This last week has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life.From Sunday to Wednesday night I was running around frantically making sure OzFox was on track, coordinating all the last minute details (of which there were many) and crises (of which there were thankfully very few).
From Monday morning I was on a high, and it never relented. Introducing the speakers was a great privilege, and the sessions were all high quality. By the end of each day I was massively hyped and very tired. I crashed into bed early each night and slept soundly. I’ve never taken drugs, but I expect the rush users get from some of the uppers on the market is very similar.
And I expect the downer they experience is also quite similar to what I experienced on Thursday. The conference was over and everyone was looked after. Even on the Wednesday night after conference I had started to become a little ‘quiet’. Initially I put this down to exhaustion, but by mid morning on Thursday I wasn’t so sure. I was tired alright, but I was also getting very down. I was having trouble focussing on what anyone was saying and I was doing my best not to start arguments with people. It was all very, very weird. I spoke to a few people about it and we kind of worked on the theory that my body had been so pumped with adrenelin during the conference that it was now trying to overcompensate when bringing me back to a normal balance. By mid afternoon Thursday I had done no productive work for the entire day and was feeling almost depressed. I was due to take a speaker to the airport that night but fortunately one of my work colleagues was able to take over this. I’m glad they didn’t see me in that state.
Instead Thursday night I went home and made a nuisance of myself, being pretty obnoxious to my wife and a friend she had over. And the thing was, every time I became aware of what a pain I was being it made me even more down.
By late evening though it was starting to lift. Around 10pm I was in better spirits, and possibly swinging back into a hyper state. Again very weird. I watched a DVD of NickelBack that Doug Hennig had given me as a gift and started to feel back on track.
I went to bed and had a full 10 hours sleep. I woke on Friday and felt completely back to normal. Phew! I apologised to my wife for being such a pain and went into work. Powered through a stack of issues and got back to doing what I love – writing code. My boss comes around at the end of the day and tells me we just landed a big deal – awesome.
I write this on Saturday morning after a fantastic week. The conference was a joy as many people online have already generously shared. But for me it was really interesting to experience what my body went through. Next time I’ll plan a dedicated day off right after the conference, so that I don’t expose people to my ‘down’ mood. Or perhaps I’ll be able to plan better.
