Your Holiday Lights Are Still Up
The best planners look ahead with the farsightedness of six months. In the throes of summer, holiday plans are drafted. The family will be together; friends will be in town. The kids will be out of school and work will be suspended. It should be a pleasant time. However, the sequence of explosions that is the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is anything but chill.
It’s a scramble of schedules, trying to get everyone on the same page. This is like trying to force on a pair of jeans that are three sizes too small. They’re already tight at the knees and you keep convincing yourself, every year, that you’ll squeeze into them.
I’ll just pull the zipper up and suck it all in.
If there’s a time in the year when we are reminded how brief twenty-four hours is, this is the span. There isn’t enough time or energy to see everyone and catch up. This gets people upset with you and nothing says “happy new year” like being a fresh persona non grata to a friend.
Your frustration is renewed due to the proximity of the holidays.
Is New Year’s Eve even a holiday?
The clock hit midnight. Now what?
The champagne is downed in a grateful silence and thoughtful uncertainty. This is adulthood. As the music lowers in volume, the dancing people go for water and a seat. The party is over. An anticlimax.
You’re short on sleep, in further credit card debt, a little bit more fat, and not wanting to get back to work. You’re reconsidering your New Year’s resolution because even though it sounds nice, you know deep down that it’s superficial and impossible. It’s just not you.
Maybe next year.
The cherry on top of this holiday hangover is the fact that your Christmas tree is still up and lights are still outlining the exterior of your home or apartment balcony.
The rules are largely unwritten when it comes to the right time to take down the lights. You consider leaving the lights up all year because they look nice.
Those lights, they look nice.
Additionally, they haven’t been out that long. You dragged them out of storage two days before…
