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Only funny in the sunshine

This year has been really hectic from January on, but things have settled down a bit in recent weeks. This means I've been able to be on twitter more (as @TonyNoland... duh), and to give more attention to those social interactions. My book promotion (and my book sales) are still for shit, but that's nothing new.

What I want to point out is this assessment of me, offered by Karen Mulholland (@kemulholland):


This is the first time in a long time anyone's said something like that about me. Aside from thanking Karen for the compliment (thanks!), I'd like to acknowledge that for several months, I haven't been terribly funny, or very fun to be around on social media. Stresses of life, family, and work piled onto me, and did so at the worst time of the year: the bleak midwinter.

Every year, from the gray snows of January until the irises are in bloom in the warm, sunny springtime, it's always a struggle for me to be anything but depressed... and depressing. My seasonal affective disorder is hardly crippling, in that I can function OK, e.g. go to work, eat and sleep properly, etc. However, it hits me every year, and this year harder than usual.

I did my usual countermeasures: exercise, bright lights, social engagement, the standard repertoire. But this winter was much worse than usual in the northern part of the U.S., with weather than kept many of us indoors for weeks on end. It hit me pretty hard, mood-wise. I knew as it was happening that some of my mates on twitter and around the blog world got a little tired of the dark cloud of bleak hopelessness that I carried with me. I knew, but I couldn't really do much about it. It felt like melodrama to me; God only knows what it looked like to you.

However, it's spring now, so I'm back to the way I like to be. I won't say that I'm back to my "normal" self, because my version of normal contains a lot of variability. I will say that I'm very glad the sun is shining and that the rains are warm again.

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