whew

Throughout your life you find yourself facing The Big Project, one of those things you've absolutely gotta do, and do it right. Maybe it was a term paper, a master's thesis, or a presentation to the Big Boss or a prospective client. Maybe it was organizing and arranging your wedding or your child's wedding. Whatever it was, there was a Deadline, as in drop dead if you're late. As the Deadline approaches, your brain begins to short-circuit and slide into panic mode if you did not get a head start early enough and did not plan ahead.

I had one of those Projects due this week, not as big as a wedding but important enough to do it right. Today was the Deadline. Court deadlines are inflexible, especially in federal court. I consider it a professional failure to have to ask for an extension of time. Thankfully, I took a big stab at it beginning last week. It always looked good at the end of the day but the next morning I would ask, who wrote this crap? Some projects always require more time than you think it ought to and this was one of them. HOWEVER, I got the thing finalized and filed before five o'clock. Some lawyers in private practice keep bottles of booze on hand to celebrate such events, but not so in a municipal building. Ah, well. The satisfaction of getting it done is intoxicating enough. The satisfaction of winning will be even better but that remains to be seen.