Catsup&Liquor

The End of Jet Lag & Beginning of Purposeful Nothing

I guess my cousin was right, jet lag (when you’re not actively trying to fight it) takes about a week to get over. Some trips are easier than others. Going from home back to Korea last year, I had no trouble. Going from Hanoi to Tokyo to SF to LA, I figured I’d be so tired by the time I got to LA, I’d just knock out. Not so.

Anyway, after a few days of almost conquering the Lag* (including a false victory last Wednesday when I slept at 1am, woke up triumphantly at 7am, only to fall back asleep at 8am and wake up at… 4pm. I mean, who needs that much sleep?), I am bittersweetly reporting it’s over.

Jet lag gets a bad reputation from popular culture, but it can either be the penultimate hurdle getting you to a trip of a lifetime, or that last door back to “reality”. I know some like to call going home from teaching abroad or a trip going back to “reality” but I don’t like that. Teaching in Korea for two years, my various trips to China, Japan and all over Southeast Asia… the people I met, the experiences I had… as crazy and surreal as it can feel, that’s still my reality. In this case, getting over jet lag is bitter because it means the end of that epic time in my life, but sweet because it’s just another step in readjusting to a daily routine in the U.S.— and the potential of a new adventure.

I have lots of personal goals in mind for later, but right now I’m aiming at a Purposeful Nothing.** This is a fancy re-labeling of what I’ll be trying to do for a short while: rewind, plow through a reading/movie list, see friends, go on mini-trips, journal, blog about my travels and reacquaint myself with Los Angeles before my next move (be that figuratively or geographically).

So here’s to conquering jet lag— not always a foe!— and a Purposeful Nothing.

*My awful attempt at making “the Lag” a thing.

**Crap, I’m already antsy.

***I don’t like asterisks… but I do like the word “asterisk”.

laughingsquid:

The Incredible Supercat