(no subject)

[unicornduke]

I left the house two days in a row for work related things, both days I thought I might be out the whole day. Yesterday I was out the whole day working with a coworker who is really nice. We were seeding onions and leeks so it was tedious but not difficult. Then today me and another coworker drove down to clean up some of last year's trials, sorting sweet potatoes and moving bins around. 

I am exhausted. Not muscle tired but I'm ready to sleep. Talking, acting like a person who can hold conversations. Difficult. Yesterday was better because that coworker totally understands how everyone lost their shit in february and didn't care if we stopped talking. 

I've been sleeping plenty too. Ugh. 

Comments

[graydon]

Brains adjust to your environment!

It's kinda like having been shipwrecked for a year; of course that's time and effort and tiredness (because brains do a lot of actual work in metabolic terms) to adjust to a different environment.

[unicornduke]

It was also because I wasn't expecting it to be so tiring. I worked in the field as normal last year, I spent time around my coworkers because you can't really do agriculture research virtually. But I hadn't realized my brain had lost all coping in the months from November to March and the whole thing caught me off guard. Ah well.

[graydon]

Yeah, I am a little worried that the next time I have to deal with people in person I'm going to hiss and throw salt.

Still, I ought to have time to plan and psych myself up for it.

[recently_folded]

I started to comment here, but decided I was being too wordy and moved my thoughts over to a post on my own blog. Thanks, though, for sparking some good and useful thoughts.

[unicornduke]

You're welcome! I liked what you wrote, it made me think about why I felt like this and why it took me off guard. I was surprised a bit on how exhausted I was because I was fine all summer, I had to leave the house for my job, I spent time in the field, everything was fine and good or as fine and good as things could get. But after field season stopped, I saw basically no one except my roommate. Even the few people I had been doing social distance outside masked hangouts, we stopped seeing each other because we have a seasonal in-person friendship for various reasons.

So for me, I went from normal-ish work life May to November then November to March without seeing maybe people at all, and I did a two week isolation vacation in December to be away from my roommate so I could see my parents. And I think because there was a switch flipped, I hadn't realized the exhaustion and stuff would happen because I was fine last year.

Yeah, your post made me think about why it was so hard and it was good, so thanks for writing those thoughts out!