Flashes of Panic

~5:30 AM, Monday, April 3, Fukuoka

For some reason, I’ve been unable to sleep much past 5 any morning I’ve been here.

I’ve done all six of my stories for the weekend, so there’s only the two magazine pieces to be written on the flight home. (Sunday’s pieces have all been posted now. I wish I’d been able to get a little more raw material for the features, but by the end of the day at the course, when my body was telling me it was around 4 AM, I was far from a sharp reporter.)

Hopefully I will be able to spend some time on the plane with the laptop out; if there’s one time when I feel smug about buying the 12” Powerbook, it’s when the person in front of you on a plane reclines their seat and I can still work. Of course, the problem may be lack of elbow room, not legroom.

What I need, though, is not space so much as a network connection to work on projects that live on servers at the University. The rest of this week is likely to be interesting, and new assignments have come in that make me suspect that I probably can’t afford to travel on a weekend again until May. Beyond that, though, I have had a positive and encouraging note from my IAAF editor (and others about this article in particular,) which makes me think this might not be my only meet on scholarship.

Now, I should get some packing done, so I can take the best advantage of my remaining time here. As little geocaching as I’ve done since I started graduate school, I’ll be kicking myself immensely when I get back to it if I miss my chance to make a find in Japan, particularly since one of only two caches in Fukuoka appears to be right next to my hotel.

Now Playing: Bang from Leisure by Blur