Friday, May 28, 2010

Life after Proposal

(warning: contains 'Lost' spoilers)

One of my colleagues likes to talk about being in "Proposal Hell" when he's in the throes of proposal writing. Having just clicked "release to org" and thus exiting my own personal Proposal Hell, I can totally relate. But now I have to wonder, does that mean I'm now in some kind of Proposal Purgatory for the next several months until I finally get word back on whether or not I get funded? And then, I guess, I find out if I'm one of the Chosen Ones who enter Funding Heaven or if I'm one of the Damned.

Which, of course, makes me think of Lost, so maybe I'm really in some bizarre alternate timeline altogether where I won't find out what's truly going on until I achieve my own personal flash of enlightenment, but at least I get to see all my friends again. But there my powers of metaphor completely fail me. Lost was really wacky.

And, of course, it's not like you get to stay in Funding Heaven for long. You get to go through the whole thing again when your grant period ends. Sort of like having to re-enter the Numbers every 108 minutes, or something.

Here's the song that's been going through my head. (Sorry, it won't let me embed it.) Because my proposal is for the NASA ROSES program. Get it? Moses proposes to ROSES for YSOses. Only my name isn't Moses, too bad.