How? How?! HOW did it get to be almost November already? I know things have been dark and quiet here at the MBSL&S shop, and I wish I had some profoundly intricate explanation for what I've been up to. But the truth is I've simply been nose to the grindstone busy with several back-and-forth trips to DC and New York to meet with funders and donors (the current financial landscape has us non-profit types working overtime) and then lots of planning and prep to get my team into the field. It's been steady work over too many weekends and this conservationist has just been too pooped to even write about it.I'm also wondering if I don't have the slightest touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder (aptly known as SAD). San Francisco days have been getting shorter and colder, and I've had a lot of days where I wake up and head to the office in the dark only to march back home once night has fallen. I'm not quick to jump on the designer psychology bandwagon, but I've been sluggish and grumblier than usual this past month. My body seems to be telling me it wants me to eat huge volumes of pasta or pizza and then run for the bed. If I were a grizzly bear this would make sense, but as a hominid it just makes me generally discombobulated. Anyone else feeling angsty and somewhat disaffected?
Anyway, apologies all around and I promise to summon-up some ocean mirth and conservation excitement (heavily peppered with the usual briny sarcasm) and serve it up hot for my loyal readers.
5 comments:
Oh I definitely believe in SAD! When I lived in Delaware the perpetual gray almost drove me crazy. I bordered recognizable depression all winter long. I haven't had any SAD symptoms since I moved to Florida. Maybe its the huge doses of UV I get all year, or the warmth, or all of the above, but I definitley believe SAD is real! Light therapy has been touted as a treatment, you might be interested to look it up. :)
That sort of feeling is pretty standard for me at this time of year, and I've long attributed it to SAD. I generally cope by planning a trip to someplace warm and sunny.
Here's some ocean mirth for you, and it includes morays.
What you need is a trip to Belize.
My wife definitely struggles with this phenomenon. Though she brought up a good point the other day - SAD may not be so much psychological as a practical evolutionarily bodily response. What did our hominid ancestors do for 100s of 1,000s of years when it got dark (and cold) - did they try to get work done or did they hunker down and go to bed early?
Nah, it's just that digesting all those knishes & pastrami diverts blood from the brain into the belly.
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