Jetlag, be gone!

I committed the cardinal sin of transatlantic travel. Yep, that's right, I went straight to bed. Bad idea, I know. But after covering nearly 14,000 miles by plane and car during a mere 3 weeks, I was ready to slow down. And slow down I have...

Let me explain. After returning home for a lovely Christmas in WV, my mom and I flew to Destin, Florida, to join the Gallgher clan (there's no other way to explain this family!), aka Greg's

extended family on his mother's side, for Christmas. We were there for a glorious,fun-filled 5 days that included go-karti

ng, sandcastle building, outlet shopping, and yes, even a game of ta

g football (I was just told to tackle people... but I did actually throw the ball once! And someone--on my team--actually caught it! I think I even surprised myself on thatone...). As the year drew to an end, we scattered our separate ways again, dusting off the sand from our shoes and bundling our sun-kissed skin up with warm cozy sweaters.

After a short stop-over in WV again for New Year's (Brooke and Shawn, it was a great time!) and New Year's Day in Pittsburgh (couldn't be so close without seeing Blayne and Sue!), I headed to DC to catch a plane to Seattle for the Modern Language Association annual convention. Why, you might ask, was I traveling across the entire country for a conference?! Why not back to Vienna? There's a good reason: I had a job interview. This is just the first step of many, so we will see where it takes me.

During the whirlwind of panel hopping, networking and interviewing, I managed to explore

Seattle a little and really liked what I found. It crossed my mind that, like Vienna, Seattle has excellent coffee (and I'm not just talkin' Starbucks, folks) and an awesome market, Pike Place Market. We also discovered a fantastic wine bar--but unfortunately

didn't get a chance to get out of the middle of downtown to explore other scenes. All in all it was a great trip! To top it off, on the last day, the clouds lifted and the snow-capped mountains were in plain sight! Breath-taking!

Next stop: back to DC for a night, then it was time to get packed back up for my last final plane ride. Have you been counting?! Yes, this was my sixth flight...I started the year off with a rather large carbon footprint...Mother Nature, I apologize.

Anyway, despite the fact that Air Canada provided a lovely transatlantic flight (really, I highly recommend!), I was so ready to be done with plastic baggies that hold 3 oz. bottles, security checks, airplane food, switching suitcases, weighing bags, packing and unpacking. I drank about all the Emergen-C my body could handle (believe me, you reach the point when you know you can't handle any more...) and my earplugs became my prize-posession by the end of the trip. I had lovely beds to sleep in--all provided by caring friends, family and the Crown Royal of Seattle--and I slept surprisingly well...but I was so, so, so relieved to be back in 'my' bed in Vienna... that the second I saw it, I crashed.

I proceeded to sleep from 3:30 pm until 3:30 am. Out. Like a light. Then I was awake for 3 hours. Then I slept from 6 am until noon.

Ok, I thought, this is my body reclaiming its much needed R&R. I can accept that. And I have to admit, it felt amazing to sleep.

The next night I fell asleep at 2 am and--get this--slept til 1 pm the following day!!! Not ok.

So last night I was out by 9:30 pm (how this happened after only being awake for 8 hours is beyond me...), but then I woke up (surprise, surprise) by 1:30 am and was awake until the wee hours of the morning. I had my alarm set for 9 am... by 10:30 am, I managed to crawl out of bed.

Confused? Yeah, so is my body apparently. Sigh.

Its now a little past midnight. Let's hope the 90 mins. of hot yoga kicked my ass enough earlier this evening so that I can sleep through the entire night tonight.

If not, I should just plan to go to the the MA 35 at 9 am on Monday morning--that seemed to do the trick back in September.