hazy

I have felt hungover for a week now, though my alcohol intake has been just as moderate as it always is. The few times I have overindulged in my life have been very unpleasant, and I'm too much of a control freak to get myself trashed on a regular basis.

So, the hangover isn't alcohol, and it may not even be the massive quantities of rich foods I have scarfed down like a ravening beast, but there is a heaviness in my eyes, my overfed self, and my mind. Sotto un coperto dell' piombo--under a cover of lead, is how the Italians describe depression. I suppose this happens every year, like Charlie Brown--"I know I'm supposed to be happy, but I just wind up being depressed." And it does. I do get post-(and during-) holiday depression, and feel aimless for a few days or weeks until my normal routines become established again. I'm more a creature of habit than my 3-year-old, and this very abnormal amount of parties sends me into full-on hermit mode.

It was a pretty recent discovery of mine that I am an introvert. I always thought that introverts were people who couldn't have conversations with strangers at parties or make new friends easily, but really introversion/extraversion are about how one is energized. Some people, like my husband and my son get more and more energy, the more people they are around. There is nothing they would like better than having twelve of their friends over to hang out and play games etc.

Others really need mass quantities of alone-time to recuperate from big gatherings of people (church, for example, along with the 10 parties we've been to in the past month or so). So we get more and more exhausted when there are more and more people around. I haven't worked out the ratio yet, but I think I probably need 3 solid days of hermiting to recoup from 1 day of partying (or churching sometimes). So don't expect to see me for about three months, ok?