Going back to your original post-
So, the fact that Widmore's freighter found the island and then when Ben moves it, because of the attacks etc. He,Ben ends up in the middle of the desert, finds the hotel where he has standing reservations, asks what day it is because when he moved the island he also moved himself!
So it would make sense about the asking about his coloring, though he did say he was in Iraq.
I think I drank the kool aid MB cause your original post almost makes sense now.
Though the time movement wasn't not years but months. Because if this makes any sense at all, when they were on the freighter it was Christmas Eve and so as days move or not on the island by the time they leave it is at least New Years Eve.
Though, the way Sayid spoke it sounded as if he was home a lot longer than that.
Well,....interesting.