"Y'know, Pa would've loved this update"

[the_benj]

I've been pretty up and down, over the last week.
In actuality, everything is really pretty darn great.
But I've been feeling terrible a lot of the time.
I suspect I'm being hit strangely hard by Seasonally Affected Disorder.
Most days, I've been feeling lethargic and finding it really hard to get motivated to doing anything.
Each day, however, I've been stirred out by something and the day has improved after that.

Friday was pretty bad. I sat around, playing Prince of Persia : warrior within (which is a great game, by the way. Time rewinding action, baby!) and eating chocolate, feeling weirdly sorry for myself.
Then I went to work, which improved my mood a bit.
Then I headed to Jyan's (jyancraig) for briefing in preparation to Sunday's Age of Aquarius (aoa_freeform) Invisible College session, "I am what I see".
I got TEN characters! Quite cool.
Also got to see Rhi unexpectedly, which was lovely.


Saturday, I moped around much of the day, in a stunning re-enactment of Friday.
Then I went over and hung out with Julia (juliadactyl), who was particularly ill and lonely, as Tom (furpants_tom) was at a Legend of the five rings tournament.
So we watched Harold and Maude (which I'd brought over on DVD), then Antz (which was on TV) and Reindeer games (also on TV).
During Reindeer games, Tom came home. He made fourth place in the country, which is impressive. He won a wakizashi. It is shiny.


Sunday was only briefly punctuated by feeling shabby, as I was in a good mood of expectation.
Went to Rhi's for the afternoon, which was great.

Then we made our way into Newtown for Age of Aquarius.
The session was great fun, but many of the players (including our two co-NPCs, Kane (malinari86) and Heaph (heapha)) were flagging pretty sorely near the end.
Shifting from one character to another was pretty cool (we each had one character for each of ten different metaphysical Spheres, so when they players moved, we changed characters), but occassionally mine felt a bit samey, so I was glad of our collective inspiration to shake things up by swapping for some of the Spheres.

After the game was over, I whipped James (sim_james) home, as he was a sleep-deprived, shivering wreck.
Then Rhi (who had come along for the ride) and I swung back to Newtown, meeting up with many of the players and GMs at Oporto, for dinner.
Mmm, Oporto.


Monday, I was feeling okay, so my puttering around doing not much.
Spent some of the morning playing around with cooking - mostly adding fillings to mashed potato, which I'd made, based on the theory that if I was to get my hand back into cooking, then I may as well begin by revisitting things I'd demonstrated capability for previously.
Then I got a surprise 'phone call from Rhi, inviting me to come play board games with her, Tanith (sad_frog), Toph (gargoyal) and Phil (if he has an LJ, I don't know it).
Unsurprisingly, I gave a resounding yes.
So I rocked over to Rhi's, then we tootled over and grabbed Toph before we went to Tan's.
Where we played Graverobbers from outer space (great fun game, that. Wonderful card atmosphere) and a collaborative drawing game (which produces Native Americans, elephants, bleeding eagles, waistcoated frogs, tiny cowboys riding snails and other oddness).
Then Toph skedaddled.We
The four of us wandered up to Randwick and appropriated some dinner, then retreated to the flat.
Where we played Compatibility. It centers around a stimulation phrase, which one person must focus on and select five cards (of a stack of about fifty, each with a word or picture) which they most associate with the phrase (like, say "worry"). Everybody else must also pick fives cards, aiming to guess what the target's five cards will be.
Apparently I'm pretty good at guessing what people will think of things. Or at least what Rhi, Tan and Phil will think of things. :)
In discussion about a vaguely similar game, The analyst, otters somehow came up.
Which led me to say "Heh, otters. Now I feel like watching Emmett Otter's jugband Christmas."

And thus it was made so! Tan produced the video of the very thing and we watched it.
Man, what a great blast from the past.
I was slightly take aback by how much of it I remembered, to a "recite lyrics and dialogue along with the film" level (which apparently bugged Rhi :( ).

After the movie wrapped up, Phil left.
Then we roped Zlatko (again, if he has an LJ, I am blithely unaware) into playing Scruples with us.
Rhi claimed reticence, as she was "worried about what I might found out", but I certainly didn't discover anything shocking.


Yesterday started off with the malaise as previously discussed, but picked up a bit.
Worked uneventfully.
Went to Flodge and saw people (including my darling Rhi, for the third day in a row, which was nice). After Rhi set off to walk home, I took Chris (puddlesofun), Kristen (thebluefairy) and Kane home.
Stayed for tea and chatting at Kristen and Kane's. Talked about Scales a bit. I flipped through one of the books a bit, feeling a frisson of pride at how much of the text I was able to suss, despite having referred to my French as 'vestigial'.
About an hour later, I headed home.


This morning I felt even more ghastly than the before. The idea of going to class looming before me was far too much to take.
So when work called and asked if I could come in, I leapt at the chance. Work sounded so much better than TAFE.
Once I was at work, getting into the groove, I felt much better.
Then the manager, Linda, called and asked if I could stay on until 3, which I did.
Feeling like I'm actually doing something + $$$ > Sitting around in the mental wading pool + traveling into town.

After work, I dropped into mum's (gytha_ogg) place to pick up my washing. Which I did.
Now I have nice, clean clothes and manchester.
Hurrah!
Caught mum at home, which was a bonus. Talked with her about my recent down-ness, which she affirmed was almost definitely just S.A.D. making me sluggish.
I still don't feel great, however.

Time for dinner!