Recharging

Different people have different ways to recharge. For me, it’s always quiet time, spent alone.

Last week, I finally completely Stage Two of our move, which involved getting all of my earthly possessions save a trunk’s worth of clothes and a laptop packed up and loaded onto a truck, and then driving from North Carolina, where I have lived for the last five years, to upstate New York, not two hours from where I grew up. (Stage One involved my husband moving up here all by himself to start his new job back in June. Stage Three will involve moving into our actual house, once we close on it in a few weeks.)

Since I arrived I’ve basically…kerflopped. All the stress of saying goodbye to all my friends and getting ready to leave and worrying about selling/buying houses finally evaporated in one big poof, leaving me looking something like this:

(You know, except without the microphone. Because talking to people sucks.)

The time since then has been spent with an inspiring mix of reading smut, watching anime, and sleeping. A lot of sleeping. I’ve been ignoring phone calls and staying off social media. The idea of interaction just leaves me exhausted. Of course, many of my friends, knowing I’m in the middle of a big change, have seen this as the ideal opportunity to call and check in. That hasn’t gone well.

But that’s okay. Part of the fun of a big dramatic change is knowing you’re stressed out, and for once in my life, I’ve used that knowledge to try to be nice to myself. No pressure to interact beyond letting people know that, yes, I am alive, and I will return their phone calls someday. No pressure to get out there and meet new people or explore the new city yet. Just quiet time. Recovery. Because that’s what I need.

How do you recharge?

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PS – In case you missed it, some of my amazing writer pals and I launched a new group blog this week, called Bad Girlz Write. Stop by and meet us all, plus enter to take part in our Launch Week Giveaway **jazzhands**.