Vacation Sads

Post Vacation Depression Syndrome. I can’t say 100 percent if it is an official syndrome or not as Wikipedia doesn’t have an official page on it. Not going to lie, it irked me real bad that there was no sure fire go-to source for my self-diagnosis attempts. I did find a few web pages with references to the Vacation Sads as I like to call them, but they sucked. One guy referred to it as the ‘f**k I have to go back to work’ disorder- that was about the only interesting thing I gleaned from my research.

I was in Cabo San Lucas over Christmas and New Years for 16 glorious days with family and friends. We spent most of our time at the beach sun tanning, playing and drinking. I think i partook in every activity imaginable (except ATVing of course)- from scuba diving to beer drinking contests, Mexican massages to Fine Italian Dining. We had a million laughs and I have about a thousand bruises from various UMPIs (unidentified Mexican party injuries).

Half way through the trip our friends had to go and the family and I suffered from a bit of sadness to see them leave. Lucky we are young and forgetful, within a day we were back at it- KT and Jay who!?

The last couple of the days of our trip it hit us like a ton of bricks that we had to leave soon. The sadness started there. It crept in like fog in the night. Slowly slowly. We banned talk of going home, yet it was impossible not to think of our return.

Arriving home was, as expected, dismal. Gray skies, leftover Christmas decorations, an unwelcoming kitty and the pending Back to Work Monday all added to my case of Vacation Sads.

Realizing that I no longer could get up early and go for a run down to the marina to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean; or have a baileys and coffee for breakfast and then a sangria for snack time; or sit on the beach listening to the DJ play all our favourite songs (by request) while sun tanning and buying unnecessary things like bandanas, puppy puppets or hand-made mexican pottery all added to my Sads. Back at home with nothing fun to do and the ball and chain of work and a mortgage fresh on my mind makes for a Super Sad Shelly.

Thinking back, I know I experienced the Sads from my previous travel excursions- I think I was Sad from my four month trip to Asia for at least two months. I don’t remember doing anything productive following that trip, unless you count watching food network and 80’s work out tapes productive. I guess I’ll get over it. I don’t really want to. I want to be back in the sun, living the dream. Viva la fiesta!