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Jet lag

Imagine that moment of confusion when you wake up from a deep sleep and, for a few seconds, you can't remember where you are or why you're there.

Imagine that you had a little bit too much to drink last night. Not enough to be sick, but enough to feel like you're sweating a little bit too much and people are talking just a little too loud. Except... you're pretty sure that you didn't drink last night... whenever night last night was.

Imagine that your body may or may not be fighting off a cold. You're simultaneously too warm and too cold. A painkiller seems excessive, but your bones ache and you wonder whether you've slept too much or not enough.

Imagine watching the sunrise and being disturbed at a deep level because the sun shouldn't be coming up at this hour. What world have I fallen into where the sun rises at the ungodly hour of... 6am. Oh. I guess that's normal. Here.

Imagine that your alarm goes off at 8 O'clock, and you have no idea whether it's 8am or 8pm, and furthermore, you aren't quite sure why you set the alarm in the first place.

Imagine taking a little too much or too little of your daily medications because you take a dose every night, but your last dose was before bed 30+ hours ago.

That's jet lag. That's my next week. 1 day of jet lag per hour of time difference. There's no escaping it.

I'll try all of the tricks that you're supposed to try, but my circadian rhythm laughs at all of them. 1 hour of adjustment per day -- at most -- is all that I get.

We can fly our bodies across the ocean at hundreds of miles per hour. Our souls, though, travel more slowly. Mine will be here in a few days. I suspect that I'll receive a delivery notice in my mailbox. I have no doubt that import taxes will be due.

Next week, I will have a lot of things to say. Today, I just want to sleep.

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