Iris Mauss

I'm gonna be happy.

I visualized it almost like one of those Tuscan Italian movies.

You know, we would be on the beach, we would be drinking wine, eating delicious food.

We would go boating around the little island and just floating happily in those beautiful turquoise waters.

So I had every expectation and so much anticipation that it would be just the perfect 10 days.

Well, we had a lovely time, but little thoughts or moments snuck in where I would be thinking about work or I would worry about something going on at home.

So these little thoughts started to appear and I would think,

wait a minute, this isn't right.

This isn't supposed to be here, this thought.

What's going on?

Have I lost the ability to relax?

Is there something wrong with me?

Is there something wrong with the vacation?

Why am I not happy every moment of every day?

I think maybe I drove them a tiny little nutty because I started to suggest sort of all kinds of things to bring about the continuous happy state that I had anticipated.

So I would say, let's go to this other beach today or let's rent a boat and go around this little island or let's go to a different restaurant.

And maybe that was a little bit much for them.

I mean, I always try to make his birthday parties really nice, but this one in particular, I wanted it to be perfect.

And so I had reserved a picnic spot at the local park.

I got a coronavirus pinata, where you sort of bash a pinata that looks like a coronavirus, filled it with candy.