Weeknote 30: Eyes That Open All the Way

• My main concern over the last week has been getting through the day without falling asleep in my chair. Post-COVID exhaustion, coupled with a depressive episode earlier this year, put me in the habit of sleeping for ten hours or more each day. It’s a habit that I’m now trying to break.
• Caffeine, that most dependable of allies in the war against daytime sleepiness, has been no help at all in my quest for wakefulness. The medication my doctor prescribed to keep me awake just about does its job, leaving me dizzy, nauseous, and nursing a headache by mid-afternoon. The Internet tells me it takes between ten days to two weeks to get used to a new sleep schedule. With luck, I will return next week with good news and eyes that open all the way.
• Sleeping for a normal amount of time has freed up several extra hours in my schedule, so I’ve been writing for about ninety minutes every morning. I’m a slow writer, and recent health issues have done nothing to improve the situation. Thankfully, my goal is not to produce a large volume of writing or chase a deadline. For the moment, I’m reveling in the sense of satisfaction that comes from filling up the blank screen with words.
• My favorite music festival in India is back after a two year hiatus, and I bought tickets!
• One of my goals for last week was to dig into concurrent React, but I got distracted by all the shiny new features in NextJS. I may or may not have started a new side-project to take them for a spin. Whoops.
• WeWork has been more fun than I anticipated. I’ve met more new people in the last five days than I met in the last two years combined. My people skills have atrophied from disuse, but my hunger for human contact eclipses my fear of social embarrassment. I keep phasing out during conversations, getting confused when too many people are talking at the same time, or lapsing into uncomfortable silences when having a one-on-one conversation with somebody. A few times I’ve even managed to forget my own name. But despite feeling like I’m three raccoons in a trench-coat pretending to be a person, I’m happy to have this bit of social interaction back in my life.
• To be loved by cats is such a privilege.

Currently reading: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone