How it feels, amirite!?

*taps mic* I’m no good at this whole blues thing. Sorry. I often listen to metal. If I could, I’d try to sing the blues to see if I felt any better. I’m sad. Instead… let me write some thoughts out here where you too might feel a little comfort, and I will offer some ways to keep yourself sane/busy.

We will get through this. It sucks, make no mistake.

Firstly, you are not alone. Don’t sit there and constantly read every update minute by minute. Or feel like a failure. Or horrible too. It won’t help anyway, and it might help to know there are others who pine to go and couldn’t for insert variety of reasons. Heck, there’s even people who could care less about going! The following words are for those who DO care.

I know I’m not alone in feeling that icky, sad panda, envious, frustrated, pining, hollowed out melon feeling of absence and disappointment at not being able to make it to NAB (again!) Maybe it’s your first time hearing about it. Maybe it’s your consecutive missed year in a row. Or perhaps you got to go before or last year, but can’t this year. Doesn’t matter! Let us all gather together in our misery all the same.

I’ve never gotten to go. I should probably make that clear. I’ve never felt the agony of that impossible time management nor awkward interactions of meeting all my fellow #postchat friends or others that may show up to NAB. I’ve never felt the sweaty pain of wearing the wrong shoes and walking miles up and down the hallways. The dizziness of dehydration. etc. etc. heh.

You wanna know what I think is the worst part of missing NAB? THE PEOPLE. yeah. I know there’s all this cool technology, updates, and conferences happening. And I look forward to those updates via twitter and everyone there in the thick of it. But dammit! It’s the comradery and nerdery happening, gathering right there all in one spot out in magical looking Vegas. It’s the one major time of year you could possibly in real life introduce yourself to all those great twitterland people you talk to so often. It’s certainly not the only one… Edit Fest comes to mind. But, it’s a very large one.

I think this part feels like the biggest punch to the gut. Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited for my friends, really. It’s strange, a mixture of happiness to see people reunited another year or getting to finally meet, then a cold drizzling of feeling left out. I SHOULD BE THERE. That’s what my mind has said now for several years ever since I found out about it.

We all have our reasons & situations for why we can’t go. What can you do now about it? nada. Planning I know is kind of cursed ground. Sure, you can go ahead and plan out your master plan to get there for the next year. But know that life is fickle, and you’ll have to roll with the punches. It’s not always juuust about the money. Sometimes you can’t get off a project in time (that you can’t/won’t know about in that much advance) or you have to ‘man the fort’ regardless, make sacrifices due to family, whatever it is – know that it’s not an invalid reason for not being able to attend.

Keep it together.

And for what it’s worth, it’s perfectly fine to feel the way I mentioned above. The year I am able to go (READ: NEXT YEAR OR BUST) I will post as many updates and pictures as I can – for those who can’t go. Will it sting to see them and not be there? Absolutely. But I’m grateful to the people I follow who take the time to share their experiences, even with 1% battery left. I know what an effort it must be, it’s a whole little world inside there and hard to pull away.

Now onto the lighter portion – how do you manage these feelings and continue plodding into the week when you already feel a bit full tilt and it hasn’t even REALLY started?

First off, Game of Thrones is on tonight, Season 4: watch it. Hurry up and marathon as many episodes as you can until then. It’ll be fun. ^__^

How to recreate that environment of awesome people? You can’t quite… but! you can call up some friends who aren’t at NAB because you probably have been too busy to catch up proper and maybe you just might hang up feeling a bit brighter.

Pick back up an old hobby you haven’t done for years. Write, draw, crafts, sew, clean up the garage or house, DO SOMETHING. that’s the key. And breathing. For instance, I’m starting to draw again. Even though I’m sure I suck in the large scene of artists, it’s something I enjoy pretending I can do.

Update some of your work. Show off some things you’ve been putting effort into & you’d be surprised how cool it’ll feel to go back and look or maybe someone will give you feedback – insta-boost!

Exercise! Yeeeep. Doesn’t matter what you do. Cardio, weight lifting, interpretive angry sad jealous dance? Go for it!! Tire yourself out til you don’t have enough energy left. And I hear you get a nice little brain boost of good feels afterwards. I even have experienced it myself, sometimes.

Get out at least one good solid vent about things to someone. Whatever happened, get it off your chest and try not to dive too far back down into it. It’s not healthy to hold it in, it’ll just build and make you rage-face feeling by the end of the week. You can try avoidance techniques too. Nothing wrong with being sans twitter until it’s almost over. But I think it’s best to tackle it head on and challenge yourself in these moments.

Gamer? Pick up Skyrim and slay some dragons. Nothing pumps you up better than slashing the scales off a big mean fire-breathing dragon. Think of it like a virtual sandbag to get out stress til you are filled with glee. Not a gamer? Well, maybe try watching a show that has battles where whoever you want win. Yes. That’ll do pig, that’ll doooo.

Go for a drive and imagine you’re about to head off to some great destination (NOT NAB, no. just no.) and continue doing so while blasting whatever music makes you feel best until the intensity of bad feeling has passed.

Lastly, I’m here! @ninjakittay if you need someone to vent and commiserate misery with because I understand… and nope, I don’t judge. *innernetz hugs*

Put the ice cream DOWN.