What is it that you like best?
Being able to go to sleep as late as I want and sleep in as late as I want. Never ever have I been a morning person, always been quite the opposite. I open my Christmas presents on Christmas Afternoon. Sometimes I go to sleep as late as 5 or even 6 AM on weekends. The next thing I love about holidays is no responsibility. No schoolwork/homework, no work work, not being under someone else's thumb. I may have anxiety issues, but at the same time I'm also a hedonist. Whenever I don't feel like worrying, I maximize the amount of pleasure experienced as much as I possibly can.
Now, about specific holidays. My favorite holiday is Christmas. For Christmas, I like the wintry weather if it's not too chilly, and seeing all the decorations. I also like it when the new year starts, feels like I'm hitting the reset button sort of. I love Thanksgiving too because of the turkey dinner and the fact that we're about to transition into winter. Back when I was in school I used to love summer vacations because they were long, and spring break because of the lovely March weather. Of course I love vacationing to other cities with my parents, and I'll get to that later.
What is it that you do not like?
I really hate that moment when I know the holiday period is about to end. That is where I become a super-hedonist and just do zillions of fun things all during the last day simply because I refuse to allow it to end. Specifically for Christmas, I don't like the shopping phase with everywhere being so crowded, the chances of getting sick skyrocket, and the fact that there are zillions of possible presents to choose from; can't stand needle-in-haystack types of situations (I'm guessing this is the only positive aspect of me having a small social circle).
Now with my severe OCD, there is also an extra worry I exhibit around holidays - the compulsion for things to go 100%, especially on the first day (I posted an explanation about it in a thread related to OCD as a reply). Especially now when I work and we don't get a 3-month summer vacation or spring break. I tend to take vacations around Christmas time and it just has to NOT go to waste. Period.
Any preparations for Father's Day in a few days?
Our Father's Day and Mother's Day celebrations are pretty simple; I give my mom or dad a few gifts and a greeting card, hug and kiss them and thank them for being wonderful parents and putting up with me all these years lol. We don't really go out anywhere to celebrate these. This year I bought my dad a couple of CD's, he loves music - and TWO greeting cards instead of one.
What are your expectations for holidays?
Like I said before, I expect them to be excellent. The first day of any holiday period I expect to be near PERFECT actually, it's an OCD thing, I know. I It's not a realistic expectation and everyone tells me that but I can't control this. Holidays only come once a year each and having such opportunities ruined would just devastate me, break my heart and soul into smithereens.
ABSOLUTELY no getting sick!!!!! And no other crap that would last longer than a day. Even one day is too much, and that day absolutely cannot be the first day. I once got sick during Spring Break when I was 16. Spring Break! Can you believe it? Each time I measured my temperature and it was still high I just snapped. I screamed, I hit objects with my fists, I screamed at my mother for making me stay home instead of going outside, claiming that being outside would not make it worse because it's spring and not summer...this was no teenage behavior, this was a "me" behavior. I've never really exhibited the typical teenage type of behavior during my teenage years. I just HAD to go outside during spring and summer breaks.
Can they differ from societal expectations?
They absolutely differ, I've never met anyone who makes such a big deal out first days, and worries that much about having trouble-free holidays in general. Most of the people I know go by the "que sera, sera" belief; I do NOT conform to that belief. I will NOT tolerate such bad luck, and I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law, as if it was a law of nature.
Do you make lots of plans?
Absolutely, and I get totally crushed whenever something deviates from these plans - just totally trainwrecked. These are holidays and I'm supposed to be the boss. With my first day of holiday obsession, I carefully plan out each and every hour, and specifically what to do in order to avoid any risks - like keeping to myself almost all day long, I try to avoid contact with people unless I know FOR SURE that whatever I might say would NOT lead to any sort of conflict. For the rest of the holidays I make slightly less concrete plans, but they're still plans. They're by-day plans, not by-hour plans. For life in general, I'm very plan-oriented and cannot stand deviations. Don't even get me started on first days of holidays, I wouldn't tolerate even the slightest deviation (unless the deviation is good, good changes will always be welcome for Tyrantus!)
Back to the spring break example in one of the previous paragraphs. This sickness was a deviation. No, I refuse to tolerate any deviations. I did not tolerate that one, and my parents did not tolerate my behavior in response. Every summer and spring break I HAVE to go outdoors. Every summer holiday I HAVE to eat ice cream, and I did it even when I had a minor infection (the infection allowed me to function, so that's good), and I tried to eat it in minor spoonfuls. I used to throw tantrums even if it rained - I don't anymore, but if I got sick during a holiday I would still act like a total maniac.
Now, to talk about how this applies to scheduled vacations. My folks and I almost postponed a trip to San Antonio once because my father hurt his back, and the way I responded was like a total jerk. I didn't even realize what I was saying, I've been looking forward to going to San Antonio for God knows how long. It hurt his feelings and I regret having done so very much, he's a great father who doesn't deserve me as a son. His back got better by the scheduled time though.
The following year we ACTUALLY had to postpone a trip, also to San Antonio, due to a cold he got - and I reacted in a civil manner that time but it was just torturing and killing me inside, and I started getting paranoid, like - what if this would have been our only chance to take this trip and each time we postpone something else comes up? Murphy's Law, bad things always happen at the wrong times to the wrong people We only postponed that one by a week though, so the reality was no big deal. San Antonio is in Texas, so this was just a drive. Postponing a vacation that requires a plane flight is not that easy of a task.
We're planning to take a trip later this year to another state and I'm really nervous inside about any sort of thing happening that would...dear God...prevent it from happening. I'm fine with postponing it for maybe a week, 2 tops. Rescheduling vacation days at work all the time is no picnic either. If I'm able to go after a 2-week postponement but someone in my family cannot, under Murphy's Law - then I'm taking the trip myself. Murphy's Law is meant to be broken!
Or are you more spontaneous, and prefer being surprised with new things and new ways to celebrate each year?
What I said in the above paragraph relates here. Only good surprises are welcome. Bad surprises just bring me into a state of complete panic. I'm not under my teachers' or my boss's thumb, yet I'm still under someone else's thumb; with the Spring Break example, I was being ruled by the flu virus when I'm supposed to be my own boss.
Anyway, new ways of celebrating each year are not a problem, but I'm generally not a spontaneous person - although my reactions to bad surprises do tend to be very spontaneous and impulsive.
- I am only 64 years old. Your kids are so lucky.
