Gonna need to work on this a bit....

[stormkeeper_lovesall]

I survived it! Me, an introvert at a department meeting that ran from Monday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon. All done and I made it, mostly thanks to the fact that I got permission to bow out of the Tuesday evening events. And thanks to the fact that the people there were cool.

I did do the looong dinner on Monday, after which I went back to the hotel and....could barely sleep. I was just kinda thrown off kilter.

As I tossed and turned, I thought about many things. Like how I am very, very attached to routines and how much I hate it when they are disrupted, as they were with this meeting and late night. I also thought of how I used to do routine-altering stuff all the time. (Like jetting off to Vancouver, solo, to attend a fan con for 4 days. But that was for something fun. I used to do all sorts of routine-disrupting stuff for work too though. Like driving for 6 hours to Cincinnati one day, presenting the next morning, and driving back. Or leaving Sunday for a trip that required me to change planes, sitting on a panel Monday morning, and then making the long trip back). So I used to do this stuff a lot. I guess it has really thrown me because the past 2 years have been so quiet with the lock downs.

I hadn't slept in a hotel room for a while, so that didn't help. I missed my own bed and the familiar patterns, the room was at first too cold and then too hot, etc etc. 

Regardless, I don't like that I felt so disrupted, to the point of hardly sleeping that night. I wonder if I might need to:

1. Intentionally find things to do to occasionally step out of my routine
2. Seek out new things to learn, just to get some new brain pathways going

I need to think about this...Gonna give it more thought.



(Tuesday evening I slept like a baby, so today I feel wonderful again!)

Comments

[nytshd3]

I think this is an interesting thing to think about. I do think there is something to us getting into our own routines especially as we get older, and these days, with mostly doing work from home and not going a lot of places, I think it's even easier. I mean, less than 2 years ago I was going to work in the office every day and though sometimes it was a pain in the ass or I would get worried if the weather was bad, it was generally not a big deal. Now I'm so used to NOT going in that it feels super strange to go in. I also VERY much struggled when it went from me and Rollin at home together all day every day for many months to him having to go into the office/go see clients/etc. Tonight I really struggled going to meet up with Anna and our friends for dinner, I REALLY didn't want to go, but I'm so glad that I did. I just didn't want to leave the house, deal with the train, trying to find Anna on the street, etc. But it was nice to visit with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. I will also say that I think if it was not covid times, you'd be doing a lot more stuff that got you out of your familiar patterns - you would have gone to at least one con, you would have done a bunch of travel for work, you might have gone to visit friends or to see an Alaska show. Or, like, when you were on sabbatical and you went to different forest preserves and took trips to local stores and stuff like that.

I will also say that you did learn new stuff when you went through the project management certificate program! Is there anything you've wanted to learn or try out (for work or fun)?

I guess part of my thought is... a lot of your routine is good and healthy stuff. You get to bed at a reasonable hour so you get a solid night's rest. You get plenty of exercise and drink plenty of water. You make time for reading and other stuff that you enjoy. So all of that is good. It's not like your routine is sit on the couch for 14 hours a day and shower once a week. Also, by our age we kinda already know some of the stuff we don't like. FOrcing yourself to do stuff you don't enjoy isn't going to help. And with covid still raging along, it's not like you can do something like do a bunch of traveling. But maybe you could join a virtual meetup group or something like that? Or take a virtual class? There are lots of virtual classes you can sign up for either through the various websites or even through some schools like college of dupage, and not just academic stuff either. There's also that site that I can't think of the name of right now but they have 'master classes' where famous artists and writers and chefs teach a class on how to do something that they do. Maybe something like that would be fun? What about joining a writing group or taking a writing class? I have a friend at work who likes to write music and he joined a club where they push themselves to create and release a new song once a week. Maybe something like that but for writing?

[stormkeeper_lovesall]

I SO totally relate to what you said about being on the train and not wanting to go at first. Then you get there and it's good to see Anna and you have a pretty good time. I'm like that with many things. I guess maybe as long as we push ourselves once in a while to do that, then it's good?

That is a great point you make...my routine just really works well for me. If I dare say, my routine has made me "healthy, wealthy and wise". Okay "wise" is debatable and of course personal wealth doesn't equal happiness or moral fiber - but you get the idea! Changing it up just to change it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Maybe instead I just need to constantly remind myself that when I do have to deviate from my routine, I won't love it....but it'll be ok. In April we are doing our big convention so that will be about 6 days for me in Orlando. I won't love it, and I won't like it. But it will be ok.

[nytshd3]

It was nice to really visit and talk with them, and I'm glad I went, but MAN it was an uphill battle just getting out of the house.

Yeah, I guess my thought is... there's no reason to change your routine just to change it. ALso the Orlando trip isn't a great example. You wouldn't love it for a lot of reasons, not just routine changing reasons. But yes, you'll get through it and it'll be OK. Many years ago, I agreed to go camping even though I hated camping growing up. I was like... ok, fine, I'll give it a try, people seem to love it so there must be SOMETHING to it. Well, it was just as crappy as I remembered it being (I think what it comes down to for me is that I don't mind visiting the outdoors, but I don't want to stay overnight). I counted down the hours until I got to go home. And now I know that camping is not for me. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it.