Today is Day Light Savings Time.  A long time ago, a teacher told us a phrase to help us remember that in autumn (fall), we fall behind 1 hour; in Spring, we spring ahead 1 hour.  What did you do with your “extra” hour?


Long story short–but still long-ish…  I recently got a new job so I thought, why not spend the “extra” hour celebrating it at an ALL YOU CAN EAT/order Japanese restaurant when the weekend rolls around (no pun intended)??  By the way, that includes a sushi and regular japanese food!  I wanted to see how much I could stuff myself (and wanted to gain some weight).  So after a full week of work, being somewhat beat, and sleep deprived from not wanting to sleep earlier, I woke up “late” at 10am yesterday.  Showered, got ready, did my computer thing.. then headed off to the restaurant.  I spent about an hour and a half there eating bowl of miso soup, a bowl of seaweed salad, monstrous amount of sushi at least 20+ good sized pieces, my tummy started to hurt a little, so I canceled the fried bananas, and knew green tea ice cream would be the cure.


I wasn’t planning on risking a tummy ache eating anything else for the rest of the day, but after several hours roaming loitering, shopping, driving to about 6 different stores, visiting the mall, and having deep, long & meaningful conversations with a friend on some couches, I couldn’t help but get this Angus bacon/chedder wrap (filled with some veggies) when my friend got hungry and we drop by a fast food joint.  Then her boyfriend’s friend recently opened a new bar, so we met up with several people there.  They got us drinks we sat down… and there was a menu laying on the table staring at us.  I was craving fries and they were craving nachos (loaded w/veggies, chili cheese sauce), so we got both… yummy.  Then everyone wanted to do a shot.  By 1am, they were playing pool; I was beat, and figured I should go home, wind down, and get some computer stuff done. (By the way.. I guess you can call me a computer geek,  I do web development work, so I might refer to the computer a lot).  So I drove home, brushed teeth, started typing, my brain was fried, so then just I decided to sleep.  I guess I didn’t really spend the “extra” hour after all.


6:45am.. my alarm on woke me up.   I realized forgot to turn it off.  I crawled out of bed… turned it off.. crawled back in.. slept.    Alarm wails again probably about an hour later…  6:45am.. again.. wait a minute… that means my phone didn’t reset itself until after 6:45am.  I crawled back into bed.  Slept.. weird dreams, kept waking up every hour, then finally got up at 10am (which would have been 11am, before the change).  Yikes, that was later than I wanted to wake up, so I guess I can consider that I spent the “extra” hour sleeping.  I think I needed it anyways.  I weighed myself and gained 2 pounds, but my body probably processed most of it as waste, because the 2nd time nature called, I lost another pound, (maybe the standard definition of being “underweight” is overrated anyways).   My stomach was already rumbling by 11am.


Does DST really save us light?  This means that when we wake up at about 7am, the sun has already started to or already have came up and we don’t need to use lights (theoretically).  But if we wake up early, we have to use the light because it’s so dark, then by the time 5pm rolls around, the sun has already set and we need to turn on the lights again.  So then it seems to balance itself out anyways (if you wake up after the sun rises.. which some of us don’t), so I’m not sure why it would “save light.”  Plus I heard that most other countries don’t do DST, which makes it more difficult for us to keep in touch with others in different time zones.  I don’t remember the history of DST, I think it had to do with the wars back then, but I heard most parts of the world doesn’t participate in it.  Or maybe I’m missing something.  If I am, fill me in.  I’ll wiki it later.


But I have to give DST some credit in making us feel like we’ve gained an hour during the fall.  Having that extra hour may motivates some of us to do something that we wouldn’t have done with one less hour.  In the spring, it bums us to “lose” an hour, but motivates some to really use our time wisely and get as much accomplished as we can in a limited amount of time.


I feel that way but at the same time in situations where everyday feels the same, I lose track of time, kill time browsing the web or other things other than what I was initially going to do right away.  It’s still early right now, so I have “plenty” of time, but at the end of the day, I’m going to ask myself “Where did the time go?”  I’m probably planning the rest of the day and night blogging because I enjoy writing, and probably finish writing an over due email to a friend.  I’m also probably going to figure out a solution to a project I have for work so I can deliver a plan at some point tomorrow.  Yeah.. I know I’m not at work, but I’m a bit worried that I might not figure it out tomorrow or not have time to set up the same resources that I already have set up at home.


Anyways, these are my brief thoughts on DST, so tell me how you spent or will spend your “extra” hour?