A Serious Case of Familysickness

Getting back into work after vacation is always difficult.  The little things that people did that annoyed you to no end but that somehow you got used to, are (after 5 blissful days apart) insanely annoying again.  Your goal to have as few things as possible in your inbox goes from 5 emails you need to deal with to 127.  You fall behind on the latest office gossip and/or scandal and spend the time you should be using to get caught up on emails to get caught up on office politics instead.  And to top it all off, you spend a good chunk of the day missing your family...

No?  That one is just me?

Vacations home, or in this case, to a beach house in California, often leave me feeling morose.  Being older and hypothetically more mature has awaken in me the realization that my family is actually pretty cool.  Normally, the amount of missing them is low, albeit constant.  After seeing them all together and getting to spend time with them, it grows to an unquenchable level of complete and utter Familysickness.

Symptoms include an increased amount of texts/phone calls/emails being sent to various family members, increased hours on Facebook waiting for one's sister to load vacation photos and a exponential uptake in the number of times a day one says "When we move back to Arizona..." vs "If we move back to Arizona".  People, we are dealing with a real epidemic here and, unfortunately, one that scientist have yet to find a cure for (except for the aforementioned moving back to Arizona).  Over time, the sadness will recede back to the dull ache for a sisterly hug or a meal made by mom, but it never goes away.  This is my cross to bear...

I think it goes without saying at this point that the family vacation was great.  There were nights filled with good food, games and shots of Fireball.  We took long walks along the ocean and went crab hunting with my nephew.  We toured Firestone Walker brewery, where I found an IPA that I actually enjoyed drinking (plus their UDBA - unfiltered double barrel aged - which was fantastic).

At the brewery, after a few pints

Our day on the beach was cloudy and cold, but we still ran into the icy Pacific and built endless sand castles that were promptly destroyed by the ever viscous Sammy-osaurs.  We went kayaking in the same cold ocean through caves full of waves and next to rocks full of seals.  We even saw an otter, plus (bonus!) a seagull eating a really big fish.  I took very few pictures (great at the time, not so great now that I have none to share).  Overall, it was a successful, relaxing, gut-busting, familysickness-inducing trip.  And I want to do it again immediately.  Family, what do you say?  August is looking pretty open to me...