When I still lived in Florida I saw or spoke to my BFF nearly every day. Now, I speak with her 3 or 4 times a week. Over the 7 years since I moved away, I’m still grateful to keep in touch with her regularly. She was my 7:30 am wake up call and we’d start the day with a healthy chat about our ungrateful kids, stupid husbands, stressful jobs, or shitty families. When I left Florida to move to Ohio, then back to Virginia, our time zone remained the same so it wasn’t a big deal to keep our routine.

Now, I live two hours behind not only her, but the world I’ve lived in since 2003. For 17 years, we lived in the Eastern Time Zone and everyone else (except my son in England) was behind us. It’s been a challenge because I have to think in reverse; not only for everyone I know but for my job, as well. I sign into work and I’m already two hours behind their start of day. Maybe I’m too old for this shit but this flip has me confused every day. I had to put my computer back to Ohio time just so I’d know what time it is there. Now, when I clock in at 8 am, it’s already 10 am. I look at my computer clock and think it’s lunchtime at 10 am. I just put a digital clock in my Amazon cart so I can keep the real time at eye level.

Trying to embrace this shit and as a design element, I’m buying three wall clocks so I can keep one set to our time, one to my son’s time in England, and one to my daughter’s in DC. That oughta fuck me up good, for sure!

A few weeks before we left Virginia, my BFF started calling me at 4 pm on her way home from work. I didn’t even notice the shift and one day mentioned that’d she wouldn’t be able to call me at 7:30 am anymore because it would be 5:30 am in my world. She said “I know. That’s why I’ve been calling on the way home. I’ve been training you.” She was right! I had already begun to get used to her afternoon calls instead of morning calls. (#FriendGoals, by the way!)

Meanwhile, I see Dali’s melting clocks everywhere I look. I sit in my new state and continually wonder what the fuck time it is here or anywhere. Sometimes I calculate and sometimes I don’t give enough of a shit to do the math. I just keep hoping it will become second nature at some point.

Spring Forward and Fall Back is going to be a nightmare … stay tuned.