This is not a brag, but neither am I particularly upset about it.
I am an extreme introvert. It's not that I don't enjoy hanging out with people, particularly people I love. I do. But I also find it utterly exhausting. Saturday was an utterly exhausting day.
I taught martial arts for four hours beginning in the morning, and well past lunch hour. This is always fun. I love martial arts, and I love passing on that love to my students. Normally, however, after this I get to spend the rest of the day in recovery. My beginner's kickboxing class in particular is full of people, and I need the recovery after. There was not time. I had to get ready and head out immediately to get to the book launch.
My clothes were changed in the room I teach in. I applied makeup there too. Luckily, one wall is entirely mirrors, so I wasn't working blind. Then I ran to the bus stop and ... waited because the bus was late. Quelle surprise. Still, it arrived with time enough that I wasn't late.
As the MC for the event, and a reader launching Skylark (a late launch, I know), I really needed to be there. Now, I don't relish being in front of people. Having all those eyes on me makes me anxious. I've always hated it. It's the reason I don't do theatre any more. I loved acting, but the audience make me want to run screaming. Being an MC was not fun for me. It took an extraordinary amount of effort to keep myself from falling to pieces during the two hour event.
It went well. I think. I mean, I don't really remember it. I'm pretty sure I didn't make a complete fool of myself.
That achieved, and home at last, I drank a hot chocolate and collapsed into bed.
Sunday, I couldn't move. I had a terrible headache, which was almost a migraine. Most of it was in my scalp, though, and even brushing my hair hurt like hell. I was so tired and so very wiped out, I couldn't have achieved much yesterday even if I wanted to.
So, I gave myself permission to rest. Not that I could've done otherwise. I stayed in bed, mostly. Except for when I finally dragged myself out to feed myself, and do some laundry. While in bed I listened to music on YouTube, discovering some new songs that I really like, and did a lot of recovery snoozing.
It was so, so needed.
All this, though, doesn't mean that I didn't have fun, or that I wasn't thrilled to see everyone at the book launch. I was absolutely thrilled, and I really did have fun. I love my publishing family, and I'm so happy to have seen my friends drop by to celebrate with me. I'm so, so thankful for Renaissance for organising the event, and I'm so, so very grateful for all of you who showed up. Thanks so much, and I can't wait until I have a new book to launch. I will be thrilled to be exhausted all over again.
Today, though, it's back to the regular routine, until Can*Con, which will be three days of intense peopling, for which I will need so much recovery time. That means it's back to the gym, which I neglected last week because of a knee problem (I'm getting old), and back to writing. I have to prepare two manuscripts for Can*Con, just in case either one of them comes up and I have to have something to give them on the spot. I also have to prepare tomorrow's post for Black Gate magazine. I'm not sure what I'll talk about for that yet. Maybe it'll come to me at the gym today.
On that note, I should get started. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and today is not the worst.
Ciao!