Post Vacation Realities

The oh so charming brownstones of Brooklyn

We got home from vacation on Saturday night.  As usual, the first thing we do is unpack.  In the house and up the stairs where we park our luggage in front of the laundry room and start unloading.  It's almost like a competition to see who can get done the fastest.  MJ usually wins but I wasn't far behind this time.  The second stop is the shower to wash away all the travel grime.  I feel so dirty after spending my day in subways, airports and planes.  The last stop is where we collapse somewhere and don't move for the rest of the night.  Him with his playstation and me usually right next to him on my i Pad because I'm too exhausted to do anything else.  Vacation is great but I need at least a day to recover.  I don't know how people rush back to work the day after they get home.  I actually used to be one of those people but I don't know how.  There are too many transitioning back to real life things to do and a time zone adjustment.  I need time and as much sleep as my body wants to get back to reality.

Laundry.  It has to be done.  The longer you wait the worse it gets so I like to jump right into it and knock it out.  I did laundry right before we left so I was able to get our vacation laundry done in two loads.  I did not however have any cleaning to do because I can't go on vacation with a messy dirty house.  I just can't come home to that.

DVR catch up.  I usually feel overwhelmed when my DVR gets too full.  There are shows waiting for me and I have to watch them!  It can feel like some sort of To Do list or an assignment that needs to be tackled ASAP if you let it and I didn't want to do that this time.  TV should not be a source of stress.  That's just ridiculous.  I did not let myself be overcome by a silly sense of urgency to watch all the things but seeing as how it was recovery day I did burn through a lot of shows.  

Grocery Shopping.  The pickings are always slim when we get back from vacation.  I don't like to leave the house on my recovery day so although I knew there was nothing to pack for lunch and we needed things for dinner I still wasn't planning on going.  I guess I'd rather starve.  MJ took stock of our dire situation and stepped up to the plate.  He'd go to the store and I could give him a list or go along.  As much as I wanted to stay in pajamas and continue my DVR catch up I decided to go.  I felt bad sending him out on his own.  You know, teamwork and all.  We were there and back in an hour, it took us less then five minutes to put the groceries away and it's one less thing to deal with during the week.

Mail.  I pretty much hate the mail on a normal day let alone the day after we haven't checked it in over a week.  It's pretty much all junk mail and yet I have to sit there and sift through the credit card offers, refinance offers, magazine solicitations, adds and coupons I probably won't use anyway in case there is something important.   

The Scale.  Dun, dun, dun.  I usually feel a lot of food and weight related anxiety before a vacation and I'm one of those people that has to know what the damage is immediately after.  I'm excited to go but so so afraid of being out of my normal diet and exercise routine and dread the thought of how much I'm going to gain while I'm away.  I'm really proud of myself not only for skipping that whole anxiety bit but also for not giving a damn about what I ate or when I ate it on this vacation.  Our last vacation was all-inclusive.  In my mind I felt I had no choice but to go all out and I did but this one was different.  We hadn't already pre paid a fortune for food and drink so it was truly my choice of what to eat or not eat.  I listened to my body and didn't feel bad about it at all while I was doing it.  I literally covered my eyes the second before I looked down but two days later not a single pound was gained during the course of 9 days of intuitive unplanned and often over eating with walking miles across NYC as my primary form of exercise.  It wasn't like an all out I'm going to devour all the food fest but I definitely indulged as tends to happen when you have to eat out for every meal; which as it turns out is not necessarily three meals a day when it's not all-inclusive.  Yes, I tracked the calories (because that's what I do) but I honestly didn't pay attention to the totals.  This is a major accomplishment for me.  There are reasons why I would have gained at least 5 lbs on vacation before and essentially gained none this time but that's another post.

The Bill.  I checked my credit card balance just once while we were there and didn't check it again until after we got back.  I have gotten a million times better about sweating over every single dime while I'm on vacation but I can't help but think about it.  We spent money on food and we did a lot of really fun things in NYC.  Things that cost money.  My attitude before was that it's a miracle I'm on vacation in the first place so that even if I denied myself almost everything I wanted to do while I was there it's how it had to be.  Now, I'm okay (mostly) with spending money on outings and attractions and see it as money well spent to enjoy myself while I was there.  Many times I tried to say, let's not eat there or let's not do that because it costs too much.  MJ ignored me most of the time, we did it anyway and I'm glad we did.  You can't take it with you.  We did not exceed what is reasonable for our budget.  We'll pay the bill at the end of the month and life goes on.  We had a great time and it was worth it. 

So that was pretty much my day yesterday and last but not least on the back to life back to reality list is Work.  The necessary evil that allowed me to go on vacation in the first place and which will allow me to do it again.  Things were really busy when I left and they are going to continue to be busy but I decided not to worry about it like I usually do.  I HAD a job a long time ago that dictated extreme anxiety and it's taken me a ridiculously long time to truly realize that I don't have that kind of job anymore.  I left that nightmare for a reason.  I'll dig through everything as I can get to it.  Stuff is gonna get done but there is no reason to try to do it all at breakneck heart palpitating speed.

Coming back from vacation is bitter sweet.  Mostly bitter if I'm being honest, but traveling can wear you out and it's always nice to be at home in my own bed and my own house.  Once I get back into the swing of things routine that is life I'm fine....until I'm not fine anymore and then it's time to go on vacation again.
 

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