The V family is suffering from the dreaded jet-lag, the one that hits you only on the way back...

Traveling from Brussels to Washington, D.C., never seems to be a big deal. A day or two in our new location, and we're right as rain, easily learning to function on a clock that's set six hours earlier than in Belgium.

The return trip is quite another story. We flew out late Friday afternoon, spent about 8 hours on the plane, and arrived in Belgium at about 7:30 Saturday morning. There's something so disorienting about seeing the sun set on the plane and then seeing it rise again just a few hours later. It seems that dinner is served, you blink, and then the flight attendants come by with breakfast.  

Stepping out into bright sunshine in Brussels in what is the thick of the night in Virginia puts my head in a fog and leaves me feeling hungover. All of us at Chez V are struggling with major jet lag.  I slept until 10 a.m. Sunday, and I had to wake my son up at noon. Sunday night I didn't take my shower until after midnight, and E-Grrrl stopped in to see me when she realized I was up because she was awake too. I didn't crawl into bed until 1 a.m., and then I couldn't sleep.  I laid there until 2:30 a.m., occasionally chatting with my husband E because he couldn't sleep either.

Finally I slipped downstairs to do some reading, and soon I was joined by the rest of the family. Yes, at 3:30 a.m., we were all sitting around eating snacks, chatting, and looking at photos. At one point I looked at E and said, "Omigosh, you have to get up and go to work in three hours."

Yikes.

By 4 a.m. we were all back in our beds. Hard to say who was sleeping. I got up at 9 a.m. Monday and tackled cleaning, laundry, and sorting through stuff in the basement so we can get a head start on downsizing for our move back to America next spring.

Last night I tumbled into bed at 10, too tired to keep my eyes open. I woke up just after midnight and once again ended up downstairs, sitting on the sofa with a book. E joined me, sleepless and anxious about all that the coming months will demand from us financially and from him professionally. A 4 a.m. cup of herbal tea in the kitchen and then we were back upstairs flipping our pillows.

Tonight I'm hoping the only creature that will be stirring after midnight is Petey the Black Cat.

August 7, 2007 

©2007 Veronica McCabe Deschambault and V-Grrrl. All rights reserved.