Saturday, April 21, 2007

Some People Are SAD; I Am Not One Of Them

Seasonal Affective Disorder is commonly known as SAD. Most people afflicted with SAD will experience mood variations that are believed to be related mostly to light, specifically, the lack of it. They get depressed in winter months when there isn't a lot of sunshine or throughout the year if they live in areas like Seattle, for example, that has dreary weather on more days than not. This apparently depresses some people.

I am not one of those people; the kind who is adversely affected by dark, gloomy, overcast days. In fact, I actually like them and wish we had more. I am not a fan of abundant sunshine. I enjoy places where there is a cloud or two, inclement weather, ominous storms rolling in. There just aren't enough of those days.

The days that are the worst for me are those SO full of sunshine, I want to poke my eyes out because I can't find a single spot to hide from the glare. Of course, being inside isn't usually a problem, but even when indoors, I like a dark house, I don't want to see sun shining in from every damn glass hole in the wall. My brother used to call my house "The Bat Cave" because I would keep all the drapes and shades closed; all the time.

And skylights? Don't even get me started on skylights; they are straight from the Devil. What kind of sadistic person puts a skylight in their house when there is no way on earth to block the light shining through it??? Not me, that's for damn sure.

Obviously I'm a little pissy about the light today. Actually, it's like this most of the time in the truck when I'm trying to do something from the passenger seat like reading or being on the computer and the abundant sunshine hinders me. If the sun is out, it's incredibly unpleasant and most times, impossible.

The light bounces off the shiny sixty-four square feet of white truck hood, through the eleven feet of wrap-a-round window, none of which can be properly blocked by the slivers they call "sun" visors, and shines directly into the cornea of my eye. And don't even suggest sunglasses, because they are useless. They are fine if all I'm doing is staring out the window upon the sun soaked land, but otherwise, they are too dark to even see what the hell I'm doing, so I'd have to take them off anyway. Sort of defeats their purpose.

I suppose I can take up wearing a tennis visor, like the one my sister-in-law lives in; but she's petite and perky and dresses in cute little country-club-like outfits, often white in color, which actually make her look like she's going to break out in a game of tennis any minute. I would look ridiculous wearing one of those; "sporty" is not my thing.

Sometimes, in a moment of lunacy, like when we recently visted one of the Bass Pro Shop stores, I get all excited by the gadgets and clothing and neat little bits and pieces used for camping and boating and fishing, that I think, I can do this - the fishing, boating, camping thing...

Then I remember who I am. Wait. I hate the outdoors. Sunshine. No TV. No place to plug in my laptop. What the hell am I thinking?

So as those freaky little SAD people are joyfully anticipating the arrival of summer, I will just poke my head out long enough to get a respectable tan and buy a few new pairs of flip-flops.

When I'm not doing that, you will find me hiding behind my sunglasses, bitching about not only the sun, but the heat that will be coming along with it and searching for places that offer tons of shade with the possible bonus of accompanying air conditioning.

And that makes me very HAPPY.

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