In an appeal, you don’t really get to bring up stuff you didn’t bring up at trial.  For instance, you can’t say on appeal, “Well, the sweater was actually green,” if you didn’t even discuss the sweater at trial.  So, there.  I wish normal life could be like this.  Let me give you an example.

You meet for five years about a project.  You put your heart and soul into it, really.  You truly care about the project outcomes, wanting the customer to get what he asked for when he asked you to do the project.  Problem is that the customer doesn’t bother to tell you that he needs a place in his house for a laboratory.  And, when the house is all nice and complete, about 2 days before he moves in, he says, “OMG.  Where is my laboratory,” to which you reply with a blank look, “What laboratory?”.  Herein lies the problem. 

If you were at an appeals court, they would say, “Oh, I’m sorry.  You had the opportunity to bring up this laboratory at the meetings before we started construction (aka the trial ended), but you did not.  We’re sorry, but we won’t even talk about a laboratory in our opinion.”  Ah…that would be so very nice.

Alas, my world is not like that.  In design, people do indeed wait until the last possible moment to ask questions, to bring up issues, and to mention things that should have been mentioned three years prior to now.  They don’t, though.  And, it’s my job to deal with it.

This is one of the hardest parts of my job.  I am almost to the finish line.  I can see the checkerboard flag waving on the sidelines.  And, then, all of a sudden, someone tells me to run down a sidestreet, taking me away from the goal.  This is so frustrating because it feels like I’ll never get the project finished.  It’s also frustrating because people don’t think about the ramifications of their late and last-minute thoughts and decisions.  Sometimes, you just have to take it the way it is and make it work.  Unfortunately with high maintenance people, they don’t see it that way.

I know, it’s like this everywhere you go.  But, when you feel like you’ve put your all into something, it would be nice for someone to say, “Wow!  This is great,” even if they have a, “…but,” to add to the end.  For the most part, my job is thankless.  I rarely get a thank you from anyone.  That’s tough, because I truly try to do a good job and make things work.

I just want to be the judge for one day who gets to say, “Sorry, deal with it.  Next case!,” and slam the gavel.