summer blues

One of the most difficult things in life, for me, is returning from vacation. I can’t lie; relaxing and drinking in a warm climate is pretty much my favorite thing in the world, so after a weekend of doing just that, I am downright depressed returning to my so-called “real” life. Especially during summer, the most festive season.

I have just returned from the Oregon coast. I journeyed to Matt’s beach house in Manzanita with a handful of my friends, and as they can attest, it was a lovely time full of the beach, booze, BBQ, bonfires, ummm.. can’t think of any other alliteration… so also golf, shots shots shots sho-sho-shots!, hiking, pie, music, oysters, World Cup, horseshoes, Catan, questionable Dairy Queen, Camaro, semi-sunshine… you get the idea. I’m still shocked by the amount of activities we were able to pack in, considering (a) how little time we really spent there, only four days, and (b) how intoxicated we were the majority of the vacation. Productivity at its finest!

Now I am back home, sitting alone at my desk, looking around my room, and feeling deflated. This is borrrrringgggg. I don’t understand those people who are all, “I can’t even relax on vacation! After two days I am so ready to get back to the real world. I hate feeling so lazy, there’s so much to get done!”… oh, shut up. You can do my work, too, then. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my job and I feel good after working hard on a project or whatever. But let’s get real. If I could spend the entire summer the exact same way I spent this extended weekend, I would be in heaven. I would not feel guilty in the slightest (in this imagined scenario, clearly I would have a lot more money and maybe six-pack abs).
We were talking in the car on the way home about how awesome it was being a kid in the summertime. No job, no school, maybe, like, sports camp (or if you were me, theatre camp, holla!) and even for that “obligation” your parents are the ones responsible for scheduling and paying for it and driving your ass around to it. One drawback, there is no sex and no alcohol, so you do miss out on those summertime delights. As a kid, though, those aren’t even on your radar. (Hopefully.) That might be even better! You are free to be totally lazy and selfish… unless you were some superachiever prodigy but clearly that was not my childhood experience. Now we’re adults and have to work for a living and worry about finances, relationships, careers… ugh, so complicated and often so devoid of satisfaction. I can deal with it, but c’mon, at least give me summer break! Twelve months of this bullshit?! It seems so unfair.

That is why our trip’s theme song should be everyone’s ultimate summertime life theme song. Observe:

Special thanks to Patrick for busting out that song on his iPod on our ride down, and another special thanks to Matt for getting it permanently in my head by constantly humming it while we were playing golf together. And special thanks to me, actually, for finding this sweet vid on YouTube.
We love everybody but we do as we please
When the weather’s fine
We go fishin’ or go swimmin’ in the sea
We’re always happy
Life’s for livin’ yeah, that’s our philosophy
…would that it could be so simple, eh? I think that’s why I love/hate taking trips. For a few days, you can pretend.
Now to detox, work out, unpack, balance my checkbook… okay, jk on that last one, I have never balanced a checkbook in my life. I do as I please!