energy levels

[serene]

My very good friend golden_c_turtle is very good at keeping in
touch with me, even when we're both very busy. We miss each other, but our
schedules just don't gibe, which ended up with a plan to try to get
together early next month. On the one hand, it bothers me that I'm unable
to get together with the people who are important to me more often. On
the other hand, with all I'm dealing with right now, it's really working
for me to keep my obligations down to one a day.

When I posted earlier this month about how I don't need more social
obligations, that's all I meant. Not that I don't need more social
*contact*, because I do like to have a fair amount of that, but no more
social *obligations*.

Distinguishing between social contact and social obligation: Current
recurring social obligations are 20-35 hours at my day job, Thursday
nights at the spoken-word thing, and Mondays with stonebender.
A social obligation means I need to either get out of the house (which
takes a lot of energy for me these days) or have people over (which takes
less energy, but still a fair bit). On the other hand, meeting up with
people on short notice if I have the energy and they do, too, isn't an
obligation in the same way, and it doesn't drain me. Also, if I cancel an
obligation, that takes a certain amount out of me as well, in anxiety and
getting in touch with people and regret for letting people down. So all
around, social obligation wears me out, though I like it anyway, or I
wouldn't give parties and have people over for dinner and stuff.

Anyhow, the one-obligation-a-day thing is really working out for me, but
the bad thing is I have to say things like, "How about three weeks from
Saturday?" to people I really do want to see. But even in a really
harrowing personal time, with my family of origin threatening to implode,
I'm getting enough downtime, enough sleep, and enough time to write. I
cannot thank all of you enough for being so understanding about my lack of
availability.

Comments

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

1) Oh boy, do I know what you mean.

2) Funnily enough, it's taking me the exact opposite way. I'm refusing to make plans. The only way I see anyone is if they call me up or I call them & go "want to go get dinner tonight?" (or in no more than 2 days. More than that, I panic.)

3) While I still really, really appreciate your offer of the camera loan, it turns out that procrastination has made it unnecessary! :) I was updating my calling plan b/c my cell has become my primary phone & I was constantly going over my minutes, & it turned out that to get more minutes they demanded I get a new phone. So I'm going to be getting a camera phone. For free. And paying less a month if I keep using the same amount of minutes. Capitalism is weird. But it's nice when it works in my favor!

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

3) Woo-hoo!

2) Effectively, I'm not making plans, because I have so few days with nothing planned that no one's schedule meshes with mine. Feels mildly sad, but I have so much more energy, that it's worth it.