Ah…. the coffee is kicking in. I can put my thoughts togethers a little bit more coherent now. This was one morning that I practically needed coffee to be able to pull together to go out to get my coffee.*

I have an excuse. It's not that I'm addicted to caffeine, although the Darling Husband would have you believe otherwise. My brain has been absolutely fried lately.

I volunteered to put together an event for our Regional Science Olympiad competition, on a subject that I knew pretty much nothing about. I've done other events in the past; I can learn enough to put together a 50 minute test, right?

Kick me if I ever put myself in that situation again.

Well, to be truthful, it is probably 'when', not 'if', and it wound up going alright. I was better pleased with the results than I was afraid I was going to be, although I could create something even better next time! ;-)

But it has meant several very late nights this past week as I try to pull together all the cramming that I've done over the past few weeks into something cohesive and reasonable. Two hours of sleep Thursday night and a short night on Friday also meant that as I was going into the Regionals yesterday morning, a migraine hit as well. Hooray for Better Living Through Chemistry; I have the correct prescription and although I prefer not to have to do it, I can stay on my feet in these circumstances, which is a Good Thing.

Pulling the event together was also compounded by the earthquake in Japan. This distracted me from working on my Science Olympiad event for far too many hours, which contributed to several of the very late nights. The Girl spent a year studying in Sendai, so we're more connected to the area than perhaps most. In addition one of her dearest friends moved back there with her husband to teach, and for the first day, we had no indication of their status.**

What a week.

So I NEED my coffee this morning*** to help recover from the migraine and the events of the past few days.

And that's my story and I'm sticking with it!


*Saturdays and Sundays I get my coffee out at the local coffee shop. It supports a locally owned company^ and gets me up and dressed.

^no, not Starbucks. ;-)

** While we have not heard directly from them, we have heard indirectly that they are alright. Specifics of what 'alright' consists of are still pending. We have not yet heard about other acquaintances there. It also turns out that The Girl had another friend in Tokoyo who is also fine. I didn't even *know* I needed to be worried about her!

*** as I sit here drinking my (very rare) second cup of coffee (decaf - I'm not THAT bad).