Post V-Day Blues

Judy Wylie

Travel can be the cure for anything that ails you, and what ails many readers at the moment is the Post Valentine Day Blues. Symptoms include an urge to buy your own heart shaped box of indigestible chocolates, an urge to re-check the mail for an overlooked love letter, and a new fascination with ads for cellulite removal products.     The PVDB virus actually strikes on Valentine's Day, when the victim becomes convinced that everyone else is rolling around in a feather bed in a fairytale castle on the Rhine with a lover right off the cover of the Top 100 Most Beautiful People issue of People magazine. 

What to do with this depressing condition? Here are some ideas:

• Call a friend and share memories of your most romantic vacation. Since past is the best predictor of future behavior, chances are you can look forward to another such delicious trip in your future.

• Read a funny book about travel. Try "Plane Insanity" subtitled "Sex, Rage and Queasiness at 30,000 Ft." (St. Martin's Press), by Elliott Hester, a flight attendant with a wicked sense of humor and a romantic heart.  Read the chapter on the Mile High Club first.

• Read through the romantic personal ads and circle those which say the writer loves to travel. Consider answering a few.

• Get on the Web and look for the most romantic resorts and destinations you can find. Rank them in order of your preference. When you do find your next love, you'll be ready!

• In the meantime, plan a Diversion Trip you can go on solo.  Look for an activity-based trip or package, where you can learn something or indulge a hobby. Learning to drive a Formula One race car, riding to round up wild horses, tracking parrots in the back country of Jamaica, or taking an Italian cooking class in Tuscany can make it clear how fun life can be with no lover to get in the way, and no compromises required.  

• Call five friends and ask about their Valentine's Day. Probably at least four of them will have stayed at home watching old Star Trek shows or cleaning out the sock drawer.