles on the hard packed sand on the beach. This is everyday. I repeat, everyday. It does wonders for my cholesterol, my heart and muscle tone but do I lose weight? God forbid.
My friend Andrea who I run with shared this gloomy fact with me: every year during tax season (she is a CPA) she doesn’t run for two months and like clockwork, gains ten pounds. It is terribly unfair that running doesn’t take the weight off; it simply slows my backslide into obesity. An exercise in futility.
For me achieving any measure of success in weight loss is a counter intuitive process. Get less sleep, get more energy (from running). Run less miles, gain more weight.
Seth is very supportive of my early morning running obsession. “You don’t have to kill yourself doing this, you’ll always look good to me.” I could almost turn around, take off my sneakers and tumble back under the covers but no, I am determined to get out there and burn those calories. So as I walk out into the cool morning air, I toss my head and state with conviction,
“You will love me more when there is less of me.”
Are you weight loss challenged? How do you get to slim?
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Honestly, if I get any lazier I will simply calcify.
I love knitting lace. No, what I really love is wearing lace that I have knit. The peek of shoulder through the openwork, how it seems to float around you.
What I don’t love is following those verkockte patterns with long repeats to remember. I have not been able to retain large amounts of information in my head with any success since I took the SATs in high school. So, how does a lazy, impatient, train riding knitter do lace?
Listen closely: Think thin yarn, pick thick needles. Knit all rows or purl all rows. Voila!
Lazy Hoong Yee’s Purly Girl Lace
This is glorified garter stitch done big. This is easy, no remember, no pattern, no goofing up garter stitch that says lace over your shoulder with a wink that says,” OK, OK, it’s not doily worthy knitting but it got you to look twice, didn’t it?”
This is knitting designed to move when you move. No stitch patterns to keep track of. Just purl, girl.
Here’s a little video to show you how.
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She was a recruiter, a stylish one too. “The other girls used to laugh at me because I always buttoned my jacket before I hung them up. I did that so it hung right and looked good the next time I wore it.”
She made friends easily because she shared her care packages that came from Katz’s Deli. Remember their famous slogan – “Send a salami to your boy in the army!” Well, her mother did exactly that. Even if her boy’s name was Mildred.
When I think about women who do great things, I have to remind myself that “the hand that rocks the cradle rocks the world”. Mildred took pride in the work she did as a WAC during the war and in being part of the family business that manufactured mattress springs for the army. But her eyes would light up if you asked her about how she raised her family. That was her real work, her true calling that did not seem so glamorous to feminists or women seeking to be supermoms with careers.
I run an arts council that was created to support, develop and promote artists in Queens. Over the past decade, there are many artists and arts groups whose careers have been launched with our help, either through grants or professional development. I love being part of this energy, seeing the career of an artist evolve, connecting groups to each other, building communities.
There are many more women in the nonprofit sector than men. More women in leadership positions and in key administrative and programmatic positions. This work we do is mission driven and engages people’s passions. It often becomes self defining and if you are an empty nester, a boomer, or a single woman, this can easily fill your life.
Maybe I am channeling Mildred, but it is not my dream to be remembered as the”World’s Greatest Executive Director”. I can feel my eyes light up when someone asks me about my family.
Who are you
Me, as you know, I am an artspy, a momspy and a nonprofit knitter. I love working in the arts and in the nonprofit world. But who I really am is the one my son calls from the nurse’s office in his school when he got poison ivy all over his face. I am the lunchmaker, the driver, the midnight hour art project saviour, the one he asks advice from about auditioning for LaGuardia High School as a break dancer.
I am mission control.
Who are you? What is the part of your life that moves you?
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Suppose you discover a source of funding that would be perfect for your project and all you have to do is write a proposal and address the questions in the application. Hmmm… that doesn’t sound too difficult.
It isn’t. And that is why I am constantly amazed by the lengths some people go to in creating what I call “the kitchen sink” proposal which is simply everything you think you have to include besides the answer to the question.
I am a panelist for the LitTAP grant and began reading through applications from thirty groups including nonprofit literary organizations, small presses, magazines and online publications who have applied for a grant up to $2,500 to support a literary technology strategy in New York State.
” Examples of eligible requests include: consultancies on technology strategy; software or hardware purchases or upgrades; website development; graphic design and creation of digital images; automated payment or email marketing web-based programs (PayPal, Constant Contact), integrative use of Web 2.0, and acquisition of assistive technologies to serve artists/audiences with disabilities. Requests that can serve as model projects for the field will be given priority.”
I think the guidelines and criteria are fairly clear and include examples of potentially fundable projects. There are many applications that are quite interesting and compelling but could use some focused clarity in presenting their information – make it easy for someone like me to immediately get it.
At this point in my review process, I want to share two things that can make your application stand out and that can make me, a panelist, your biggest fan.
1. Be upfront and clear about what you are asking for.
Example
“The XYZ Project requests $2,500 in order to fund
the transfer of twelve (12) Sony V-
30H video tapes into digital format and DVD access copies.”
This is clear and precise. I know exactly what you need the funds for. Nothing irritates me more than having to wade through words to find this information. State your request with boldness and confidence right at the beginning. You will immediately rise in my estimation.
2. Submit your project budget in Excel, not Word.
Example
Project Budget:
PROGRAMMER: $1625 (25 hours @ $65/hr)
SOFTWARE: $569.80
(3) licenses for FileMaker Pro 10 @ $179.95 each
(1) license for Actual Technologies MySQL ODBC drivers @ $29.95
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT: 10 hours @ $22 per hour= $220
Total Expenses: $2,424.80
Does this make me want to throttle someone? Yes, it does! When I read an application, I like going over the numbers. Give this to me in a spreadsheet with nice and neat columns. If this is how you do your math, I am going to be worried about your ability to work with your budget.
Why you should do this
Sometimes panelists have to read a lot of applications. You want to be memorable for all the right things – well thought out project, achievable goals, clear budget, etc. Not the wrong things – a vague request, a hard to read budget. All this takes is some confidence and a respect for clarity. Your project deserves to be seen in its best light.
Be respectful of your reviewers and panelists. It will go a long way.
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Have you ever wished you had more time to do everything you want to do in a day?
I thought about that as I was reading a stack of literary grant applications on my iPad in the park. Here I am, in a beautiful place, doing my reading way before the panel meeting for once, and using my brand new shiny toy, the iPad to do it all. Every so often I would skim my favorite blogs, jot down a few ideas for my own writing, find a recipe, read the New York times, check out traffic and weather, and visit a gardening website for tips on growing a fig tree, one of my latest projects. I think I must have done a dozen things while I was sitting there.
Yes, the experience was powerful. Access and information elegantly delivered. And instantly.
I wanted more.
Now I need more apps to do more things. Why stop after reading thirty plus applications? I can annotate, link websites, score and rank them, too. And check my email, upload photos to Flickr, write a product review etc.
Does this happen to you too? Does technology create more stuff for you to do?
There will never be enough hours in the day for you to do everything you want to do once you get seduced by everything you could do. What you want to do dissipates into “wow, that would be a cool thing to do.”
The best thing I did for myself was to put down my iPad, pick up my gardening gloves and spend the rest of my afternoon working in the garden with my friend Andrea.
Nothing could replace the simple satisfaction and sense of accomplishment I felt at the end of the day. A day of doing one thing well – choosing to be fully present in one moment at a time, one plant at a time, one day at a time.
If you have a lot of things on your never ending to do list like I do, here’s a great gardening metaphor quote from Tom Peters:
Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune. Tom Peters
My two cents:
Do less with more time.
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photo by What Makes the Pie Shops Tick?
I write about the art of happiness with style notes for creative people who want to make life their everyday passion. What's yours? 
