January 21st...Most Depressing Day of the Year

I was in a really bad mood yesterday. I really could not figure it out...my boss was out of town (freedom!!!) so you would think I would be looking forward to going to the office. Well, that was not the case.

My day started off by having to go to my local Commune (basically a city town hall) to get a form legalized to renew my work permit. I live in the city of Ixelles where there are actually 2 separate buildings I have been to for various things such as registering with the commune and getting my Belgian driver's license. So I knew this would be interesting trying to figure out which building I needed to go to as I have never gone to the Commune by myself....I have always had my relocation agent with me. I went to the building where I thought would be most appropriate for what I needed to get done today. After waiting for about 20 minutes, I found out this was not the correct building (figures) and I needed to go somewhere else that I have never been to before. So, I went to that building and no one spoke English to tell me exactly where I needed to go. Once again, I resorted to the universal language (gesturing) and we were able to figure it out. After about 2 more wrong stops, I made it to the correct person and got my form legalized.

The day really did not get any better as I was just plain moody. It is also winter here in Belgium and the weather, quite frankly, stinks. The skies are gray and the rain just won't go away. I have not seen the sun in weeks and it is cold. It is really depressing! Someone told me the way to get through the winter is to plan a trip south in February to get away from all the rain and gray skies. I am wishing I had done that about now.

As I was laying in bed at 7:30PM (yes, I said 7:30....I was moody, remember??!!) and watching FOX news, a report came on about how January 21st was the most depressing day of the year. I thought...WOW, that is what is wrong with me!!! It did make me feel a little better to have a reason behind my attitude these days....so I rolled over and went to sleep to get that day over with!!!

Check out the Time magazine article about The Most Depressing Day of the Year at http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1704887,00.html.