Sunday, March 31, 2013

...Jet Lag


Jet lag is a lonely affliction.  Morning jet lag isn’t bad, it typically happens overseas so its a good lonely.  You wake up at 3 AM and lay there for a few minutes thinking you can fall back asleep.  You eventually resign yourself to your state of heightened alert and turn on the TV.  You soon realize every channel is a different language but you get a kick out of finding something you recognize, maybe a dubbed over action movie or a bad version of the Simpsons.  Sports highlights are always good because you don’t need to understand the announcers.  That novelty wears off after awhile and you decide to get up and see what this place has to offer.  You’re excited that you’re in a new world.  You make coffee and watch the sun come up, smiling because back where you were it is the middle of the day.  Or the middle of the night.  Either way you’re somewhere new and different.  You think about the expanse of the oceans and start tingling because you have something new to explore.  You’re alone but you like traveling alone.  Even if you’re travelling with someone else you know you have a few hours to hang out with your favorite travelling partner until you have to make an appearance.  You may go for a run.  Or take a walk at dawn.  You start planning how to make the most of the trip, you don’t have a meeting until late morning so you can hit up that cool looking coffee shop on the street.  You know you’ll be done early one day so you pick up a guide book and develop a plan to check out that palace.  Those ruins.  That beach.  Morning jet lag in a foreign country means the start of a new adventure in a new place and the less time wasted asleep the better.

Late night jet lag is different.  It's lonely.  It's depressing.  You are home after a long trip.  You’re thinking about what was left undone, both here and back there.  You’re thinking about your inbox at work.  You’re thinking about your mailbox on the street.  You have this nagging twinge of guilt.  You’re not sure why but you start to explore it.  Its completely irrational and you know it but you cant help it.  Guilt grows…did you leave a steaming pile of poo at work before you left?  Did you forget to pay your power bill?  Did you really have to skip the gym while you were gone?  Did you thank your second cousin twice removed for that really nice Christmas card a few years ago?  Did you show your mutt how much you loved him when you were twelve?  Anxiety inches in…did that meeting you were out for go well?  What time is it?  What’s the best way to organize your closet?  You move to the couch and turn on the TV, hoping that a complete review of your DVR will put you to sleep.  You think about eating but nothing sounds good.  Maybe a glass of wine?  Nope.  You lay there some more.  Episodes of Archer crawl by in 30-minute increments.  You make the far-reaching comparison that its a mirror to your life.  30-minute increments of life passing by without noticing while you’re half asleep.  Then you realize you’re being completely overdramatic.  You look back on your trip and wonder if you took advantage of it to the fullest…you know you wont always have this opportunity.  You start thinking about things that have been long buried.  A college friend you ignored at a party.  High school opportunities you passed up.  Your 2007 taxes you didn’t file in time.  What in the world is that noise and why have you never noticed it before?

Jet lag is lonely.  There’s two solutions to jet lag:  never travel or suck it up and stay on the road.  I’ll pick the road.

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