Flashes of Panic

Now is about the time I figured that the Week from Hell would be over. Except it’s not, depriving me of any sense of satisfaction I might have gained from having survived.

• I managed to complete and hand in three of four assignments due in this week’s classes. The fourth was handed in… but the second of the two programs segfaults on execution, which means I might as well not have bothered. (More on this later.)

• I’ve been desperately contacting nine runners all week for four articles I was assigned for the Boston Marathon race program. I have made contact with seven. #8 has not responded to three e-mail messages; the phone number I have for her has been busy every time I call. I’m not sure what my next step is; it seems like I’m perilously close to the line between tenacity and harassment. #9 hasn’t responded to email; tonight I start cold-calling. Those two are blocking two different articles; all four were expected by today. One of the two remaining ones is 90% written and waiting for actual quotes from #8; if I can’t reach her tonight, I’m sending it in without. Then, of course, she’ll see it in the program and wonder why she wasn’t contacted, not remembering all those emails she ignored back in February/March.

• I’ve spent all of this afternoon clearing up my grading backlog. However, I’m now left with one remaining day of the week and a lot of hours yet to work for MPOW. I would be alarmed by this, but this is the third consecutive week where this has been the case, so instead I’m simply dejected that it has become status quo.

Now Playing: Alfred Hitchcock from Abigail by The Nields