Mel.status = semi-functional
June 4, 2008 – 4:37 pmNo, really – today and yesterday I’ve been, for unknown reasons, disturbingly zonked out. It feels like being excessively sleep deprived, except I’m getting 50% more sleep than usual, and crashing down hard. My brain feels fuzzy and without peripheral vision. I can’t think. I can only react. Input flies by and I just block it out. Mentally and physically drained – I want to just wrap in a quilt, sink into a mattress, and watch a ceiling fan go around in circles for a while.
My friends tell me that I’m functioning at the speed of a “normal person,” and this scares me. Mel does not like. Must heal.
In the meantime, slowly plodding through work. This is complicated by a rather annoying tendency to get disoriented and nauseous when staring at screens and swaths of text for extended periods of time. This is the most aggravating kind of “not feel good” I’ve had for a while. At least I’ve regained the ability to regulate my body temperature, which is usually the first sign that I’m sick (and the first sign that I’m probably getting better soon).
Wait, wait, happy things – some fantastic observations about libraries in China!
One Response to “Mel.status = semi-functional”
Everyone needs some downtime. No human being has a duty cycle of 100%. Don’t be hard on yourself: when you physically need the rest, adding mental anguish won’t help. Letting yourself relax totally for a day (or more, if you need it) could revive your serotonin levels and your immune system.
Hope you feel better soon. I expect it won’t be long before half a dozen new mel.blog.post objects spring up in my inbox, brimming with vitality :)
The article about Chinese libraries was welcome reading, not only because it was very encouraging about the provision and use of libraries for young children, but also because it gave me some humbling perspective on how incredibly fortunate my colleagues and I are to have such a rich library (~7 million physical books and periodicals, plus online journals, etc!) at our fingertips.
By Sam Kuper on Jun 5, 2008