I Crossed the Finish Line

Well, it’s been a quite a few days here.

First, an annoyance — I still can’t post photos. I have two or three posts in draft form ready to go but needing photos. I have some good ones, too. I’ll try to get to the bottom of it when I can. But the past few days have been a whirlwhind and I am shaky now.

First, the good news. I have crossed the finish line. Today, my new column is up and tomorrow (Friday in US, so “today” when most of you will read this), my NFL in China story is the main cover feature of the WSJ Weekend Journal. That’s all good. Very good, actually. I’m told my column is having a big tease on the front page as well, so good day for me in the paper I suppose. It’s hard for me to feel too gung ho at the moment, however.

I was up to 3 last night waiting for a redeback on first my column and then the other story. Night before I was going until 2 or 2:30. Now that would be exhausting in any situation but B is in Hong Kong for meetings so I’ve also had to deal with the three younguns. I have to say that they have mostly been really good, but still…

I am too stupid or stubborn or whatever to have an ayi sleep over in these situations. I take the kids to school and see a third or more of the kids being dropped off by ayis and I’m in this situation and I think, “Hmmmm.” There’s got to be a payoff down the road with the kids, right?

Anyhow, the first night everyone slept through at least. Last night I’m here at my computer at 2 am and Anna starts wailing. I calmed her down, came back down. She starts again, says she wants go get into our bed.. I should have accepted it was an unusual night and brought here down but I hate kids in my bed, so no go. She nevre, ever sleeps in our bed, by the way, or even asks to. She did it again and this time was crying for mommy.

I calmed her down, came back and a few minutes later Jacob appears in my office, clutching his Webkinz frog and looking confused. I usher him into my bed and he immediately goes to sleep )I’m not sure he was really up, but Anna roused him for sure). Then I return to this damn keyboard.

Anna wakes up again, and I can’t handle this shit man, so I bring her down and put her in our bed. Around 3 I finally finish up but my bed is now full. I tried sleeping on a futon then went to Anna’s bed. Around 7 the kids all woke me up. I stumbled down, got them set up with various things and tried to lay back down. Jacob was on the computer playing Penguins when I got a phone call from NYC for last minute edits. For the next half hour while I dealt with some last-minute stuff, Jacob was extraordinarly helpful. He took care of the other two beautifully.

By the time I was finished it was about 7:50.. Jacob’s supposed to go to school at 8:05 and hadn’t eaten changed, anything. And he insisted on finishing a homework assignment.

They were all a little late to school but made it no problem.

Now I am rejiggering my schedule a bit. Tomorrow morning I have to be up early again to fly to Shanghai. Going to see Eric Clapton and doing a story for GW on his guitarists.. going down to have lunch with them. So that will be good. And I swear I am going to sleep at 9 pm come hell or high water.