Friday, August 27, 2010

Breathe and Read

Apparently one should expect recovery to take one full day for each hour of time zone difference. England is 8 hours ahead of us, ergo, it will take 8 days before I get my nights and days straightened out.

I planned on getting an A in travel recovery so I gave myself 2 days. I pushed through the fatigue that draped it's arm across my shoulders every evening at 8 pm and stayed up til 11 - totally exhausted. Then I'd take a sleeping pill and knock myself out til 7 am. I did this for two nights and figured I was good to go.

Yay me.
A high score in beating jet lag.

So on Tuesday night, I told myself I didn't need pills. My system was back on Pacific Standard Time and I'd simply drop into bed at 11 and sleep soundly, drug-free.

And I did!
Yay me.
Only I woke up at 3 a.m. trying to breathe and couldn't. You know how sometimes you need that deep, yawning-type breath and you just can't catch it. And you lay there with you mouth wide open and try to suck in the air but it just doesn't come? So you remember what your sister said about asthma attacks and how you have to exhale all the old air out before there's room for new air to go in? So you sit up in bed, and with your mouth WIDE open you push air out and then try really hard to get more in? And then you have to go to the bathroom, which, you haven't done since the summer of '94. (Go in the middle of the night, I mean. If you're like me, you have gone to bathroom a number of times in the past 16 years.) And while you're on the toilet you get obsessed about that big deep breath you want. Nay. All of a sudden you NEED. It's not enough to just breath. Now you're craving a big gulp. A big gulp of air.

Anyways, this went on for hours. (Not the toilet part. Just the breathing part.) And at 7 I got up for work.
And on Wednesday night? I took a little blue pill at 11 pm.

Last night? Thursday night? I only took half.
If I can't get an A, I at least want to get a C+.

In the midst of all the breathing and sleeping drama I read a book my mom recommended:



















It's the true story of a pilot who survived a plane crash. He spent some time in heaven before he came out of his coma on earth. His descriptions are detailed and glorious. Know what? There will be light. Love. Community. and Colors in heaven. Our creative God has prepared an awesome Kingdom.

Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Day off from work. And a day to simply enjoy life. It's 2:26 pm and I'm still in my pj's.
2. Late brunch with Clint, Drew and Brett - bacon and eggs and orange juice and toast and no makeup on.
3. Fritt

Shalom,

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love how you describe fatigue...
"fatigue that draped it's arm across my shoulders". You have such a great way of expressing yourself...so proud of you.

Anonymous said...

I'm reading "The Calligrapher's daughter" and she expresses herself exactly like you do. It's time you wrote a novel.