So the truth of the matter is I’m not sleeping very well. Seems like every morning I wake up at 3 or 3:15, toss and turn for a couple of hours, fall back to sleep just as all the traffic is getting going outside my window, and then the alarm goes off at 7. Ugh. I get up at seven because…well…because I’m a morning person. But also because we’re trying to keep some kind of regular schedule.

We’ve set up what you might call Marketplace – Far, Far East here at the Astor Place Hotel. There’s a regular breakfast meeting about 8 or so. We chit chat for a while, then get down to business. Who’s going to get what interviews done. Who’s going to be writing what. What kind of tape do we need to get. What will we be sending back to L.A.? And when. After breakfast we all go our separate ways – some of us out to see people, others down to the big conference room we’ve taken over as our ‘bureau.’

A couple of hours of work, a quick lunch break, more work, then it’s time for today’s big event. A conference call with the Marketplace staff back home and a mock-up of the first days show, just to make sure we’ve got all our timing right and everyone’s comfortable with what’s going on. Then a late dinner…and tomorrow’s the first broadcast. Kind of doesn’t seem real that we’re finally doing it after all these months of planning.

Tune in…let me know how we did.