The Day After

November 29. The day after has come.

Unless the relatives are staying a long weekend, they start packing up with heartfelt ‘Good-byes’ carrying casserole dishes wrapped in plastic wrap of yesterdays feast. The next holiday might mean that you will have to travel to visit them or stay at home. Once everyone has left it is time to attack the piles of dishes, find the remote, apply air freshener to the bathroom and try to get back to the normal routine. Time to check the Internet for all the pictures of other people’s gatherings and plates of food selfies. Then you find Aunt Betty left her Pomeranian in the backyard.

There are lots of days after.

 How was the day after your marriage ceremony? If you happen to fly off to some far and distant island resort for hours of passionate honeymoon, but unfortunately the party is over and it is time to settle into ‘being married’ and all it curtails. Put the wedding dress into a plastic bag never to be worn again, make a list of all the attendees who drank your booze writing thank you cards for the fondue heaters and other non-descript items they gave you at little expense or thought, but you have to now act as a couple to appreciate those you call your ‘friends’.

The day after you graduate is just as much of a mystery as the day before. Hand in your chore robes and flat hat but keep the tassel to hang from your car’s mirror, sleep in late then start looking for a job. Your parents are packing up your things and putting them out in the yard. You are being evicted. You are now a ‘grown-up’.

The day after your girlfriend gives birth is like no other. If you haven’t gotten married all your friends have backed off. If you have gotten married they will all come over and peer into a crib at what you two have done until it starts to hurl or stink, then they will back off. If you are lucky, they too will have a baby and you can form a new parent’s club.

The day after the big game will live on for years, but the next day is formidable. The empty beer kegs and ants on the chicken wing bones will sooner or later need to be dealt with. The fizzy pills in water will not wash away the cottonmouth and your hat won’t fit. Next year you may want to remember the game day, unless you lost.

The day after that most intimate moment can go in many directions. Maybe you want to continue. Maybe she wants to continue. Maybe you don’t. Maybe she doesn’t. A long lasting relationship can blossom or it can be an awkward moment in time.

The day after you wake up in jail. For whatever reason for incarceration, you are behind bars and must deal with the consequences. Your roommates might not be your favorites but you are stuck.

The day after getting that big promotion sounds great until you reenter the office of your former peers. No one is going to come up and pat you on the back (unless they are sucking up). You can announce your new position’s responsibilities but they all know you as that same old schmuck they ate with in the cafeteria.

The day after you die, you won’t care. There might be a hole with a stone on top with your name if someone really likes you. Otherwise everyone is going through your clothing pockets trying to find some treasure, not as a memoir of your existence but something to hoc.

The day after that…?