I often forget just what a powerful force exhaustion can be. As a performer, I’m quite used to pushing my body to the limit – but sometimes I forget that it has a limit. And much as it chagrins me to admit it, I’m not as young as I was when I would put in a 9 hour performance day, followed by a parade, followed by an evening show (yes, I did that, but only once). Plus performance is a different thing altogether than a ‘real’ job, when you’re on a stage of any kind you establish a rapport with the audience that lets you draw off of them, that’s where the concept of ‘post-show’ high comes from. While my job is technically an entertainment one, it’s basically a sub-level of the hospitality business, and anyone will tell you that when you hit the wall in the hospitality field there isn’t much to do but sort of…let it knock you out.
I’m nothing if not stubborn, my standards have been judged on this contract (whether I deserve it or not is still under question) and if I’m challenged I will go to massive lengths to prove my naysayers wrong – but even I have to admit that there hits a point when I can’t force myself to run full out anymore. So this morning asked my EM to authorize a cut in my port day hours from the 9.5 I’ve been working since Shadow left to the much more standard 6 that I’m used to which – thankfully – she authorized (because I have a fantastic boss on this ship) effective immediately, and at ten am this morning I crawled back into bed and sleep solid through till nearly 4pm. When my roommate came in I was finally up, with some colour back in my cheeks and my embroidery laid out on the bed.
You look better.
This is the first time I’ve had the energy to pick up a needle in about a week.
I was gonna say! I’ve missed seeing that!
I was…tired.
Well duh!