Hawaii “Pity Party” season

When “off season” arrives in Hawaii, it is common to have a “going away” or “pity” party for the snowbirds preparing to return to North America until next winter.  We have a lot of sympathy for them having to leave.   Before moving to Hawaii, we visited the islands every winter to chase away our winter blues caused by the endless gray winter days in Northern California. 

Since we haven’t left Hawaii in six years, we rarely think about dealing with cold, gray days.   But hearing the groans at a recent “pity party” from snowbirds dreading the cold weather awaiting them, we recalled the difficulty we use to have when leaving Hawaii after a winter vacation.

One way we survived our return to the cold was by having a  “Hawaii Room”.  We set aside a small room upstairs and used an electric floor heater to warm it up to about 78 degrees.  That way we could keep the room 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.  We bought several full spectrum lights, put beach towels on the rug, and played Hawaiian music on our boom box.  With our eyes closed, we could imagine that we were lying on the beach.  We dreamed about the day we would live in Hawaii full time and played our favorite Dido song about returning from a tropical vacation to a depressing, dead-end job:

Tomorrow's back to work and down to sanity,
Should run a bath and then clear up the mess i made before I left here.
Try to remind myself that I was happy here,
Before I knew that I could get on a plane and fly away,
From the road where the cars never stop going through the night,
To a life where I can watch the sun set,
And take my time.

From “Sand in My Shoes”

Writer: ARMSTRONG, DIDO/NOWELS, RICHARD W JR
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

The time we spent in our “Hawaii Room” led us to imagine a life in Hawaii.  That dream gave us the energy to get up early, work hard, sell our house, get rid of stuff, and save enough money to afford to move to Hawaii.  It has been a long time since we thought about that room, but reflecting on it now 10 years later, we think that our “Hawaii Room” was a big part of making our dream a reality.