secondary jetlag

aaargh. I'm suffering from a heretofore-undocumented malady that must logically be termed "secondary jetlag" or perhaps "passive jetlag." (By the way, both terms get 0 hits in Google -- there's a name for two-word search terms that get no hits, but I can't remember what it is ... sproogle or something? Anyone?) Secondary or passive jetlag is what you get when you haven't left the time zone, but someone living with you has just returned with jetlag severe enough to disturb YOUR sleep. I'll let you guess who that is.

However, there's disturb and there's disturb. Little ms. teenage squarepeg slept from 1 am (long after I'd collapsed following over an hour's wait for her to emerge at the airport, and then another couple of hours unpacking her suitcases -- no, I wasn't about to endure the chaos of waiting for her to do it herself) to 5 am, woke up starving and fed herself 2 bowls of cereal, succeeding in being very quiet. After that one-hour grace period, and the emergence of daybreak, she was good and ready to wake me with kisses and a declaration of, "I've been up since 5 and I've had 2 bowls of cereal, but I'm still hungry! I missed you! Feed me!"

Now how can a person be angry with that? Even though I was in a deep sleep and looking forward to at least another hour of it.

It's not just the secondary jetlag. The kid is a whirlwind that never stops talking or having some kind of self-inflicted computer problem that needs my immediate attention. And demanding that I play with her immediately on one of her two new Scrabble games. Or watch her pirated OC season 2 dvds. Or feed her again.

I really don't feel like working.