I am experiencing sensory overload...

It is 3:30am and I can't sleep. So I figure I'll blog. Maybe it'll be therapeutic. Way too many things happened today, and I'm having a hard time absorbing it all. Basically, I have difficulty with extensive social interaction. I need to remove myself from the world occasionally and recuperate from normal goings-on. But today presented me with so much social stimulation that I just simply can't process it all. And I need to process it before I can move on (i.e., SLEEP!). So perhaps let me recount some of the highlights (or lowlights):

I checked my email this morning only to be affronted with an academic chastisement by the head of the participant pool. Apparently, we had made some mistakes and a few students went to the wrong room to participate in our experiment. Furthermore, I didn't post the correct room like I usually do. So many mistakes fell into place to land me in trouble. So he wrote me an email and sounded professionally angry. I ignored the email in the morning, but I was so angry and ashamed. I hate looking like a negligent, incompetent, dolt. So I fumed....

Then during class I couldn't concentrate because of that email. However, I made friends with somebody in class who is planning to use structural equation modeling (SEM) for his dissertation next year. I stayed behind to talk with him and the prof. We all decided that we should hold meetings every other week to discuss self-assigned readings on SEM. So I'm very excited about that.

Then I met with my research group, sans one individual who sent an email proclaiming the demise of our research (i.e., we might as well quit while we are behind). In other words, this person was emotionally reacting to the end-of-the-semester stress fest. So I critically analyzed his manifesto of doom with the other member of the group and decided to schedule a group meeting tomorrow morning with the premise that we shall move forward with testing whether this person wants to participate or not. I'm not really looking forward to this meeting.

Then I went to an awards ceremony with my friend, which was nice. I enjoyed meeting new people. Afterwards, we ran into someone who I shall call The Comedian. He mercilessly teased my friend to the point where I was getting a little shocked, although I knew it was all fine between them. It became a little overwhelming for me even though The Comedian was just being funny. This heralded my decline into sensory overload. I was running low on food and beginning to wilt.

I went to dinner with my friend, but I felt bad because he usually goes to dinner with his friend. I shouldn't feel bad, but I do. Normally, my day is over long before all this. I go home, veg, play on the internet, and unwind. But, I still had another research meeting later that night at around 8pm. We had planned to call people to participate in our study. I had a lot of fun chatting with my research friend before we got down to business. But, by the time we were done at about 9:45, my brain was dead and I had moved into my flighty, delirious, ridiculous state of mind in which I make unusually witty jokes and overly hilarious facial expressions. It's a wonder my research friend doesn't think I'm a little unhinged.

So here I am again at 4am, not the least bit tired, but begging myself to go to sleep for tomorrow will not be easy....