On the Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Okay, Christmas is over. The New Year has begun.  I just took my tree down and packed away the manger and the nativity figures.

It wasn’t fun. It was kind of sad. Another Christmas has come and gone. I got lots of great gifts and spent quality time with family and friends but still, I am somewhat blue.

It may have something to do with my vacation being over and the kids going back to school. No matter how old I get, I am bummed out when vacations (especially school vacations) are over.

I have been programmed to automatically feel this way. I am sad for my kids. I am sad for the teachers. There we were, staying up late (10:30 for me) and sleeping in (6:30 for me) and now, we are back at the old grind. Although I am happy that I have a grind to be back at, I still feel melancholy.

Thankfully I only got one of those “Christmas family update, aren’t we a wonderful and gifted family, bragging, newsletter,” things. I actually read it instead of just ripping it up like I usually do. I can now say that I am officially envious of this family and their summer house, and their son’s wonderful job and the father’s big promotion. They were very careful to include a shot of their big, spectacular, expensive house, in a city that isn’t Somerville. It somehow made me feel very grateful for all the blessings I have. I wouldn’t trade places with them.

Let’s get back to the letdown after the holidays. I am sure a bit of the bummer is the bills that will start coming in soon. We were bombarded with all the hype in the form of commercials, newspaper ads, starting before Thanksgiving. Then all of a sudden… it’s over, except for the bills.  We survived every other holiday hangover and we’ll survive this one too.

I was pulling into a neighboring city shopping center’s parking lot when I was confronted by the first jerk  of the new year. This guy was rabid. I really think he was foaming at the mouth. It seems he thought I should have stopped when he was backing out of his spot, and I felt like he should have checked for oncoming traffic before pulling out. If calming down and giving up profanities were on his list of resolutions, he blew it royally. Maybe he was one of the people who are overly worried about the bills. Maybe Santa wasn’t good to him. Maybe his Xanax ran out. This dude was really mad.

The tree is down, and most of the pine needles have been vacuumed up. My outdoor inflatable Santa and Penguin, along with the plastic figures and lights are still up. They will remain lit up for one more week. I just can’t let go.

Getting the kids up on Monday was a real struggle. I feel for them. I wish vacation went on and on. I am however very grateful to have a job to come back to. I was also happy to see two of my dearest friends while I was walking the dog at 7:15 Monday morning.

They are both in my age range and I have been in bands with both of them. We have so much history and memories between us that just seeing them makes me happy. One lives on the next street over and the other on my street. They both read this column and I want them to know how much I cherish our nearly 50 years of friendship. It was great to see them both because it meant that we had all made it to another year. I was also happy to see my co-workers. It made the holiday hangover not so bad.

If you have a holiday hangover, I hope it goes away soon. Just think, there are only 75 days until the first day of Spring!