Weeknote 52: Tuesday Person

21 February 2023

In which the weather gets me down.

Another late weeknote for y’all. I’m becoming a Tuesday person, despite my best efforts to be a different, better type of person.
February in Bangalore marks the beginning of the city’s transition from winter to a brief spring to summer. Historically, these seasonal transitions have always been hard on my mental health, pushing me into quitting jobs, ending contracts early, or taking weeks off of work. I’m hoping that this time, all years I’ve spent working on my mental health will help me make it through February, March, and April unscathed.
As you’d expect, I’ve been emotionally all over the place. I’m having a hard time focusing on work or household chores, instead spending hours every day scrolling through Mastodon, my RSS reader, or the orange website. I’m trying to reign it in, but experience has taught me that all I can really do is take care of myself and wait for things to improve on their own.
Of course, there’s another way to look at seasonal depression: as a signal from my mind and body indicating that something in my life needs to change. Unfortunately, finding out what exactly it is that needs to change is a totally different ballgame. This is an ongoing process that will take me months or years to figure out.
On Sunday, I went to Champaca to hear Aanchal Malhotra speak about her debut novel, The Book of Everlasting Things. Like her previous two non-fiction books, this novel also deals with themes of Partition. I can’t imagine the emotional toll she must have paid as she wrote these stories. Even though I bought a copy, I’m not sure if I’ll have the stomach to read it anytime soon. My grandparents on both sides were displaced by this senseless tragedy in 1947, and I’ve heard enough horrific accounts of what happened to last me a lifetime.
Nerlu Café. Good coffee, good food. Go.

Links of the Week

Media Diet

Reading: Christine by Stephen King
Listening to: This is Why by Paramore
Watched: Dune
Re-watched: Everything Everywhere All At Once