At 5:50 AM eastern time, the alarm went off. Not my alarm on my iPod touch, you see. It was the annoying type of alarm only heard on clock radios. And I certainly did not set it for 5:50 AM.

Despite a quick dinner, I didn’t get to sleep until 1 AM the night before after working on powerpoint slides. Blame my need to be thorough. And then that started an hour of tossing in an unfamiliar room with a so-so bed.

And so c’est la vie. During the meeting, most of the time, I had enough adrenaline running through me—whether through anxiety or actual interest to keep me well awake. I wonder if that’s how Jack Bauer does it. But there was a 30 minutes after lunch with a high-powered executive giving a spiel in a darkened room. He was really only giving the preso to the three of us from my work.

And I knew that the next 30 minutes were going to be horrible unless I somehow found a way to really really engage myself—to ask a stupid question (thus embarrassing myself) or think about how I will run the workshop. But neither could compete with my drowsiness.

So I would aimlessly write something in my notebook. Tilt my head in interest. Echo what my coworker said. Prevent my head from doing the deadly nod. Flip through my papers. Anything.

There were a few times that my eyes wanted to close desperately. Just let me be, my body yelled. And I would tell it, Just wait 8 hours and it will be ok.

It’s more than 8 hours later…and I am writing this blog entry.