Fighting The Blahs

Ah, January...that lifeless month which brings all the joys and excitement of...(cue crickets chirping.)

The past couple of days have been glum. I don't start back to work subbing until tomorrow (Vestavia High School) and the past week or so has been uneventful to say the least. I spent New Year's Eve with the flu, which was no fun. Now that I seem to be crawling out from under the weather, I am left facing the bleak landscape of the first two months of the year.

Ever since I was a child, I have hated the first 59 days of the year. January is utterly without merit, and would be best slept through. February is (with apologies to the poet) the cruelest month. The thrill of Valentine's Day is gone after middle school...if you have someone special in your life, it's a pain in the ass to come up with a fun and original gift, and more often than not your expectations fall flat. If you don't have a significant other, it's just a depressing reminder of your solitude. Not to mention that by February's end, I am almost ready to scream with ennui. Slate-grey skies and 5:00pm sunsets will do that to you.

Add all of these factors together and toss in some post-holiday blues and a natural tendency towards depression, and there you have my mental state. I have an almost constant feeling of being just inches away from crying, but the "cleansing freshet of tears" (of which Ferrol Sams wrote so descriptively) never quite makes it to the surface. No matter where I am or what I am doing, it just seems sad. Not screaming-with-grief, wringing-hands-and-rending-garments sad...just a low-grade glum.

Luckily, I am about to go into rehearsal for Guys And Dolls (which I am directing) which will help. I am also making a plunge into opera with a chorus part in Opera Birmingham's La Cenerentola (Cinderella.) Although it seems miles and miles away, there is also the glowing beacon of EASTER which shines in the distance. I love Easter...it's by far my favorite holiday. All the warmth and the green, blooming, renewed feeling in the air never fails to bring me out of the doldrums. I need only hear the first few notes of "Welcome, Happy Morning" and all is right with the world. It'll be here soon...until then, I'll just look out the window and pretend I'm in England. It helps. :-)

FLT3