ANYWAY, I returned from my trip last Saturday morning. Despite my not sleeping on the plane*, I was determined to go through the whole day without a nap and go to bed at my usual time. In that way, I could get my body on to west coast time and minimize the jet lag (in the past I've always done this and never experienced much jet lag at all). In spite of my best efforts, I did take a short nap on Saturday afternoon and then managed to fall asleep quite easily at my usual time that night.
When I woke up on Sunday morning, I was congested with a head cold (it felt like a cold, not allergies). I don't remember Sunday being particularly bad, but that night at 1:05 am I was woken up by an extremely realistic slap to my face. I remember in my dream at that moment I was talking to two people, and a third person moved behind me, presumably to sit down (I was sitting on a train or plane, and there was very little space between the seats). Neither of the two people I was talking to hit me, and I have no recollection of the third wanting to slap me, nor do I know how they could have gotten their hand between the seats (I know dreams aren't that logical, but still...). So, that means I felt like I was slapped by a ghost that night. After thinking about that, combined with my time shifting, I was not able to get to sleep the rest of the night.
Monday I felt horrible with a runny nose and bad cough. I called in sick for my volunteer job the next day and basically stayed in the house. That night I was still not getting a full night's sleep (and my dreams still involved Japan in some way, as they had every night and did up until last night), but by Tuesday afternoon I felt like I was getting better. Wednesday I woke up as bad as before, so I had to call in for my other volunteer job. Same thing for Thursday and Friday. Saturday morning I was feeling better and even went to the pool party we were invited to, although I played it smart and never went swimming. Yesterday I thought that my cold was making its 'last gasp,' that I was hacking up the last of the phlegm. Today, however, I'm in the same boat. I feel generally ok except that I've still got phlegm in my nose and throat that is making me cough and go through an inordinate amount of tissues. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be 100% and able to enjoy these dog days of summer...
*I was on a full flight from Tokyo to Portland. After I sat down, the old Asian woman in front of me put her seat back almost as far as it would go - leaving me about six inches from my nose to her head rest. Her seat was like that for most of the trip. (And of course, I was too much of a pussy to ask her to move. Not sure why except that I hated the idea of asking her and then her not doing it. Then what would I do?) On top of that, my reading light didn't work, so as soon as the sun was down and the other lights around me went out, I was left awake but unable to read or do any of the crosswords in the large book that I had carried with me around Japan. Finally, my iPod was dead, so I couldn't listen to my music. The only saving grace was that they played three different movies (on my trip out to Tokyo they only played one movie but showed it twice - I didn't watch it either time), and they gave away free wine. I think I ended up with four or five small bottles. Not enough to put me to sleep, but still a nice little buzz.
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