Yesterday morning Spouseman gave me a cheery "You're up early!" for getting my ass out of bed before 10 AM.

For context, I usually wake up 7:30ish this time of year. I often go back to bed to snuggle for an hour or two, but I wake up within an hour of sunrise when I'm healthy. (Even with blackout curtains.)

Except after cons. Sometimes I'm in bed as late as 11AM for a day or two or three after getting home.

And I usually get 7+ hours of sleep per 24, but I am rarely in BED for more than 6 hours at a stretch because my joints hate me lying still.

Except after cons. I'm in bed as much as 10 hours the day after a con.

Two data points. It's officially a trend, right?

My brain pretty much shuts down for a reset after leaving high-interaction events. Unless I crash a few hours before leaving. That's a simmering hot stew of awkwardness when it happens, so I try VERY hard to avoid it. I was home, unpacked & washed up after Cap before I crashed hard with a cat purring on my lap. Good times.

I had a fabulous time at Capricon this year. It's always a great convention, but this time was extra-special because, well <waves vaguely> YOU know. Things. I had the most panels I've done at a con ever, and I enjoyed every one of them, despite 3 of them being in a room with a CAMERA POINTED AT ME.

And I moderated three panels (two in the Camera Room Of Doom, one in a room without microphones because tech difficulties) and I only screwed up a few times in each panel, so big yay and confetti and buckets of self-congratulatory happiness right there.

The Dealer Room was like a bookstore smorgasbord, books were sold, things were bought, plans were made, and fun was had. Evenings included hallway chats, hotel room haircuts, and late night conversations.

New friends were made (I think, I hope) and I enjoyed getting to reconnect with old friends too! (although not NEARLY as much as I wanted. Sorry to alla y'all who only got bits & pieces of my time, my energy was low & I had roommates & I didn't feel comfortable crossing the streams or mixing up groups and, well. Anyway.)

Some of us should get together soon, masked & safe indoors. That's all I'm saying. Soon.

Now the con is somehow a week in the past, Thursday is over, (it's technically Friday morning wee hours tbh) and my biggest accomplishments since getting home have been...hm. Unimpressive:

• laundry! Yes, it deserves the exclamation mark
• dusted my home desk
• dusted my work desk & did sundry library tasks over 2 shifts
• put away con stuff, updating inventory & sales records
• brushed the cat two days in a row (he forgave me both times)
• reread 2 romance novels, ignoring the stack of lovely new books I really do want to read
• surfed on Twitter & Facebook more than I'd like
• played a lot of Absurdle
• filled out a Con Feedback survey, gushed about my fellow panelists & praised other moderators
• watched episodes of 2 TV shows and 2 movies (finished Stranger Things rewatch, started Mythic Quest, big thumbs up, sat through Free Guy & Venom: Let There Be Carnage, meh x2)
• booked 2 hotel rooms & 1 plane flight for 2 separate future events. This involved multiple conversations, negotiations, and consultations over a couple of days.
• read one whole chapter in the nonfiction book I'm trying to chew through. Stolen Focus. There's irony to be found in my inability to concentrate on a book about all the ways modern systems demolish our attention spans, but I'm not appreciating it.
• cooked a spicy chicken casserole from scratch. Well. From a boxed rice dish plus leftover rice from Chinese takeout, and various other add-ins. So, kinda like Stone Casserole instead of Stone Soup?
• sliced up a cucumber I'd forgotten was in the fridge & set it to soak w/onions & brine for fridge pickles.
• and wrote this blog post

It looks good written down, but hey, I'm a writer. I'm expected to make things looks good in words.

When measured against my days of otherwise unemployed time, the accomplishment level is...meager doings. George Carlin had a bi about stuff filling the space available. Tasks fill the time available, I guess.

Has it been restful? Oh, yes. And have I enjoyed myself? Mostly, when I'm not ambiguously frazzled, or second-guessing every recent interaction (at the con & since, online & off) and/or draaaagggggggggging myself through daily routines in pursuit of basics like personal hygiene.

It's silly, all this listing I do, but it's also soothing. In one sense it's a long, wordy version of, "Look at me, I can do the bare minimum to survive!" And in the world I grew up in, making much of nothing is tacky, selfish attention-seeking nonsense.

But in another sense, these lists are the vital opposite of making much of nothing. They're making much of things overlooked and undervalued. They're balancing the meaningfulness scales.

I am proud of others when they do what I am doing, so it's only fair I make note of the important basics too. Besides, even just thinking, LAUD ME, FOR I HAVE DONNED CLEAN CLOTHES & INGESTED SUSTENANCE! makes me smile, and smiles are always good.

So I shall feel proud of myself now that I've noted all I've done. I mean, I didn't spend the WHOLE time surfing or reading articles about dairy cow milk production and teaching dogs to pull wagons. And I did get in a little good writing time. A teeny bit. But as the That Counts As Writing bot on Twitter points out out, it's all progress.

So. Here we are, at the end of another meandering life post. That's all there is to it. Except for a cat pic.

Until later!