Painful week

It's a painful week in every way. Neverending days in the office with no breaks whatsoever and just TOO much work, followed by a direct commute home, more especifically directly to bed: my neck and shoulders are killing me. I cannot move. Without screaming that is. Too much stress and tension for poor little me! I just hope I have not inherited this cross from my father (the most nervous and tensed person I have ever met) who periodically has to stay in bed for several consecutive days. Cervical nervous problems. The very strong pain killers I found in my pharmacy (a rest of my Elephant Man allergy) are helping but not close to enough! I just hope it will go away before Saturday, and the VIP party...

Only 8 days left

There's only one week left for my Mom's big birthday party. She's turning 60 and there will thus be a big celebration on one of the oldest mountains in Switzerland. The party will take place at a hotel, managed by a friend of my mother, who is organising the entire evening: the cocktail outdoors with a very typical swiss Alphorn event, the dinner, the party, the dancing, the DJ, etc.

I have been helping with the invitations, the guests confirmation, and the group present. But I'd really like to do something more. I'd mostly like to add a personal decoration touch to the dinner and party. Something that relates to my mother. But the geographics are very limiting, as I cannot be bringing everything from Madrid. Any ideas anyone? Only 8 days left...

Let's redefine that, shall we?

According to the many online dictionaries, here are a few definitions of 'jetlag':

1. a temporary disruption of bodily rhythms caused by high-speed travel across several time zones typically in a jet aircraft.
2. physical condition caused by crossing multiple time zones during flight. The condition is generally believed to be the result of disruption to the circadian rhythms(i.e. the "light/dark" cycle) of the body. It can also be exacerbated by experiencing sudden changes in climate or seasonal conditions, as well as the reduced oxygen partial pressure and low humidity commonly experienced in the cabin of an aircraft.
3. a condition that is characterized by various psychological and physiological effects (as fatigue and irritability), occurs following long flight through several time zones, and probably results from disruption of circadian rhythms in the human body. Other symptoms of jet lag include anxiety, constipation, diarrhea, confusion, dehydration, headache, irritability, nausea, sweating, coordination problems, and even memory loss. Some individuals may report additional symptoms, such as heartbeat irregularities and an increased susceptibility to illness.

Blah blah blah. Not to say that they're not correct, but they're definitely incomplete. Let's redefine that, shall we? So, they all say that it's a physical condition, so ok we'll keep that; caused by travel (no, really? Who would have thought???); intensified by climate and season changes (I have no problem believing that as we went from 35 to 10 degrees); the effects being fatigue (uhu) and irritability (not sure about that one, even though I most probably was very irritable this morning at 4:25 am as I lay wide awake in my bed after just a few hours of sleep.) As for the list of other symptoms they are quite scary. I'll just keep confusion, as I do feel quite disoriented since I landed. But what about the sleepless hours you spend in bed exhausted at night? During my many insomniac hours last night, I first started to blame the severity of my jetlag on my age. But as the hours went by, I remembered the severe insomnia I suffered as a child returning every Summer from the States. Honestly I don't think we can take age as a factor. But we should definitely add that you barely feel any jetlag when you travel to your holiday destination but really feel it when you come back home. Pretty illogical if you ask me, but that's the way it works.

So we now have a physical condition caused by travel and experienced mostly when returning home, intensified by climate and season changes, which causes fatigue, confusion, insomnia, irritability, and many other more severe effects.

Yup, that's it. But maybe I should add that is also causes weird and abnormal behavior cause I don't think it's normal I just spent half an hour writing about this, when I am actually swamped at work!

Not yet

We're back. We're jetlagged. M is flying back home and I'm already swamped at work, so please bare with me. All I can say for now is that we had a phenomenal week, shopping, partying, dining, going to the beach, to Key West, and spending quality time together and with friends. I need some time to land, because frankly I cannot say that I am glad to be back in grey Madrid. Not yet.

We're off

We're off to Miami. See you when we return in 10 days, rested, tanned, looking gooooooood and with overstuffed suitcases. Don't work too hard. Cheers!

Agitation

The weekend with the parents in law was definitely busy. It's never easy to show a city like Madrid in 3 days. You want to show them everything, yet give them the time to enjoy it, walk slowly, look up, look right, look left, take pictures, eat here, drink there, taste this and of course that... give them the time to 'live' this wonderful rich city. Quite proudly, I have to say that I acomplished my mission. They fell in love with Madrid. And we now all feel intimately comfortable with each other (it took me the actual total of 3 days to finally use the du/tu.)
The agitation continues this week as I have a double workload due to next week's holidays and refuse to stay in the office overtime to fully enjoy M's presence at home. Not to mention the necessity to take care of all the last minute arrangements for the Miami trip, such as packing, shopping orders, reservations, preparing the golden anniversay present, and what not. It's amazing how many last minute details there always are to a transatlantic vacation. On the plus side, anything we forget will be added to the already huge shopping list (hohoho.)