The snow in the DC area has been cracking me up. It is so perfect that they are getting tons of snow the year that I move to NY, causing everyone to tease me for my inability to handle snow and cold weather. Things have actually been fairly mild up here. We have gotten snow, but it has just been a few inches here and there. We are even in the middle of our second melt, so grass is more predominant than white. Admittedly the cold weather has put a damper on my walking to work days; 25 degrees is where I draw the line. Tomorrow we actually are supposed to get a bit of the storm that will dump on DC yet again, so maybe I will get to partake in a little of their snow fun.
Perhaps appropriately for the season, I've decided to take up knitting. I actually had wanted to do this some time ago, and my mom bought me a little starter kit and some books. But that didn't happen before the dissertation and then it got lost in the move. This weekend I discovered it in one of the last couple of boxes left to be unpacked. So during the Superbowl I got started. So far I can cast-on and knit. It is very exciting. I think it will work out as a nice thing to do while watching TV so that I don't feel like a total bum. And my cat was much more well-behaved than I anticipated. He was very upset to not be allowed on my lap, but he didn't try to eat any of the yarn.
Speaking of the last few boxes, I have made some good progress on my house. I am always so tired when I get home from work that the last thing I want to do is unpack stuff. And I only just now got around to having all of my closets painted, since they were immediately full of stuff about 5 minutes after I moved in. So the contents of all of my closets have been strewn about the house causing a general mess. This weekend I actually had a nice energy surge and put all the closet stuff away and organized my laundry room (read: dumping ground). The last major project is to organize the home office stuff. Bleh. But I am thisclose to pronouncing the upstairs of my house done for a while. (The blinds and curtains are even up!) Now my construction guy is focusing on the basement: refinishing it after I ripped out the paneling and ugly carpet and putting in a bathroom. The projects never end!
As I just mentioned, I have been extremely low on energy lately. It really started the week before classes, but I just chalked that up to actually having lazy vacation time for once. But the first and second weeks of class were also rough. Again, I just thought that getting back into a busy schedule would do it. But I am almost starting to wonder if something is wrong. My theory is that it may actually be caffeine related. I never drink caffeine, but started doing so during the first week of classes. I think it has put my system all out of whack; I go on major slumps when I stop drinking it. So I guess I am going to stop with the caffeine and see if it helps. A coworker suggested some kind of vitamin deficiency, but I take a multivitamin so I don't think that's it. Another thought is that the northern winter has given me Seasonal Affective Disorder. That also nicely explains my desires for unhealthy food and the ridiculous amount of sleep I've been wanting lately (I slept for 11 hours last night!). The symptoms also line up with people who are just generally unhealthy and lazy with bad eating habits, though.
The winter is also wreaking havoc on my skin. I dislike using heavy lotions because I don't like the feeling of oily stuff sitting on the top of my skin. But man, my poor poor skin is in really bad condition. Any tips would be appreciated!
When I moved to Canada, and I was horrified of what the winter might do to me, I started taking Ginseng root extract. It is only one data point, but I think it did help me cope with the extreme weather.
ReplyDeleteAlso, some times those comprehensive vitamin complexes might throw your body chemistry off by giving you too much of something. Maybe a simple doctor visit can clear that up. I hope you feel better soon.