Are we having fun yet?

After having a 5-day break, I am curious to know if people are actually returning to work this week, refreshed or reenergized?

From past experience, I know only too well how many people end up needing a vacation after their vacation. For those who travelled abroad, chances are most of them are probably jet-lagged or exhausted trying to squeeze in so much activity and movement in so little time.

For others it’s usually a case of too many parties – too little time, or staying up late at night catching up on stories, movies or just eating too much food altogether. I even know some people who against better judgment and safety standards went for 3 scuba dives in one day or two rounds of golf per day except Good Friday.

For my family, it’s a case of too many people under one roof, too much food, and disrupted sleep patterns. Only now do I realize that we are not any different from Americans who travel all over just to be “home” for Thanksgiving. In a religious sort of way, Holy Week is our equivalent of Thanksgiving.

We cram into cars, planes and boats, travel long distances and ignorantly converge upon a house not realizing that we would soon be rubbing each others nerves raw, while we throw all medical restrictions out the window as we attack the various foods we know will makes us die young and obese, and then we talk behind the backs of everyone stupid enough not to join the family reunion.

I use to shake my head with pity at my friends who opted to stay in Manila claiming it’s the best place to be during the Holy Week because there was no traffic and really quiet. After some serious contemplation on the matter, I have a feeling that they’ve been on to something for so many years.

By staying in the city or staying put, they avoid engaging in disruptive behavior such as abnormal spending for fuel, food, travel or accommodations. They don’t go through the stress of pre-selecting a destination, making travel plans, bookings, long cues at terminals or traffic at toll booths and the likes.

They still get to do the stuff they didn’t have enough time for during the year, but by being at home, it’s no big stretch to prepare food based on logical, healthy dietary requirements. In other words they eat what they’ve been eating and don’t use “Holy Week” or the “summer” as an excuse to gorge. There is also no one bringing food, which you simply need to try, just to be polite.

By staying home, my friends will probably maintain their diet and their weight, unlike the rest of Philippines who will be returning home after gaining the equivalent weight of a “lechon de leche,” looking like a steamed crab or a burnt catfish.

As someone who has had to share the rest house with 15 people, I can testify that the biggest disruption for me was about not getting much sleep. There were just too many unfamiliar sounds and movements ranging from adult snoring, kids rejoining parents in the middle of the night after a failed attempt to go camping in the living room with cousins, and young adults engrossed with their electronic entertainment.

Another draw back in sleeping in a house that is not regularly in use is that the natural tenants, namely ants, mosquitoes, and assorted bugs don’t take kindly to being disturbed and choose to express their displeasure with minute bites that make you scratch all night!

After all that “FUN” as the week comes to an end, you once again have to prepare for the same trial of preparation and patience for your return trip. Do you cut the party short and get home before the mad rush, or do you simply make the most, enjoy yourself and be philosophical that every Paradise comes with a Hell?

My extended family opted out early Saturday afternoon and were already having massages, planning trips to Divisoria and having a big laugh listening to all the media generated anxiety about how traffic was going to be “so bad” for returning vacationers.

But then again, maybe the whole point to the exodus out of Metro Manila was to combine the pleasure and the pain, in observance of the Holy Week. Why else would millions of people suffer great disruption and inconvenience just to go on a vacation?

I don’t know about you, but I NEED a vacation!