Play time

(I had two separate thoughts, and so you're getting them in two posts.)

Today, I spent my late afternoon playing Settlers of Catan with a department secretary and several of our Master's students. Why did it not occur to us before that we should periodically stop and play board games? Because that was pretty much the best ever. (It doesn't hurt that I won. By a lot.)

The funny thing is that my brain was sharper and more ready to handle my workload after an hour of board games than it had been after two hours of the half-reading/half-procrastination that I was doing before that. Seriously, sometimes it feels like my brain doesn't work anymore. But then I have an afternoon like that, and I realise that I do have a sharp mind. I just don't allow myself enough times where I immerse myself in either play or work. I just constantly wallow in this half-way point, feeling guilty about both.