Music and Cats

On every project, I have weeks like this one, when all I do is get up, go to work, come home for dinner, go back to work, come home, sleep too little, get up and do it again. During these weeks, I sometimes have to remind myself why I love my work.

At those times, I look at photos like this one, of an affordable housing development in Tacoma. It was my baby for two years. I'm not going to overwork the creative endeavor as pregnancy and childbirth metaphor here; I'll just say that this project did not come into being easily. But now, there are 67 families, some previously homeless, who are living in this place and its sibling a couple of blocks down the street. I was in this courtyard doing final building inspections the week that the first residents moved in. I remember the excitement on their faces. So when I look at this photo, I see not only the buildings that I helped to create, but the hope that those buildings represent for the families who live in then. And that's worth a few late nights at work.