Not Going to DexCon This Year

I've come to the difficult conclusion that I'm going to skip DexCon this year. My enthusiasm for RPGs isn't what it was, and I find myself too busy with other things (mainly my musical actitivies) to put the time into it to do it as well as I'd like. It isn't lack of preparation, as I'd finished enough material ("Room Service" and "Another Mission from God"); it's just that whenever I started preparing for DexCon (submitting events, making room reservations, etc.), I noticed that I kept finding reasons not to follow through, and finally decided to listen to myself.

One odd thing about this is that RPGs and music seem to take up the same headspace for me. I don't know the reason for that; I've simply noticed over the years that when I'm doing one, I don't feel much like doing the other.

The reason the decision was so difficult is that it feels almost like quitting a long term job because I've been doing it for so long. I couldn't tell you how long it's been since I've had a year that I didn't go to at least one convention as a player, if not as a GM. I'm fairly sure that streak goes back to 1985 or so. I finally realized that stepping away for one year wasn't going to make that much of a difference to anyone, and that it might help me regain my enthusiasm in the long run.

I'm not giving up roleplaying entirely. I still plan to follow my local GURPS Cabal campaign through to a conclusion, then reassess how I'm feeling from there.