This has been a super-crazy week at work to cap off a busier-than-hell month, and I'm realizing that all I've really done this month in my non-working life is the bare minimum. Sure, there were outings and other (fun) things here and there, but mostly this month has been about feeling tired for me. And feeling unmotivated and uninspired.

Don't get me wrong: I'm making progress in many ways (particularly with regard to my finances) but I keep experiencing that "just can't get enough sleep" feeling which for me is indicative of either a pending MS attack or ever-increasing depression. Since my MS has been largely silent over the last few months (hurray!) my guess is that the depression is kicking back in, ever so slightly creeping back to cloud my thoughts and sabotage even my most determined efforts to live a normal life.

The problem with depression is that even when I know I'm depressed and I know I should just get up and make an effort to do things, I still can't seem to actually do it. It is maddening. There is absolutely nothing wrong in my life right now - seriously, minimal drama! - and yet I am lethargic and tired and frustrated with everything I start. I can't even read a book without getting bored with it a page or two in.

So the bottom line is, I need to move up my appointment with my shrinky-dink (a.k.a. my psychiatrist) and get this little chemical-imbalance problem assessed and dealt with. And I know there's very little I can do about it, but I just hate the fact that my brain likes to sabotage itself by not making enough of the appropriate chemicals.

I think I'm also going to implement a few new priorities into my life to try to kick my butt out of this slump: two of these I've already begun to implement: 1) daily piano practice sessions. I've committed myself to sitting down for a minimum of 5 minutes every day (and once I start playing it usually ends up going longer), and 2) a commitment to play with Rennie more as well as do more regular grooming. (You'd think every other day would be sufficient but she gets matted if I go more than a day without brushing her out! ARGH.) I think the third piece of this puzzle is making more time for exercise, meditation and prayer - things that will help me focus my thoughts on positive things and let me take better care of myself.

So there's my whining for the week. :) I hope the coming month brings everyone peaceful, non-materialistic holiday experiences. I was actually on the ball this year and purchased holiday cards, so I will be attempting to force myself to send those out this weekend. And Gil is coming by to play cards tomorrow - the first time we've really hung out in about two months. It should be fun, I think - and will help me focus on something other than feeling tired.

Oh, and from the department of geekdom: I stumbled upon this cool little website (thanks to Dave McFarland), which creates favicons: you know, those fun little pictures that are next to the site's name in the URL bar of most browsers? (Remember, I asked the Internet about this a while back!?) So I went up to that site, uploaded my photo, and voila! Out popped a nifty favicon which I added to my site. And you can see it up there in the address bar if you're using IE7 or Firefox or (maybe?) Safari. Took me all of 5 minutes to create it. How cool is that?