Holiday Hangover

Feeling…blah? Are you finding yourself moping around with no pep in your step? Does your head feel funny? Do you just feel…lazy? Yes? Well you may be one of millions suffering from a holiday hangover! I am not talking about one of those I had way too many martini's type of hangover either.

  For us in the United States, yesterday marked our nations birthday, or Independence Day. For many of us that means we have a day off in the middle of the week. Some people will take a couple more off and make a vacation out of it. Some, like me, will head straight back to work. I’m pretty sure that is why I have felt a little blah (for lack of a better word) all day.

  I tell myself that it is because the holiday lands in the middle of the week. But honestly I think I am lying to myself. I always have Wednesday’s off. I do believe the holiday, for some reason I will keep to myself, has done it to me. Maybe it is because I didn’t really do much to celebrate the day. In years past we would’ve gone and bought fireworks to shoot off. We don’t really do that anymore because, well, I don’t like fire and explosives that close to me. My anxiety skyrocketed when we did that. I don’t go to watch them anywhere because I believe it is amateur night with drinking and driving, and I value my life!

  It’s not just this holiday I feel that way with though. Every year Christmas does this to me as well. Now that is one of my favorite days. Here in the U.S. we seem to start earlier and earlier every year. The anticipation, the excitement, and the songs all put me in the spirit. Before you know it the big day is here and gone. Usually about half way through Christmas day itself is when I get the hangover feeling.

  So I started thinking. Yes, that’s always dangerous, but it has to happen. I was thinking that I get a blah feeling when I finish a good book. You know that feeling when you turn that last page and crave yet a hundred more? That feeling! The feeling of I liked the world I was just in, do I have to come back to reality feeling. That blah type of feeling. From now on I’m going to call that the Book Blues. So if you hear me refer to that in the future you will know. Over the last couple of weeks I have been under the weather, so I got more reading done than normal. The four books I read all gave me the book blues. I read The Garden of Happy Endings, by Barbara O’Neal, True Colors, by Kristin Hannah, Lucky in Love by Jill Shalvis, and At Last by Jill Shalvis. All of these books are brilliantly written, and all left me with the Book Blues, er...wanting more. They were wonderful reads that I would recommend to anyone.

It reads, "You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel as if you've lost a friend."

  I’m working off my Holiday Hangover today, and ready to start another book. I've learned that the best way to get over the Book Blues is to just jump right into another one. Fortunately I have quite a few to choose from!

Do you have a Holiday Hangover today? Do you ever get a holiday hangover? Do you have a quick remedy for it? Do you get the Book Blues? What book have you read lately that made you feel that way? Have any book recommendations for me?   

W.P.I.- Are slugs a problem in your garden? If you see them douse them with salt. Another way to get rid of them is to leave a cup of beer near your garden. You'll marvel at the amount of them that meet their fate by the next morning.