Did you ever have those days in college when you were so tired from cramming or partying or studying that you’d wake in the morning and pour orange juice instead of milk over your cereal? I’m having those moments again. I’m not in school and it’s not because of lack of sleep.
I’ve been sawing logs well considering the year we just had. My dreams are super crazy. Not always bad, but weird. Last night in my sleep it was raining packages of Reese’s peanut butter cups. Like I said, not always bad, but definitely unusual.
And my brain can’t tell what day it is either. I know it’s Wednesday as I write this, but it feels like Saturday. My brain is telling me to sleep in late, have waffles with lots of syrup for breakfast, lounge about in my PJs until 3 p.m. and then take a nap. Who knows what day my brain will think tomorrow is? It’s a good bet it won’t “feel” like a Thursday.
Watching TV last night I kept hitting buttons on the remote to go to a specific channel. Over and over again I hit the button only to stay stuck on ABC. In frustration I stopped. Puffed out air and then realized I’d been hitting the ABC button the entire time. My brain just didn’t seem to want to understand that.
My brain has been misdirecting my body a lot lately. It’s tried to get me to put my shoes on the wrong feet. It’s tried to get me to put cilantro on my food (I haaaaate cilantro). Heck, the other day I went to get clean socks out of the dresser and my brain told my body pull dirty ones from the hamper. What the heck?
I don’t remember things like this happening B.C. (Before Covid). I mean, I’ve had my experiences with tension and strain. It comes with the territory of meeting planning and police work. I think in this extended period of the “new normal,” my brain and body are coping by doing silly things. Not necessarily evil or injurious, just inconvenient and sometimes ridiculous. I once put ice cream bars in the pantry instead of the freezer. I didn’t catch that one soon enough.
What makes it even stranger to me is I feel I’m one of the luckier people dealing with C19. I mean, I’ve been a remote worker for a long time, so that’s not new. I’ve lost business, but I haven’t lost my job. And I was able to get both of my vaccinations, so by and large, my grade is ‘A’ in terms of the pandemic tolerance.
So why is my brain telling my body to act in unusual ways? Despite my sometimes questionable diet, I’m getting regular exercise about three times a week. I get to meet up with a small handful of colleagues and co-workers with masks and physical distancing. I mean, I’m not traveling like I used to. I miss it a lot. Maybe my brain does, too?
I think I’ll chalk it up to C19 induced stress and anxiety and call this a coping mechanism. Yeah, that. In the meantime, I’ll just keeping looking forward to the next day. No matter what my brain tells me.
