Staring at the computer screen

Like many of y'all out there, I spend at least eight hours a day working on a computer, so when I don't have much to say it gets tough to make myself sit down in front of the screen yet again and blog. For the past three days, I've been working on specs. See, architects make two kinds of documents for use in building a building: drawings and specifications. The drawings show what a wall is made of, how big it is, and how far apart the walls are in a building. The specifications, or specs, as we call them in da biz, are documents (written in Word, for example) which explain what brand or kind of drywall (gypsum board in da biz) to use, how we wants the joints taped, what brand(s) of metal studs are okay to use in the wall, how we want surfaces treated before you install something, how much bowing or warping is acceptable in a piece of drywall or wood, etc. You need both drawings and specs to make a project complete. So, I've been working on the specs for the procedure suite so that Jann can review them and make sure I didn't change anything she wouldn't allow.

Oh, hell, I haven't even mentioned the Medical Trials of Sarge lately. Back in late May, Sarge had a wisdom tooth removed, and unbeknownst to him, it got hella bad infected. Having not had a whole lot of surgery ever in his life, much less oral surgery, he didn't think too too much of the swelling in his face. When he returned to his oral surgeon for his one-week checkup, the doctor walked into the exam room, shut the door, and said, "You're going into surgery tonight." Didn't look in his mouth, nothing; just proclaimed him ready for the table. Turns out by the time they got in to drain the infection, Sarge was about a half hour away from needing a tracheotomy, as the swelling was starting to close up his throat. So, instead of relaxing on his vacation-at-home a couple of weeks ago, he spent three nights in the hospital. Then he cam back to work with a PICC line in his arm for the antibiotics and a huge gauze patch on his jaw where the incision was still draining.

Here's where I notice something about men and women:

In my experience, most men can watch gory horror flicks but get squeamish at the sight of real blood. Most women, however, seem to be the opposite. Guy watched The Exocist with no problem and no side effects, while I had nightmares for at least two weeks afterwards. Meanwhile, everytime a surgery show comes on TV, Guy has to change the channel whil I'm sitting there, munching on lasagna and pointing at the screen saying, "Now that looked infected. Good thing they took it out in pieces, though."

So, Sarge shows up with tales of how much infection the doctor drained out and how he drained it and flashing his gauze patch, and all the guys around me (Derek, Elliot, and Norman) are practically falling out of their chairs, goosepimply, twitching, and dry-heaving. At the same time, I'm standing there wanting to poke the incision with a stick to see if anything else comes out. Alas, Sarge woudn't let me do the pokey thing and I had to settle for staring with intrigue at the dark stain forming in the gauze.

Pixie: Ooooh, your incision is leaking goo!!

Sarge: Is it? Damn, I gotta clean it and repack it when I get home.

Pixie: Clean? Repack? Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! [waving my hand frantically] If you have to clean it before you leave the office, I wanna help!

Sarge: [edging away slowly] You're creepy.

So Sarge has been busier than a cat covering crap on a marble floor due to playing catch-up from all the extra medical time he's missing by having to go get a fresh injection of antibiotics for his PICC line every morning. I've actually been pleasantly busy this week now that the procedure suite has been cut loose. Busy's not bad, as it helps pass the time. Alas, it's all passing while I sit in front of my computer screen.

Random grousings from Pixie and her coworkers

• Pixie: Homeland Security needs to create a Fashion Police division. When they do, I'm taking Jann to the best lingerie store in Denver, and we're getting her some decent bras. Honestly, she needs to lift those things off of her lap, for once! And those sweaters circa 1992! Please, she has got to stop the madness.
• Elliot: What the hell do these IT guys from the hospital want with card readers and an intercom system in the next-door MOB [medical office building]? Putting an intercom system in an MOB is like putting one in your apartment building--you don't need it! If someone calls you, they don't call to a central switchboard, they call right to your suite! This is not a hospital! THIS IS NOT A HOSPITAL!
• Derek: Look, my wife and I are expecting a baby in a week, and I'm really looking forward to it. But can people please stop bringing their infants and small children into R-rated movies?! If any of you catch me doing that, roll up a newspaper and smack me on the nose with it. Seriously.
• Pixie: People are scared of the wrong things. Everyone's freaked out about terrorist attacks, but how many have happened in the US since 9/11? None! Stranger danger is all around us and it's all we're fed, especially women, but no one seems to realize that seven in ten women are sexually assaulted by someone they know. We're scared of the wrong things and tolerate the shit we shouldn't be putting up with!
• Derek: June 27th is Take Your Bike to Work Day. If I take my bike to work that day but drive a Hummer the rest of the year, does that make me better than Pixie, who carpols with her husband every day in a that 36-mpg Honda Civic?
• Elliot: Maybe Guy should get a Hummer.
• Pixie: Only if he buys me some jewelry.
• Norman: What's a hummer?

Well, what can I say? None of y'all paid to get into this show; don't go expecting quality, now.

Architecture through ADD

For the past nearly-two years, I've been working on one project, doing several tasks at a time in the service of that project. While working for Jann for the past couple of months, I've been put in charge of four small projects, each with different timelines and issues involved. I come home worn out at the end of each eight-hour day because my brain has been jumping from project to project to task to task. I'm working on the following, all of which will be built at different times in the fall:

• A 5,000 sf scope procedure department
• A 9,000 sf radiology department
• A two-room CT scan replacement
• A three-room nuclear medicine remodel

My days are spent drawing a few hours and getting some info for Jann, then giving it to her and having her tell me, "Okay, now hold off for a while until I've had my meeting tomorrow afternoon." She directs me what to work on next, trying to keep things moving on the projects and keep me busy. Finally, we got good news yesterday during a meeting with the contractor for the procedure suite and the imaging suite (imaging = radiology in medicalspeak). The procedure suite can move forward immediately, so I've been given license to ill. After she meets with the owner and consultants tomorrow, we'll officially be in design development phase.

Okay, a quick rundown of the phases of a basic architectural project in order:

• Schematic Design (2 weeks-4 months): this is when the architect and client work together to figure out how the rooms (and departments, in a larger building) will be laid out. Discussions include what order visitors and/or staff should go through the spaces as well as what should be close to or far from what. If it's a freestanding building or an addition, entry and exit points to the building are figured out and a basic exterior look is proposed, along with some exterior materials. When the owners sign off on the design, you move to the next phase.
• Design Development (4 weeks-6 months): as the name suggests, the design gets developed. A few rooms might move around, but for the most part, nothing's moving. Interior finishes are introduced and worked through with the client. The architect meets with the client now to make sure that they understand the client's workflow and make sure that the proper cabinets/casework are located in the rooms, as well as check with them about equipment being installed and ensuring that all the right utilities are provided at each equipment and casework location. The mechanical, plumbing, and electrical engineers will meet at least once with the clients during this phase to make sure they are providing the right kind of air, power, water, gases, etc. If any exterior work needs to be done, the architect begins to figure out how to put the exterior together and makes sure it works. After the client signs off yet again, we move on.
• Construction Documents (4 weeks-6 months): now the architect and her consultants do the heavy work of detailing the design, making sure that it will be very clear to the contractor how big things are, how they look, how the architect wants it built, where things stop and start and are located, etc. Lots of coordination happens during this time--the architect and her consultants trade electronic drawings on a regular basis to make sure ducts aren't conflicting with structural beams or fancy-schmancy ceilings and soffits, making sure pipes and ducts are coming out where the architect needs them to (or she might have to move some casework), etc. Finally, the drawings are printed, stamped and signed by the architect in charge, and we move on.
• Bidding and Negotiation (2-4 weeks): this phase happens now if there was no contractor on board yet. Most of the projects I do hire a contractor early on so that they can get estimates on the drawings as the design process goes along. This helps on big projects, like hospitals, because you can keep a handle on costs and reduce the risk of delaying the project because of money. In these situations, the contractor will do a cost estimate exercise after DDs and at least once during CDs. However, if there's no contractor on board before CDs, the drawings are put out to bid and a contractor is chosen based on their bids for the project. Then, we start building.
• Construction Administration (8 weeks+): like I said, we start building. The contractor mobilizes on site: gets a trailer or office onsite, secures the construction area, performs an demolition necessary (unless they've managed to pull a demo permit early in order to get ahead), and starts building stuff. The architect makes periodic visits to the site to make sure all is well and also answers questions. The architect also answers questions via email/fax from the contractor. More on that when I actually do it again in a few months. My radiology suite will be built in about 10 weeks. Larger projects, like my 70,000sf Wheatlands, required about two months of site work to prep the site and a year of building the building and parking lots. Pomme de Terre, which is a quarter to a half-million square feet and several buildings in all, started a year ago and will be done in 2012.

So, there you have it. It's the least I can do, since I haven't done a Detail of the Week in a month or more.

Nothing gets things done like procrastination.

The house is still a mess from cleaning up the back balcony and trying to fix the leak in the balcony enclosure walls. We have piles of clothes laying about from us cleaning out our closets. All the stuff from the balcony is in the living room, and everything from our closets and drawers are laying about in our room and the TV room. All the blankets that should be in the cabinets in the hall are laying around the living room, bedroom, and TV room because the cabinets aren't done. The house hasn't really been cleaned well since late April. So what's the best use of my time on a warm Saturday afternoon? That's right: gardening.

I went to the farmers' market this morning while going for a long walk and found some herbs for my container garden. The gal at the plant nursery booth recommended that I trim back my parsley so it wouldn't overwhelm my other herbs, and that I put my chocolate mint (which is invasive) and my rosemary (which likes drier soil than most herbs) in separate pots. I spent a great deal of the early afternoon digging in the dirt, cleaning pots, scooping soil, breaking up root knots, spraying down plants with organic herbicide, and enjoying the warm day.

Oh, then I boxed up the give-away clothes, changed the futon cover, and swept and swiffed the house. Then Guy came home and it was time for margaritas and quesadillas at our local cantina. I consider this day well-spent.

Major Yawnitude and the Temple of Zen-like Acceptance

Faded recently posted a comment about how I should enjoy the silence (to quote Depeche Mode) and bask in how still things should be this summer. After giving this some thought, I've realized what a good point he had/has. All these little projects I have going for this gal in the office (whom I suppose I should name if I'm going to be working with her all summer) should keep me just at 40 hours for a few months and even some into the fall, depending on the schedule. Again, I should thank my lucky stars. Guy was bored out of his perfect-haired skull this afternoon, whereupon he sent me an email only titled, "You can come rescue me at any time." (I drop him off and pick him up from work each day. He's a brave man to tolerate my granny-like driving to and fro.)

Here's the thing about architecture the business: it varies. It's tidal, seasonal, cyclical, call it what you like. But it ebbs and flows. This time last year, I was working about 60 hours a week and had been doing so since November of 2005. Howie was crazy busy with all his projects and needed help like a mofo. Meanwhile, a couple of Alex's other project managers had very little going on.

A year later, the tides have turned. Pomme de Terre's deadlines got pushed back a couple of months, buying everyone the time needed to do a good job and not have to work much if any overtime. Wheatlands is pretty much done, except for this landscaping brouhaha in which we've recently become enmeshed. Derek's and Elliot's MOB (medical office building) projects are slowing down or coming to a close. Jimmy Ray and his wife/sugar mama moved back east last week. Things...are...quiet. So bosses scramble (well, a good boss will, that is) to find work to keep people occupied until things pick up, and we all know that things are gonna pick up. They just do.

So, I'm going to enjoy this Zen-like state of just being busy for a few months. It's become clear both implicitly and explicitly that this is going to last for a bit, so I'm going to quit fighting it and just do it, do a good job, and move along. Guy and I have some small cleaning/remodeling projects that need completing, so this lull in our schedules should allow us time to finish them. It should also leave us the time and energy to do some fun stuff--a baseball game here, a comedy concert there, a camping trip a little later. That'll be nice for once. Last year while working on Wheatlands, I was also taking the ARE (which I'm sure I've bragged about a lot already) with Guy, which means that we only went to the mountains twice in the entire ski season. Then, Guy tweaked his back and we missed camping and hiking for the summer. Not this year. We're gonna actually do stuff for once. Yay!

Oh, Guy's actually cleaning in the other room. I guess I should go help....

Mile High Pixie and the Temple of Ennui

There's a good reason I haven't been posting a lot lately. Well, a couple of good reasons. For one thing, there hasn't been a lot going on project-wise. My previously-promised project, MCRC (Mendwell Center for the Reality Challenged), is still in a holding pattern. And since there are only a few things left to do on Wheatlands, I'm having to help another project manager in the office with a few small projects she has going on. A CT replacement, a radiology suite, a procedure suite, and a storage-room-turned-nuclear-medicine-treatment-room...little stuff. It's all doable, but it gets annoying because a) it takes a lot of energy to switch between three or four projects in an eight-hour period, and b) they're not really my projects, per se. At any second, my new project could start and leave this poor gal high and dry, or worse, I'd have to start like gangbusters on my new project while still having to finish up these little projects.

I guess I can't really complain. Guy's project at his new office has yet to start in earnest, so he's super-bored. His office assured him that it would start soon, just hang tight, please don't quit, go to these code classes in the meantime, please don't quit. I might be bored with these little projects, but at least I'm not bored bored.

And frankly, I've earned my boring pedestrian life, and I say that with no humor (for once) or regret. Most of my life has been spent in one whirlwind or another of drama, anguish, fear and anxiety. I've gotten to where I like the fact that as soon as Guy and I hit the door at 5:30 in the evening, we're in our lounge-around clothes/pajamas. Friends call at 7pm to ask would we like to go out for a drink and dinner? and we can say with almost a grin thanks, but we just finished dinner and we're already in our PJs, but maybe this weekend? After months of 60-hour weeks working on Wheatlands plus studying for and taking (and passing!) the ARE, it's great to come home after an eight-hour day and cook dinner while bantering about with Guy on whatever topic: Barry Bonds, the head of NASA talking crap about global warming, how should we clean up the back balcony where we store everything, and so on.

So, I suppose instead of trying to conquer the Temple of Ennui, perhaps I should hang out and stay a few days (or weeks) in one of its suites. Maybe lounge around by the pool, raid the minibar, whatever. As my mom once told me, "You're bored? Good. Be bored. It's good for you."

Hell yeah.

Ther's no other way to describe seeing an entire small town turn out to the ribbon cutting of a building you've worked on and bled over and stayed up for and missed eight months of weekends for and worried about and watched go up column by metal stud by sheet of drywall by light fixture by carpet roll. I've been on Wheatlands since the middle of October 2005, and seeing everyone stand in the parking lot of my little (well, 70,000sf) hospital on an unseasonably cold rainy day with tornadoesque clouds on the horizon means a lot. Some local politicians came out and chattered a bit, but it was more meaningful to have the bigwigs (the CEO, the hospital's board president, and my big boss Alex) thank us for all our work. And hell yeah I liked hearing my name over that PA system. That CEO's nly laid eyes on me three times, but he gave me major props during his speech (and attributed some tasks to me that I didn't do, which makes me wonder if Howie's head didn't explode). It was beyond a delight to walk around the building and listen to people go "oohhhhh" over and over. 100,000 words in the English language, and nothing says it better than "oohhhh." What can a shorty say?

I drove Susanna there and back. She designed the interior finish palette, which was glorious (and no, that's not a gushy exaggeration--they were glorious and warm and beautiful), and her car was having issues so I drove. We both agreed that Leslie, who was still having to partly run Pomme de Terre because Jacqueline is only back part time, is losing her damn mind and is frustrating the hell out of everyone. Wanda, on the other hand, has been given some tasks on a secondary PdT project that, combined with being on or doing whatever she's doing, makes her quite enjoyable to work with. Leslie, however, is doing what I did on Wheatlands. The team has been told that they're not allowed to work overtime, but she won't just tell Howie, "This new task you've given me requires that I work overtime if you want all of this done by the end of Thursday." Susanna has no problem saying this sort of thing. when she does, Howie prioritizes her tasks, which allows her to--guess what?--work only 40 hours a week like she's supposed to. Susanna also has a zingy sense of humor, which makes me like her even more.

She and I were the last to leave the ribbon cutting. Derek came out to see how the building's exterior (which he designed), then had to leave early to make an appointment back in Denver. Alex and Howie rode together, which sounded like a recipe for disaster. Howie tried to hitch a ride with me at first. "Would you mind?" he asked. "I've had two huge had-to-go-to-court speeding tickets, and if I get another one they'll take my license away." I quoted this to Susanna, who said, "So he wants to ride with someone as opposed to exercising some self control?" Like I said, Susanna's got a great wit. Howie ended up having to drive his car whil Alex used to the time to read some contracts and make some phone calls.

While standing in the parking lot at Wheatlands, my cell hone went off. Turned out the be Derek, laughing his ass off. "Guess who I just passed on the highway, pulled over on the side of the road by a Kansas state trooper just outside of Sunnyvale?"
"...oh God, no!" I started to laugh.
"Yep," said Derek. "Howie...with Alex in the car."
I passed the message on to Susanna, who crowed in vindication.
I got another cell phone call on the way back to Denver from my owner's rep. "Pixie, What kind of car does Howie drive?"
I described it (candy apple black late model muscle car), and the rep said, "Well, I think I saw him pulled over by a state trooper--"
"--outside of Sunnyvale?" I asked.
He cackled. "YES! That's just the place! Oh Lord, it WAS him!"
Susanna could hear the rep laughing al the way from the passenger seat. She shook her head. "The cops won't have to take his license away. His wife's gonna do it for them."

Was it a good day? An amusing day? Hell yeah.