I'm knee deep in dirty laundry.
The house is a mess.
There's a leaky cooler in the kitchen with Gatorades that should be put in the fridge.
I'm suffering from a vacation hangover.
This happens when I come home from a vacation and have to jump back into life so quickly that I forget that I ever went on vacation.
Did I really have a fabulous time on a sandy beach amongst loved ones and beach vendors? Did I really eat breakfast by the ocean and sit on the shoreline with Christian and introduce tide pools to Lola's toes?
That really happened, right?
I was asked about 15 times by Gabe if he could go to a friend's house today because he was already bored on his first non-vacation day of summer break. Hum drum. I changed diapers and sorted sandy bathing suits and looked down to notice my faded paper bracelet given to me by the place we stayed to identify that we were guests. It read Playa Bonita.
Did I really have to take it off? 'Cuz if I take it off that means the vacation is really over. No, really, it's over if I take off that bracelet. I actually considered not taking it off and leaving it there, faded and wrinkled, around my wrist to remind me that maybe I was still a guest at Playa Bonita. I finally conceded and got out the scissors. Ah, well.
You wouldn't know it by the end of this day that we had come from paradise. It was back to the hum drum. I woke up having to wash the last remnants of vacation off of my beach babies. I woke up to Lola who still slightly smelled of sunscreen and Christian who still had sand in his blond hair. But with morning bath water went the last of our vacation. Boo hoo. Time for laundry.
But wait! There is proof we were, in deed, on vacation! I have a little sunburn on my shoulders and surely that means we were actually on the beach soaking up sun. And there are pictures!
We were on vacation! But, alas, I'm suffering from a classic case of a vacation hangover. The only remedy is looking at the same vacation pictures again and again, reminiscing with those who were there, and maybe throughout my day, flipping the cap up on the sunscreen bottles so I can smell it all over again.
Because I adore our travels together so much I remember each vacation by always leaving something in the suitcases like a receipt from a restaurant in Mexico, an instant coffee packet and flier for scuba diving in Key West, a passport card from Disneyland, seashells from the beach. These are just some of the loose items that flutter around in my suitcases. Manny tried to remove them and I firmly told him no. Those are memories and I like to leave them there so that I always remember.
And so that when we're getting ready to make new memories, we can take the old memories with us.
