Pepsi Grant Application a Bust for this Month?

The rain is falling quietly outside as I write this, and all I can see out the windows is a reflection of our living room. Ever since we received (and accepted) an offer on our house, I've been looking around with newly sentimental eyes: How can I drink my morning coffee without seeing the angular shadows the sun makes on these particular wood floors? Can we really sell the couches we've cuddled up on for the last three, four, years? And what of the view from our back deck? Surely a little patch of yard can't replace that. Selling a house you've loved is a bittersweet thing, for sure.

Tonight, too, is bittersweet. I expected to rattle off an exuberant post pointing you all in the direction of my grant application on Pepsi Refresh, and beg for you to spread the word in all the ways you can. I've been preparing for that moment ever since I first heard of the Pepsi Refresh Project, which will award $1.3 million in grants every month in 2010 to the projects that receive the most votes online. But an hour--an HOUR--after applications started being accepted, I was informed that Pepsi had already received their 1,000-application quota for the month of March. The site politely asked me to try again on April 1.

Is this a mistake? Brought on, perhaps, by a sudden influx of traffic? Or some mishap during the scheduled maintenance earlier tonight? I hope so. I'll be getting in touch with someone from the company bright and early tomorrow morning.

Now for the sweet part of the evening: I created a Facebook Page for Provocation and Privacy! I've gotten many requests for one in the last couple of weeks and finally had a couple of hours to sit down and make it happen. Then I had the pleasure of watching as my night-owl friends and supporters started becoming fans. Very exciting stuff! I hope they'll share the page with their networks and so on. It'll be a great place for you to get quick updates in between these longer posts--and interact with others who care about books, reading, and literacy. Find the page here.

Also, we've broken 1,000 pageviews on the blog. :)

Thank you all, as always, for your support. I'll let you know what's going on with the Pepsi Refresh grant application as soon as I find out!