What am I doing?

It's 2:30 in the morning and I have to be on a plane at 11 a.m. But on the way home from work, listening to the eerie and somewhat haunting songs of David Gray as I drove past a local hotel being used as overflow dormitory space for a local college, I had too much running through my head to put off writing for a day or so. I looked into some of the windows as I drove by, my eyes attracted by the Christmas lights and decorations hanging in those with the curtains pulled back. I saw into a few rooms and was immediately reminded of my own college days and the end of the semester, trying to work in studying, partying and certain little holiday get-togethers before heading home for a month-long break.

And I got excited again, because I'll be reliving a little of that beginning tomorrow. Which is now, of course, later today.

I'm going to South Bend tomorrow to (in a rough chronological order) see Notre Dame play Indiana in basketball, catch up with a couple of friends who have returned to ND for law school and the seminary, visit with my sister and celebrate her birthday on Thursday, which is when I return to New Jersey. So the celebrating will be Wednesday night, which also happens to be the last day of classes for the semester, and finals don't start until Monday, so absolutely no studying is done Wednesday night. It's a party night.

So today I had to tie up as many loose ends as I could that couldn't wait until I return Thursday night.

- I had to look into tickets, airfare and accomodations in Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl, to which my whole family as well as my college roommate and his family are planning a trip. Not to mention call my friend Courtenay, who lives there and tell her we're planning making the trip.

- I had to put together a wedding gift for a couple I graduated with and mail it off to them.

- I had to get some things organized and pack for the trip, figuring out what footwear to take and what clothing, with the possibility for lake effect snow to fall between now and Thursday.

- I had to call the general manager of the Lakewood BlueClaws and talk to him for a story previewing the minor league angle to the baseball winter meetings, which begin Thursday in Dallas.

- And I had to get to work.

I love traveling, I enjoy airports and highways and rest stops and layovers. I love seeing new parts of the country, seeing new people, having conversations with strangers I may get to know a little, then never see again. I love wandering aimlessly through O'Hare, killing time until the short flight to South Bend by grabbing a drink, some lunch, watching the planes take off. Or finding my own little corner of the nation's busiest airport to sit and relax, read or write or just watch everyone around me.

But I haven't been too good at traveling lately. Actually, I haven't been to good at preparing to travel lately.

Today was a perfect example, as I laid out above.

And it will be hectic in the morning, since I have yet to pack anything for the trip, including my sister's unwrapped birthday present, which needs to be wrapped. So I sit here now, at 2:38 a.m., logging a diary entry when I plan on setting my alarm for 7:30. Actually, I plan on getting up at 7:30, which means setting my alarm for 7 a.m. Or sooner.

The one good thing to come out of today was that wedding gift. I'm ashamed to admit it, but my friends -- Barbara and Michael -- were married in July. I was there, in Chicago's northern suburbs in the sweltering midsummer heat of the Midwest. I drove out, taking my then-three-week-old Grand Am on its first extended drive, and had plenty of room for the large picture frame I had intended to buy. A year earlier, I gave Courtenay and her husband, Cande, a large panoramic frame holding four photographs of Notre Dame that I took myself. They both went there, Courtenay graduating with me, Cande two years before us. I figured it was appropriate, it was personal, unique, and since they were buying a new house, they'd have wall space to spare.

Only, I didn't get the frame in time and then never got it all together until last December before mailing it off. I swore I wouldn't let it happen with Barb and Mike, who fit all the criteria (except that Mike graduated the same year as the rest of us mentioned), and I didn't have to worry about getting the gift to the wedding.

But I couldn't get the frame in time, and the days became weeks became months, and at some point, I felt so embarrassed -- only to myself -- that I would try not to think about it so I wouldn't disappoint myself. Of course, the only way to fix it would be to think about it, so I was stuck in a vicious circle.

So as not to make a long story much longer, I finally took care of it all today, getting it to them while still in the same calendar year of their wedding day. Someone told me that as long as I get it there within a year, I'm OK.

I'm glad for those rules of etiquite.