Recovering from the Post-Party Blues

Whether it's your bar mitzvah, your prom, your post-play wrap party, your debutante ball, your graduation, your birthday, an awesome vacation, Christmas, your annual miniature golf invitational, or your wedding to a man 35 years your senior (yes, we are still disgusted by this and will continue to talk about it until someone makes it right), chances are at some point in your life you have had or will suffer from PELD (Post-Event Let-Down). PELD is a serious malady that affects all segments of the population, recognizable by the following symptoms: refusal to take off formal clothing and/or costumes, rolling up into a sobbing ball, melancholy, excessive pouting, itching and burning.

Luckily, PELD is not fatal. In fact, it is highly curable (we personally have experienced a 99.9% remission from PELD). We asked SparkLife's resident psychologist, Dr. Higginbottom McFancypants, for his recommended treatment plan. Here's your Rx for getting over PELD:

1. Eat any and all leftover foods from the event. This includes Christmas cookies, birthday cake, shrimp cocktail, cheese cubes, and jelly beans (though not the black ones because those are gross). Imagine that you are eating your feelings.

2. When this doesn't work, have yourself a good cry. Go on. That's it. Let it all out. Oh man! Not on our new shirt!

3. Write a journal entry, poem, or story recapping the event: everything you loved about it (chocolate fountain!), everything you hated about it (date with halitosis), everything you would do all over again (congo line), and everything you would not do again (note: fondue should only be consumed after dancing). Now tuck it away for at least one month.

4. Okay, now give your photos of the event one last look. Resist the urge to do this via a two-hour slideshow for your friends and family. They were there. And chances are they were nice enough to put up with you talking about the event three months leading up to it. They are now off-duty.

5. Choose ONE image to print and frame for your room or house. We will allow a collage or shadow box if it is NO LARGER THAN 11" x 11". With the rest, make a photo album (it should not come in volumes) or a memory box. Put it away for one month before bringing it out again, at which time it is safe to keep out in the open for OCCASIONAL perusing and showing people WHO HAVE NOT ALREADY SEEN IT. (Sorry to shout.)

6. Take a deep breath and sigh very heavily as you let it out.

7. Find a new event to obsess about.

Have you ever suffered from PELD? How did you overcome it?

Related post: How to Write a Great Party Invitation