Holiday Hangover

Interestingly the synonyms for a hangover range from the most obvious ones like “overshadow”, “loom” to the downright scary “menace” and “threaten”. If I had to pick the right one for this post it would read something like this :

Holiday Hangover –something that overshadows the days after the holidays and looms in your mind long after being gone and is a menace as it threatens to disrupt the otherwise mundane every day. There! I used them all, no worries of leaving anybody behind.

With the hangover come the blues. And I define Holiday blues as “that agonizing feeling of touching base with the routine one so eagerly shrugs off for a short period of time”.

Today was the day school started after the Christmas break. Everybody in the house struggled to get back to the daily grind. In the past few days, the bedtimes, wake up times, mealtimes and all other things that have specific “times” had gone for a toss. But then we didn’t think much of it until today when the attempt to re-start the day rang in the form of an alarm. Why is this ringing? Wasn’ t it still mid-night? Disoriented and groggy, clearly our timetable had drastically altered recently. Of course we all knew the night before that it was going to be an early morning, but knowing doesn’t help does it? Who knew it would be so difficult?

And, come to think of it, this day and this exact question props up in front of us at regular intervals, as regular as say 3 times a year?

And by now, I know it is the holiday blues which disappear as quickly as the holidays itself.

On the surface it seems like any other day, the day after the holidays but inside me and the house there is an array of emotions and action going on ranging from loss of appetite to picking up a fight.

Here’s a sneak peek into the day after; what I do and what I DO NOT do.

Don’t feel like cooking, don’t feel like eating either, blame it on the overdose of good food the last couple of days. As tough it is to go back to a normal day, it’s even tougher to get back to normal food.

I feel Sleepy all day.  The mind and the body yet to abandon the leisure mode.

All of a sudden I see unfinished chores supposed to be taken care of by my better half. Yes, they are from a couple of weeks back, conveniently ignored all this while and to my eyes they have resurfaced today. The beloved spouse doesn’t take to the picking lightly. “Now you remind me, NOW??”

I am cursing the weather. This always helps. Blame it all on the weather. Cold, rainy, hot, humid, whatever it is, it’s the day after the holiday and it sucks.

I let the kids get away with watching more TV then they are typically allowed because I am in no mood to watch them.

I am already thinking/planning about the next holidays.

I am calculating and recalculating the numbers and promising myself not to spend a single penny for the next 6 months –these holidays have been expensive!

The list is merely indicative and not exhaustive, but you get the idea.

I am sure everybody has their own way of dealing with the post holiday stress or “blues”. Probably a lucky few slip into the next day effortlessly, but that someone is never going to be me.

And HAPPY NEW YEAR, btw!