Ugh. After conferences, I'm tired and want to go home; but then I get home and am overwhelmed by what I have to do to catch up. I got in at 10:30 pm last night; my inbox is jam-packed from people who want stuff from me, my fridge is empty, my calendar is back to being filled by disparate meetings, my seedlings need replanting, my hosts need thanking. It's now 8:30 am, and all I really want to do is go back to bed.
It will be a few days of catch-up, I guess. Best get started.
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"A positive attitude may not solve everything but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." lol I've always enjoyed that quote and when I have days such as yours I often refer back to it and then have to end up smiling.
I hate those feelings after conferences. I'm simultaneously exhilirated and burnt out by research possibilities but anxious to just settle down into my routines of family and home life.
I so agree (I'm still catching up from a conference last month... eeek!) -- the conference itself is exhausting (mentally and physically), plus the emotional let down of seeing old friends and then saying good-bye. I came home to spring break week, but still have a few piles of things that I haven't had time to deal with (at least my plants survived the 10 days without watering this year).
I think non-scientists just don't understand what a week at a conference means (i.e. it's not a break from work, it's work on steroids)... I usually try to deal with email at the conference, just so my head doesn't explode when I get home... but next year I will definitely use an "I'm out of the office" reply and just ignore the stuff that's not critical. Conference is busy enough without needing a hour or so a day to deal with email crud.
That said, I wouldn't ever consider skipping conference - the intellectual value is just too high (my brain needs that kind of jolt to keep the ideas and the passion going).