The Monday Blues

Why is that when you return from a vacation you are more exhausted than before you left?

I just got back from a 5 day mini-break: sunshine, reading, swimming, late mornings, great food. I was relaxed. It was paradise.

But it all unravelled so quickly. I think it started with the hellish drive back. We didn't anticipate too much traffic, leaving relatively early and it not being a long weekend. But traffic was heavy, coming to a standstill when we were still about 2 hours from home. By the time we stepped in the door, we were both exhausted. But we were optimistic that all we needed was a good night's sleep.

It probably didn't help that I was tortured by the mosquito bites all night (I have a fairly severe reaction to them so not only do they burn and itch and sting, they also tend to swell up along my joints and cause difficulty walking. Which is fun), or that that room was stuffy from having been closed up for a week . Not the best sleep. And then my alarm didn't go off like it was supposed to (it was on silent--how was my alarm clock on silent??) so when I did finally wake up I was extremely groggy and needed to rush.

And the first day back to work after an absence, however short, always means catching up. There are emails to sort through, phone calls to return, messages to check. All the things that you missed out on while you were happily occupied with a book and a drink, now come roaring to the forefront waiting to be addressed. It's one thing when the emails are a) for you and b) relevant but there is nothing worse than reading through a bunch of emails that you realize afterwards don't matter because they adressed issues from the week before.

Mondays are already unpleasant- the furthest day away from the weekend, the longest day of the week etc. But a Monday after a holiday? The worst. There are just extra unpleasantaries to contend with: Co-workers forcing you to relive the pleasures and excitement of your recent trip (only serving to remind you of how nice it was to be away and how not nice it is to be back), backlogged emails, the inability to get up to an alarm, the need for a drink before noon--post-holiday Mondays are the bane of a 9-5 existence.