As often happens, when the temperatures rise and fall pretty rapidly from one day to another, I’ve gotten sick. It definitely doesn’t help that I’m super burned out and exhausted from the pains of last year combined with the project I’ve been doing for so long at work that I’ve forgotten what it is like to not be constantly thinking about it. All it takes these days is a tiny disruption and I am down for the count, especially now as I’m trying a new medication and tiredness/low-energy seems to be one of the common side-effects that I’m trying to cope with. Which means I’m working from home today (the day I’m writing this) and doing my level best to actually rest a bit. I’m really not sure how much more of this I can take, if I’m being quite honest. I know I’m physically reaching a breaking point, but I’ve got maybe another week or two before the project is fully done and I can just take an entire week off from work to sleep, rest, do nothing, and try to start undoing the damage all this constant stress and burnout has done…

I’m not terribly sick. I’ve got some minor cold-like symptoms and a headache, all of which is exactly what I’d expect from a “massive change in temperature several times in a single week” sickness, but it feels worse than usual because of the constant, lingering tiredness that’s the side-effect of the medication I’m on and the dwindling physical capability resulting from said tiredness and being ill. I’m nowhere near as bad as I was last year, when I was in pain all the time, but I’m just as sleepy as I was last year when I wasn’t sleeping enough due to back pain. I’m much more clear-headed than I was, which is what makes this weird. I’m just completely and utterly drained of the physical energy. Even my mental energy feels like it’s dwindling, albeit not as quickly as my physical energy most days, since the simple act of writing my blog posts takes a degree of effort and focus that I’m not accustomed to. If you’ve noticed more errors in my writing lately, it’s because I’m writing the lion’s share of these posts the day before they go up and editing after they get posted rather than writing them a week ahead of time and editing them the day before they get posted (all I’ve got most days is a quick outline or a topic idea). It is difficult to make time for writing blog posts when all of my days at work are filled with exhaustedly trudging through the last tasks I’ve got to do before my project is fully released and all I want to do when I go home is play video games or watch something before staggering off to bed.

This flip-flopping weather isn’t helping, either. We’re jumping almost daily from good weather for early April to normal early March weather. Snow falls one day, melts everywhere but in the shadows, and then disappears the next because the low-thirties have skyrocketed up to the mid-fifties and even being in the shade isn’t enough to proect this scant snow from the ravages of an early Spring. Hell, the forecast has a few days in the sixties and one in the seventies the week this post goes up, so it’s practically late Spring at this point, weather-wise. That said, it’s not like the calendar being in late Spring has ever stopped it from snowing before… I’m honestly kind of worried about how bad the summer might be, what with how little precipitation we’ve gotten this winter and how warm it already is. We could be in for a scorcher. Or maybe even a firey summer, if things get dry enough. I hope not, but it feels like I should be mentally preparing myself for the worst given how many days in the sixties we’ve seen in what is still actually Winter, according to the calendar.

For now, all I can really do is hope that this doesn’t herald an early start to allergy season. I’ve got enough problems right now without adding in constant sniffles, runny eyes, and stuffed-up ears to my plate. It’d be really nice to be able to enjoy some warm spring weather before all that sets in. Open up my windows and get a nice cross breeze going without, you know, sneezing all day every day while I’m sitting around my apartment. I might even try to get to bed earlier, see if I can use this tiredness to help me get more sleep than I usually do or just resign myself to being cursed with exhaustion until I’ve acclimated enough to this medication to figure out if I should reduce the dosage or if the over-powering exhaustion ever fades away. Though, that said, I think colder days would be better for sleeping, since I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep my flannel sheets and comforter on my bed at this rate… I’ll be overheating before long if this keeps up.