It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, as they say, sitting outside at the Times. Morning after a storm, perfect skies. Recent cost savings measures mean that my car is now nine blocks away instead of seven, but on a day like this, it doesn’t feel far enough and a longer walk would be okay.
Writing can certainly be work, but today it’s an exhale. I’m getting to know what these waves feel like, though I’m certainly not yet in a surfing stance. We seem to write proposals in batches, then the waiting, the kick-off meetings, then the we-need-to-make-some-changes, then the screwed up calendar, culminating with the week of late nights with a laptop on the sofa and quick-bite dinners. We like to work, to be sure, we love it, but I have some things still to figure out about juggling.
Sent out plans last night for a project I love, for clients we want to follow for decades to come, but I woke today with that piercing guilt of the detail that doesn’t yet feel right, despite the deadline.
As we plan for success, as we try to manage the time, I like to think that I will someday get those details right more quickly, that I’ll stay in front of these deadlines, and that I will wake up with this sense of design-guilt less often.
By contrast, I hear a clause in my head from some fashion documentary, by Gucci, or the guy with the glasses or someone else who wore black, saying, "if you know it’s not right, you just have to take it back and fix it, you just have to." But if we don’t turn this in today, the project will be delayed, and another client’s wife will give me that stare of conviction, and so we’re left with a fix-it-later scenario, and a debt to the calendar, and the guilt.
The good news is that I know how to fix the errant detail. Along with this morning’s guilt came an idea. So, now is the matter of catch up and re-communication and repair.
While the other pieces keep moving, and vacation on the calendar, and probably a few more nights with the laptop, we’re thankful for amazing clients who keep us up late at night and running.
Andrew Osterlund AIA LEED AP
OsterlundHall Architects||||
19 W. Hargett St., Suite 700
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601
919-889-6823