Thanks to everyone who’s been emailing. I didn’t realize how many people struggle with S.A.D/Winter Blues.

I woke up yesterday morning and realized that my life was seriously out of whack if the thought of taking time off created so much anxiety. So, I thought I’d man up (as much as a woman ever can :P) and really give it my best shot at relaxing…or at least, to not worry about deadlines, due dates, unfinished manuscripts, agents, classes, outlines, lesson plans, anthologies, newspapers, students, etc.

I did some baking…made Cajun macaroons (which is what happens when you forget you left cookies in the oven). Thanks to the quick thinking of author Johanna Riley, I was able save them (she suggested cutting off the burnt sections and dunking the cookies in melted chocolate). I also danced with the dogs (I would have sang to them, but the last time I tried, Milo ran under the bed and it took three snausages to get him out). I also tried watching daytime television, but I figured I was depressed enough. 😛 Baahahaahaa.

Today…I’m going to the library to walk around the stacks. I haven’t done that in a long time. Usually I browse the online catalog and order in, but the always brilliant Nina Davies suggested doing something I wouldn’t normally do. Hence the trip. I figure walking around books might find me some new authors and remind me what it is to be a reader…

And I wonder if that’s part of my winter blues. The past few months, I’ve only read for research. Elle Lothlorien’s The Frog Prince has been waiting for me, and I’m always so happy to lose myself in the pages (it’s a dead funny book), but I’ll be snookered if I can remember the last time I gave myself time to *gasp* read for pleasure.

Read for pleasure.

It sounds wrong. Decadent. Hedonistic.

Which is probably why I’m going to spend the next few days doing it.

I just really do wonder if the fact that I’ve been so hard core with working and writing has made me the poster child for “all work and no play makes Brown a neurotic mess.”

I also wonder if, by planing the time off, I’m actually helping myself. Spontaneous free time freaks me out, but planning different things to do (like make popcorn and have a Columbo fest) has actually been fun. I’m looking forward to doing that on Wednesday.

Thursday and Friday are looming, but I’ll figure out what to do, later.

In the meantime, I found this video that seems to the perfect conversation between S.A.D. and the person with the disorder.