Body, following Mind, shuts down. Or is it the other way?

Shutting down.  This sort of thing has happened to me in the past - last week, as soon as I heard my second trial case was not going to go for lack of a jury, I got very very sleepy.  I more or less plodded back to the office while the gray wave was rising, incoherently mumbled my way thought a meeting, staggered home, and fell asleep on the floor for 14 hours.  (It's a very comfy floor and I had a pillow and a blanket which I pulled off my nearby couch.  I woke up a few times and decided I liked it where I was.)

I mention this because I'm fascinated with the mind/body.  So in this case, throughout the day, I knew intellectually that it was unlikely our case would go, given certain factors.  Yet I was in the physical presence of a defendant who might have needed me to be awake and aware and articulate.  And so I was.  Gearing up for trial, I had eaten a fast (but balanced) meal some hours earlier and was drinking coffee.  I should have been (and was) peaking with enough fuel to bring me through everything.  The brain was buzzing merrily along, considering the different possibilities of what we'd see in trial.

However, as soon as I learned that we weren't going forward, apparently my body/mind decided to give me *juuust* enough energy to get home.  And then, literally a few minutes into a place where I could do so, I completely shut myself down - coffee, food, conscious desires of the day notwithstanding.  I know, sure-certain, that had I been mid-trial at that point in time, I'd have been just fine, with energy to spare. 

It appears as though some deeper part of me has assigned priorities in these matters.  I'm amused (and pleased actually) that a client will keep me up and running, even though there's a slim-to-none chance of my being needed, while an office meeting is apparently something I've decided I can publicly drool through (even though the meeting, which provides the majority of my interaction with the office at large, potentially shapes my "career" more than court time does).  I like that my quiet/dream/subconscious self has decided so.  Go self.    

Comments

[Glenn I]

One time my mother was visiting, being needy, and my partner was busy trying to prepare for a poker game (snacks, etc). I managed to get my mother off homeward, promised Kent I would help, then lay down on the couch and konked out. He got mad at me. I apologized. It is usually a long slow process my falling asleep, totally weird for me to fall asleep suddenly. I musta been stressed out!

[Scoplaw]

Huh. I just have straight up blackouts in those kind of situations. Or so I'm told afterward.

[Atomic]

Hilarious. You're like the Teddy Ruxpin of Miami Beach.

[Scoplaw]

I really do only have about 5 things I say over and over. The trick is that I do a new little dance each time so it seems like what I'm saying is new. So I think the TR simile holds water.

[Atomic]

It's pretty awesome how you got all legal on my ass and deconstructed my throwaway (and dorky) comment only to conclude that it was, indeed, valid. Perhaps setting precedent?