Time Keeps Ticking, Ticking Away...

Do you ever get the feeling that everyone else is ahead of you in some way? Either they are literally ahead of you in traffic or the checkout line, or they're smarter than you or something? That feeling of being behind, slacking, lagging, etc.? Welcome to Pacific Time.

Pacific Time, measured by subtracting eight hours from the time at the Greenwich Observatory in London, is perpetually behind the rest of the continental United States. Pacific Standard Time (PST) exists in the winter, and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) in the summer (before we "fall behind" AGAIN in the autumn clock switcheroo). Back in the good ole days, the entire country used to have just one time system... well, okay, not at all. Each local town would set time on their own, based on the sun, and that worked out just fine for many years. Until that newfangled choo choo train came running down the track and people in Jefferson City had to know what time it left the station in Louisville. In 1883, the railroad companies instituted standard time zones for practical travel reasons, and the U.S. Congress followed suit in 1918 with the Standard Time Act.

And ever since, the Pacific states have been left behind. The sun comes up first for those in the Eastern time zone, and Westerners are forced to spend the remainder of the day just trying to catch up. By the time I get up at 8:00am, my friends and family in the Central time zones are already having their morning break; when I'm eating a late lunch at 1:00pm, my mom is home from school and getting ready for Oprah; if I don't call a business based in the east by 2:00pm, I'll have to wait until the next day to try again!

What happens when your mom wants to call and tell you about Ann Curry doing something stupid on the Today show at 7:25am (CST)? Well, she wakes me up at 5:25am, at which point, the Today show hasn't started for me (nor has my day), so I don't have a clue what she's talking about. When does the NBC nightly news air? When does Grey's Anatomy start? The new episode of Project Runway aired at 6:00pm!?!?! What the heck is that about?

I'm developing a serious complex living here (and lord knows I have enough problems upstairs already). No matter what time I get up in the morning, I'm behind. I hate being behind; I like to be the first to know the gossip, first to have the story, and first to know what's going on. This is definitely going to take a lot of adaptation (and probably more bitching before I grow up and realize this isn't the end of the world). For the time being, my only solace is the fact that everyone in Hawaii and Alaska is even farther behind!