Saturday, August 19, 2006

Project Get a Life Setback

My upcoming "Project Get a Life" may be an uphill battle, if yesterday was any indication. I had to go to a retirement party for one of my former bosses (readers of my books might recognize him in one of the characters) at the medical school near downtown Dallas, and I thought I might as well just go a little further into downtown itself afterward for the art museum's big Friday "late night" event where they have stuff like concerts and lectures at the museum. I've planned to do this before, but then inertia hits and I don't want to leave the house when the time comes. I figured this way, I'd already be almost there, so it would be easy to make myself go. I even set the VCR for Sci Fi Friday.

After the party, I stopped by the restroom to touch up my lipstick, and then on my way out the door of the building, it was like someone switched on the homing signal and all I wanted was to be home. It could be some residual effects from when I worked there, and walking out that door meant it was time to go home. I could have been emotionally drained from being in the social environment with all those former co-workers. At any rate, I was yawning furiously by the time I got home, and I was in bed relatively early. Maybe the heat had something to do with it, too.

So it seems like I can't bring myself to leave the house to go out, but if I'm already out, then I just want to get home.

Not that I'm a total homebody, since I did go to the party, and I'm going to another party tonight. I also have a party to go to next weekend, and I had one last weekend.

I'm sure I'll be more energetic when (if!) it ever gets cooler. There are a lot of new shops and restaurants within walking distance of me, and I'm looking forward to getting out and about if it ever gets to the point where I can walk more than a few feet without collapsing from heat exhaustion. There's also a sort of reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder you get around here. Up north, people get depressed in the winter because the days are so much shorter and the weather doesn't allow them to get out much in what sunlight they get. Here, people get depressed in the summer because it's too hot to go out in the daylight and you're stuck indoors during the day, so you don't get the needed exposure to sunlight. You find yourself just wanting to crawl in bed and say, "Wake me when it's October." That's not conducive to getting out and getting a life.

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