Restless mind

My brain feels like cotton right now. From lack of sleep? Too much sleep (I just woke up from a much-needed nap)? Lack of intellectual stimulation? Being in a rut?

It's been 9 months since I resigned from my job. It's not too long ago. But it seems long ago. I think I'm reaching that stage of settling down. Gone is the novelty of staying at home. I'm starting to miss working. Not everything about working per se, but specifically the exercise of the mind that an "outside job" requires. Talking to a variety of people throughout the day. Being out there.

I'm not bored physically. There's a lot to occupy my hands. It's just my mind that's jumpy. My brain cells are itching to stretch and tingle, as though they've been lying dormant for far too long.

I've tried to keep my mind occupied. Scrapbooking is my creative outlet. I'm reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace". But there's something about the scientific and academic world that's uniquely stimulating to me. When I was working, I've struggled at times to read journal articles, but it's kept my mind striving to keep up.

I think I'll take out my genetics books and read them again. Lynch and Walsh's "Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits" should wake my brain up. That will make some interesting leisure reading.