Grants and Pull Ups

Mentor and I are submitting another grant along with a collaborator at a different institution. We've mostly got a draft of it now. I've lost track of how many grants we've submitted together at this point. It's a lot (and we've had 2 big ones and 3 little ones funded over the years).

Meanwhile, coincidentally, I got a notice from NSF today about an overdue final report on an old grant I had as a co-PI with another PI from a different institution (I had a subcontract). That grant ended ages ago...for me. Turns out the PI has been milking the grant over the past 2 years through no-cost extensions and not sharing any of the money with me. I haven't seen a penny since 2009. (Even though up through this fall I've still been analyzing that data set, without compensation of course).

This has served as a strong reminder to be grateful for my kind and fair collaborators here at my current institution. People who do not not screw me over. People who get stuff done when they say they will. A collaborator who is fair and equitable about parceling out both the work and the rewards. Somebody who doesn't take credit for other people's ideas, and instead does everything possible promote the work of more junior colleagues. It's easy to take it for granted and forget that not everybody is like that.

Anyway, I really hope we get this grant. It's actually the most excited I've ever been about a project we've proposed together. I think it'd be a super awesome and very interesting project to do. But the grant funding situation is so crummy right now (5%), so it's probably not wise to get too excited over it. Fingers are crossed.

My other goal: Pull up! I am not there yet, but am getting closer. My gym coach got a band out that he ties to the pull-up bar and then I step into so that I do, basically, less-than-full-weight pull ups. I don't think it takes very many pounds off because it is still very, very hard. I can almost do it by myself, but not quite, so then my coach has to spot me just a little bit. However, I am doing all of this work after the crossfit class each time, when my arms and shoulders are already tired from the workout. My gym coach says, "You're going to get there in a few weeks." I don't know if it'll be that soon but hopefully in at least a couple of months I will get there! For some reason I have identified a pull-up as my own personal benchmark for becoming awesome. I think this is maybe because my friend Anne does pull ups and I want to emulate her awesomeness. (Hi Anne!)