Depressing winter Saturdays where I just stay inside and do homework

Are the worst. 

I start out with a long run every Saturday. I usually feel pretty good, though running through the city sucks (canyon is too snowy and icy). Sometimes I'll clean after, sometimes I have too much homework so I skip it. Since I'm working 40-hour weeks in addition to school, I have to get as much thesis work done on Saturdays as possible. So after my shower, it's time to get work done. 

I think winter Saturdays wouldn't be as bad if I could just code for a few hours, then lose myself in some video games for the rest of the day. But when I have deadlines to meet, I usually can't game until the very end of the night, and not for very long. Maybe 30 minutes if I don't fall asleep in front of my PC first. It's worse when friends cancel so I have nowhere to go later in the night, and it's so cold that I can't motivate myself to leave the house. 

I did a 5K time trial this morning as part of my long run, and WOW did it kick off my asthma. 27 degrees F. My lungs were burning and I have been coughing all morning and afternoon. I think I pushed it too hard this week; both of my IT bands are hurting. 

I'm thinking of just doing a huge sprint to get 99% of this thesis done, then pick something else out to work on as "additional work" so I don't look like a bum for the rest of the semester. Then, I could balance my time more, and maybe it wouldn't be so bad. 

Because let me tell you. The sadness hits HARD when I'm alone in my room, coding, with gray and dark skies outside. It gets that weird light where it's too dark to have the lights off, but too bright to have them on -- I will get a headache either way. Then the sun starts setting at around 4 PM. I feel housebound, chained to my assignments, beyond exhausted, and just...sad. 

Compare this to the summer. I have a long run through the mountains, and everything is green. I see so many people. Then I go ride some rides or go swimming, and take a few walks, then code and do creative work. Then I either do something with friends or have a nice quiet evening to myself. I might go to the park and read, then play video games in the evening. It's so much nicer. I feel so much happier. I spent plenty of time both indoors and outdoors; alone and with others. Even when I'm by myself, there are always people around me...Not so in the winter. It is so incredibly isolating. 

Right now I can't play video games, I can't make progress on my art, I can't play my clarinet or keyboard, I can't write my novels very much, I can't watch my favorite shows, I can't hang out online, I can't study cybersecurity, I can't design video games and apps. It's just work, homework, and exercise. That's it. I do homework before work, then I go to work, then I do homework again after work. I love my job, it's a blast and I'm lucky to have it, but this is breaking me. 

Winter is just dark, gray, grim, lonely, and sad. I look out my window and see dead, brown trees and a bleak landscape of dirty white mixed with gray. Water parks and theme parks are closed, and I'm too cold to force myself onto some indoor rec center water slides. Having tons of homework to do sucks. I love graphics programming; I just don't love being chained to it and feeling like I have no control over my time because I have to get this crap done on time. All I want is to code for a few hours, then have the rest of my Saturday free to do whatever I want...

It'll be a long time before we get to those warm days again. At the same time, I've got to work at a breakneck pace. Just hoping and praying that California won't be rainy this Christmas. Last Christmas nearly killed me. It was two straight weeks of gray and rain. Felt like the Pacific Northwest, and I was effectively housebound. I need sunlight to survive, and there's so little of it right now. The SAD lamp helps, the caffeine helps, but it does not make the unhappiness go away.