ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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Comments

  2. The batteries will recharge, they just take longer when you’re no longer a twentysomething who can fuel with expresso the day after handing in the novel/thesis/whatever to keep going and feel back to normal within 3 days. I feel it the next day whenever I stay up past 11:30 pm (which was twice within the last 7 days. Love work deadlines…)

    The BDH can be patient, especially when we know there’s holiday shopping, decorating and meals to do.

  3. Reminding myself to just breathe (& do some kind of exercise) these days. Sending lots of affection..

  5. Maybe the battery just needs replaced with a deep cycle battery. We can wait for the order to arrive. 😉

    All joking aside, it’s normal for the recharge to take longer sometimes than others. Be kind to yourselves. We’ll wait and be here whenever you’re ready. 🤗

  6. It is getting winter, so time to slow down. Never could do it when I was still working, so now I really enjoy it. Withdrawing from the garden and all the summer visitors, diving into my wool and quilting projects, so nice to finish the summerprojects and start on nice new things! This gives me al lot of energy.

    When the battery does not want to load.. sometimes it is time to get physically active with nice things, like a christmas tree?
    Take a nice (longer) time, no hurry in winter..

  9. I sympathise, I can tell you it will get better but a. that is supremely unhelpful and b. even if true in the future, that doesn’t help the frustration right now. So I’m going to stick with digital hugs.

      • Me neither. There’s so much to do! Have to divide and conquer, there’s so much to do it’s easily to get overwhelmed.

        • I had friends over last weekend and they saw my naked tree with boxes of ornaments all around. They asked “do you want us to help you with your tree?” I (feeling a little guilty) said yes and they decorated the tree and then set up and decorated a second tree I have for another room as well.

          My friends had a ball and I got out from under my overwhelm. My pals also do dishes which I loathe but they just helped with (entirely decorated) the trees.

          Hoping you have some people who can come and give you a hand.

  10. I definitely relate to this waiting to charge. As someone who has house pigeons the one where he just throws himself down and thumps yes they do that. I have had birds all my life I wasn’t used to a bird that size being so ineligant getting off a perch. I thought one of them had had an accident and falling off the perch or died and falling off the perch ran back into the room nope, just ungraceful bird walking around the bottom of the cage.

  11. You are seen and loved. Take your time: don’t feel you must bounce back. You just do the little things: Rest, Tea, food, shower.

    Hope the battery line starts creeping up in a few more days/ weeks.

  12. I can relate. I thought I’d recharge by sleeping in on Saturday, but I ended up just napping and eating Saturday thru Tuesday (luckily, I’m working from home this week so I could mark myself as busy on Teams and then take a nap). I finally feel almost functional today.

    • Sports / having a walk / getting physically active without the brain involved can help a lot.

      And being patient.

      Huggs

  15. Last time my phone felt like this, I’d forgotten to plug the charger unit into the wall. I wondered why my phone wasn’t charging when it was clearly plugged in to the charger. Maybe your human charger isn’t plugged in, lol. Or maybe it needs the Microsoft maneuver, the one that Bill Gates used to turn the entire world into his beta testers – turn the world off and then turn it back on.

    I always have trouble this time of year. My mother died on Dec 21 (1988) and my father died on Dec 24 (2000) and I pretty much hate the early dusk and damp and cold and the entire “holiday” season. I used to go somewhere tropical and warm this time of year, but that’s not an option anymore.

  16. The holidays aren’t exactly time for the batteries to recharge overnight. Too much going on in the brain. Maybe a long weekend to the beach?

  17. This is me. Big Project (it’s nickname is NOT printable) finished Monday but my brain feels like a radio station in the desert…all fuzz. Everything is taking twice as long. I only want to play Tears of the Kingdom from my recliner, and sometimes even that takes too much thinking. Maybe after Christmas (as long as there’s no THINKING) I’ll be recharged.

    Raises tea cup in solidarity!

  18. I totally understand the battery not charging. Between the craziness of December, the sun setting so soon, the body not wanting to acknowledge that it’s an hour earlier than you think, and whatever else, I want to nap at 1 pm while I’m at work.

    Sometimes it’s better to just stare at an empty space and zone out rather than trying to think. I know it’s easier said than to do it. Sending hugs.

  19. what was that famous saying again? oh yes. ‘This too shall pass’ Rest up, recharge and focus on you and the family for a while 😘

  20. I get it. One of the ways I recharge is snuggling on the couch with the dog and a cup of tea and a comfort read. Right now that’s the Kinsman books. So thank you for that.

  21. That is how I feel while recovering from covid in week2. Atleast I have GA magic bites to keep me company

  22. Another one who finds recharging when we are heading into the shortest days almost impossible, so offering a nice fluffy throw on a comfy sofa, a comfort read, and an endless supply of soothing tea at the perfect temperature (with the fantasy of not needing to get up to go to the loo too) for you. I’ll stick to coffee with a side of hot water, but join you with my own fluffy throw and comfy couch.

  24. Might be time to change out the tea for tequila. I mean, if the brain is already mush, might as well give it a legitimate reason to be so. 😉

    • You can have tea-quila, make it healthy add honey! Lol

      This time of year is super busy for us at USPS. The sapping of energy at this time of year is legit!

      I put my headphones on and listen to anything NOT holiday related. Put on warm microwaved eye pads. (total darkness ) Lay down flat on a heated massage body pad on my hard wood floor and just be for 30-60 minutes. It helps😊

  26. Animatrix, even though it goes against the laws of thermodynamics , I feel like part of the machine. 😂
    Where’s Neo?, anyone?

    Science Daily posted a paper from Uni of Colorado at Boulder; a device that can harvest heat energy from your body so you can power your own devices! It’s still in the development stages, count me in😜

  27. Definitely rest and recharge.

    Based on bitter experience, any work you do while totally burnt out will be worthless at best and, at the worst, will take more of your energy and patience to undo than you want to spend. I have ended one of those days farther behind than if I had just stayed in bed. Lesson learned.

  28. It’s like when you have a weekend, or a week’s holiday at home – just before you go back to work and think “I could really do with another one.”

  29. Virtual hugs🤗.
    Take your time, take a breather and take care of yourselves, the BDH is going nowhere: we will w*t!

  30. ‘Tis the season. Two more weeks before the days start getting longer. Then another three weeks before it gets light earlier in the morning, at least here in the MidAtlantic. January 13th is when my brain and body wake up for the new year. It’s amazingly reliable.

    You’ve just come off a marathon project, and your batteries will naturally take longer to recharge right now, because there aren’t enough sunny hours to do the job yet.

    Today I discovered this cool lavender-infused simple syrup mixer from Portland Syrups. The color is more blue than lavender. Added to chamomile tea as a sweetener, it turns the tea a lovely golden-green color. The taste is fabulous. It hasn’t helped me accomplish anything, but it does make me happy. That’s all I got right now.

  31. Yep. I know this feeling. This needs to be followed with a panel that shows the battery full . . . and then completely discharging in 5 minutes. (I tell people sometimes that I’m not holding a charge very well.)

  33. Keep going, you can do it, we can all get there in the end. Raising fist (very tiredly) in solidarity. Go team!

    • Also hiding under covers and animal cuddles listening to Magic Breaks—I started on GA magic Bites this past weekend… Team BDH may need to send the stretcher please…

  35. What helps me, especially this time of year, is to install powerful daylight (preferably full-spectrum) lights in the kitchen.
    I don’t want my kitchen to be cozy, because cozy = sleepy this time of the year.
    I want a bright sunny day in my kitchen, and I indeed tend to spend a lot of time there during winter, enjoying the light.
    Another suitable spot could be office, for persons working from home.

    I would recommend to check the color of the light – it should be white, not pink or purple as plant-growing lamps tend to be.

    Hope this could help a bit.

  38. Are you maybe coming down with something? Or….. you’ve overworked and it’s just taking that long to recharge! It is what it is. Eat well. Take naps. Ignore the rest of us!

  41. Think about yarn. Pretty, pretty yarn. Sweater quantities of merino/alpaca/silk. Meltingly subtle shades of celadon, mist gray, and champagne. Soft as a basket of kittens, light as a cloud. A knitted hug. Self-love on two sticks.

    Guess what I’m getting for Christmas? lol. Now and then, if it’s a hard day, I look in the bag, and maybe give it a little squeeze.

    Works for me.

  42. Ditto on all the hugs and sympathy and empathy. Seems like we have all been there and do not want the t-shirt. Wish you could stop on “Maggie” (if that is what is mostly draining you) and simply allow yourself respite. Days and days of it.

  43. Y’all are insanely fast. Most authors do good to get out ONE book a year. (Look at George RR Martin.) So as a committed member of BDH, I just go back and reread your backlist and remind myself to be patient.

    Hugs. Give yourself time to heal the batter brain meat. Watch dumb Marvel movies or lovely Korean dramas. We’ll be hear, waiting.

    • I just had cataracts surgery, and I’m still high. Please excuse the typos in the above post.

  45. In my experience the more and the longer you go beyond your personal limits, the more difficult and protracted it becomes to return to a normal state.
    For me usually a time of doing things (including day-to-day details, like other but simple meals, who cleans what…) in a very different way, also lots of moving/dance/simple… without extortion (fun, no ‘goals’) helps a lot.
    Visiting eg ancient culture exhibitions,… vs watching a documentary,… important is: not related to work

  46. Shorter days, stress of holiday preparations, remembering relatives that have passed on, and other assorted stuff always sap my endurance at this time of year. At least now that I’m retired I don’t have to deal with rushed year-end system changes before budgets change!

    Every year I find something else that helps: warm quilts and good books on the sofa, holiday shopping online rather than dealing with crowds, treating myself to coffee or tea breaks (with fancy pastries!) at a local little cafe that I love, quiet and peaceful walks in the park, etc. Maybe some of this would help you?

    In any case, make yourself a priority. Beautiful holiday decorations can’t be appreciated by you if your battery is totally run down, and elaborate holiday meals and baked goods you may want to prepare are not appreciated by guests and family as much as spending time with a happy and rested you.

    Sending virtual hugs! 💕💕

  47. I am struggling with a currently chronic illness that has anemia as one of the characteristics. There is such a discrepancy between what I think I can/ought to do and what I actually can do! It’s always been there but now the gap is wide. So I have been giving myself some grace and hope that I can continue when this stupid situation is resolved.

  50. Totally off topic here, but I’m in a class with someone named Robert Lescano and every time I see his name I read it as Robert Lonesco in my head, chuckle, and then have to correct my internal monolog. 😄

  52. When I found out that a study had recommended at least 8 days of vacation in order to relax, things made more sense

  53. Your BDH would prefer you take the time you need now to get charged back up so that you can continue to entertain us for years! We’re in it for the long-term, and while we may mutter and chew our nails while waiting, we (at least most of us) understand!

  54. Boy howdy! I’m with you; on the couch, zero ambition, staring at the fire. The older I get, the less I look forward to the Holidays.

  55. I feel this. I am coming up on a 2 year mark on waiting for that battery recharge to hit “Full” after a decade of Heck. I feel like it’s finally gaining traction.

    Rest, good nutrition, and showers are good.

    Thank you for all you do. I hope you are enjoying the holidays.

  56. Puttering in Barnes & Noble I came across a White Hot due out in June 2024 for $19. Looks like a large paperback size. Anything different about this (other than the cover art) from the small paperback size?

  58. There are times like that, I’m almost to that stage right now. I’m a teacher and you know we teachers are reaching the burn out stage when we’d rather do housework instead of preparing lessons, marking works,… anything that requires brainpower is just impossible at time. So do the mindless tasks like ironing bedsheets, washing dishes,… and rest your brain.
    Just in case anyone wonders who irons bedsheets, I do ! Because I find it mindlessly restful, where ironing shirts or other things requires some attention which I am at time utterly unequal to provide

  60. Alternating rest and physical activity (only 20 min or so), then rest / calmer activities, all without the brain involved, can help a lot I my experience.

    Huggs

  61. I feel soooo ready for my Christmas vacation.
    Soooo ready.

    You do you – this time of year also recouperation takes longer.
    Hang in there.
    It will get better, in time. 🙂

  62. I hope things have improved a little in the last couple of days.

    Don’t worry about us – it’s holiday season and we all have distractions of greater or lesser size this time of year.

  63. Someone may have already said this but it does bear repeating?

    The problem is that you are not Knitting!!!!!

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