Post Holiday Relief Syndrome (PHReS)

If you celebrate a holiday around this time of year, any holiday, it’s likely you have been crazed since the end of November. Between creating, addressing and mailing holiday cards; planning gifts for teachers, friends, family; Yankee Swaps, making food for parties; hosting parties (whew!), there seems to be so much to do, you think you’re never going to live to tell about it.

I was in the supermarket today and felt a bit of a relief. Many of shelves were empty, and there were very few people shopping. I felt a sigh of relief. A phrase popped into my head - Post Holiday Relief Syndrome (PHReS). You know you have this if you experience one or more of the following:

1. You realize you don’t have to address, buy, cook or wrap anything.
2. You are relieved to know you don’t have to go to a mall (except maybe for the after-Christmas sales or to return something, but that can wait).
3. Work is a little more relaxed for the week, or you might even have the week off, and you can sleep a tad later than usual.
4. If you go into the supermarket or another store, you don’t have to wait 30 minutes to check out.

We do have one more holiday to celebrate, and that is New Year’s Eve. To be honest, Brad and I lay low on that night. If we make it to midnight, great. Most times, we go to sleep, I wake up around midnight, nudge him, kiss him Happy New Year, roll over and fall asleep. We wake up to a new year.

Enjoy your PHRes and may 2011 bring health, happiness, peace and love.

My secret vice -- the comics!

I admit it. I love to read the daily comics in the Boston Globe. Some are one-shot deals, like Rhymes with Orange, F-Minus and Rose is Rose. Others, like For Better Or For Worse, offer a serial style. The current theme in For Better Or For Worse (http://www.fborfw.com/) is that the Elly and John Patterson’s middle daughter, Elizabeth, has finally reunited with the love of her life Anthony, who is divorced with one daughter. The author, Lynn Johnston, gently took her readers hither and thon with Elizabeth to get to this point. And to my great joy, Elizabeth, or Lizard-breath, as her older brother Michael always called her, will be marrying Anthony. Another theme of this strip is that the mother’s father, Jim, had another stroke. He is home and being tended to by his wonderful 2nd wife, Iris. The grandfather, Jim, recently gave Elizabeth his blessing to wear his first wife, Marian’s, wedding dress for her wedding. I was practically in tears. I pray that Jim will live to see Elizabeth walk down the aisle. Oh Lynn, please have a heart!

My point: Do I need a life? Well, some watch American Idol. Others watch soap operas. I happen to think the comics have more truth and lessons packed into 3 – 5 frames than many articles. Stay tuned….