Jet lag is a mutha!! I’m talking about straight up, 11 hour time difference and trying to get on track in your new location. Whenever I fly back to the west coast of the United States from the Middle East, I experience a jet lagging situation which takes no less than 2 weeks for my body to reverse. I’ve now been in San Diego for 2.5 weeks, and I’m still not on PDT.
I’ve made this trip 7 times in the past 3 years and it hasn’t gotten any easier. I’ve done the working out when you arrive, the melatonin, the “pushing it through the day” hopped up on double espressos and Red Bull, and I’ve tried doing nothing. It doesn’t matter. And, just when I think I’ve gotten it beat, I pass out at 4:30PM and I’m up all night.
So this is what it looks like:
I came from Arabian Standard Time (AST) and I’m now on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
I woke up this morning at 11:00AM (9:00PM AST), after going to bed at about 4:30AM (2:30PM AST) that same morning. At 3:30PM PDT (1:30AM AST) I was fighting to stay awake. On my way home, I stopped at Starbucks and grabbed a tall bold drip with 4 raw sugars, hoping to stay up until at least 9:00PM. The plan was to edit some photos and work my way through it.
Well…at 9:00PM (7:00AM AST) I woke up. I don’t know what happened. It’s like I have narcolepsy. I have no control. I don’t even really remember laying down.
So, there I was, fixing a breakfast of hash browns, vegan sausage patties and applesauce and it’s was 12:45AM PDT (10:45AM AST). Because this thing called jet lag does not only affect your sleep cycle, it affects your food cycle. I’m hungry when I should be sleeping and I go all day without feeling hungry or wanting to eat. Of course that always leads to a 5 pound weight gain whenever I go back to the States from this alone.
Well…
It’s now 3:30AM (1:30PM AST). I know I have about two more hours max, before I’m going to have to make a decision whether to turn the TV off and try to get some sleep, or to say “eff it” and let daybreak hit my eyes. Either way, my day is screwed. Screwed in the sense that, regardless if I stay up or go to sleep, today will be a day of not having that “refreshed after a good night’s sleep” feeling. I am assured that today will be a low energy day, and I’ll be hoping that today will be the day that I turn it around.
A few days back, it was 5:30AM (3:30PM AST), when I headed out for Coronado in the hopes of getting some nice sunrise photos of the Coronado bridge. Well…it was overcast and foggy, but I got a few decent shots.
Overcast and Foggy Downtown San Diego at Dawn
Coronado Bridge at Dawn
Early Morning Dawn on Coronado
About Terri Lundberg
You have some really beautiful pictures there. I especially like the last one. It has an element of mystery about it. Might I suggest making the pics a little bigger in the posts so old fellas like me can make them out a bit better 🙂
I’ve only just come cross your site. It’s beautifully laid out and simple. I look forward to see more of your pics in the future.
Jimmy
Hello Jimmy,
Thanks or our kind words and for stopping by my blog. 🙂 You can enlarge the photos by clickng on the photo.
T
No problems at all. I appreciate good photography and these pictures are certainly that.
I know you can enlarge it by clicking on it, I’m just a lazy bloke (according to my wife, anyway). 🙁
LOL. I hear ya.
I hate jet lag as well. I try to get sun light in my eyes as much as I can when I get to a new place.
Hello Cay!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Yea….I try to stay up. And, getting the sun in my eyes do help, but it doesn’t stop me from passing out cold by 3:00PM. 🙂 Now, I’m back on track. But it will only be worse when I fly east and go back to Saudi Arabia.