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 fly out in the late afternoon, spend about 8 hours on the plane, and arrive at about 7:30 in the morning in Belgium. 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. yesterday and I had to wake my son up at noon. Last 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 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. and have been cleaning, doing laundry, and sorting through stuff in the basement so we can get a head start on downsizing.

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

August 6, 2007