I Hate Jet Lag
I wrote this piece last year after a trip to Minsk, Belarus.
I got home last night at about 10 pm, ate a bite and was in bed before 11. I had taken a pm pain reliever, hoping that it would help me sleep till daybreak so I could get back on the regular schedule as quickly as possible.
Belarus is 8 hours ahead of the central time zone in the U.S. We had to leave there at 3 in the morning to check in at the airport at 3:30 for our 5:30 a.m. flight.
Our itinerary was to fly to Vienna, then to Washington, D.C., then on to Houston. From door to door, it took about 27 hours. I call that a long day! I had only slept 3 hours the night before we left, so I just knew I would sleep like the dead last night. And really I did.
But only till 4 a.m. I woke up thinking it should be noon. I tried to lay there and go back to sleep, but at 4:40 I decided it was useless. I got up and started going through the mail, getting bills paid, getting dirty clothes into the laundry, organizing the souveneirs for distribution to grandkids and secretaries and doing other jobs that needed to be done to get back to normal.
I got to the office at 8:15 and organized things here a bit too. It is now a little after 9 and I am thinking it should be quitting time. I will have to fight myself to stay and do a days work and go home at a regular time, stay up till regular time hoping I will not feel so yucky for another day or two. Maybe catching up with my writing up friends will help me accomplish that.
I hate jet lag, but I am glad to be home!
