East Coast Time - Hey folks, I'm home! I spent eight days out in Pennsylvania, enjoying Pennsic 38. (You can see my photos from last year's Pennsic 37 to tide you over until I finish my photos from this year, or read the full journal entry from last year.)

One interesting effect from staying up all night to catch a 6 AM flight, sleeping on a plane, and enjoying an 8-day visit to the East Coast time zone -- I came home wanting to remain on East Coast time. I have different motivations for this, but the fun has been in finding additional supporting reasons to give it a whirl.

Advantages -

• I'm already acclimated from my recent trip, I woke up at 3:30 AM (local) on Monday for work and decided to give a try
• I'll be in FL this weekend, so no adjustment needed
• Traffic in the morning is either non-existent or just ramping up
• The weather is cool at that hour, which is refreshing and makes me feel better about going to work
• Getting work done earlier in the day feels less stressful
• The lack of easy to find food early (see Disadvantages) encourages me to start cooking at home and bringing in healthy lunches
• Makes it easier to chat with a friend in the East Coast
• Having lunch breaks around 9 or 10 AM make work meetings at Noon simple to accept
• Easy to get to 8 AM work meetings
• Easier to do errands after work while offices are still open, esp. having started work as early at 5 AM local
• Less stress with after-work rush hour traffic, because I'm not rushed to get anywhere

Disadvantages -

• Hard to find breakfast and coffee at 4 AM
• Hard to find lunch foods at 9 AM
• Have to try and be home by 9 PM, to be "in bed near midnight"
• Hard to wait until 7 or later for dinner with friends, very common around here

* * * * *
It will be interesting to see how long I can do this experiment. I've held a job that required starting in the office at 5 AM. I've had a job that involved a 72-mile one-way commute. So I've done unusual schedules before. I think I like this idea, very very much.

And I even find myself thinking that the time really is my East coast translation "Ooo, it's midnight! I have to get to bed!" or "At least I got on the road to work by 8 am" even when I know I'm calculating things 3-hours early.

But it amuses me. (Yes, I must have a sick sense of humor. But I'm easily amused!)

* * * * *

Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Such a fantastic Caidan Royal camp to be part of, at Pennsic this year