I Don't Like Mondays

I don't like Mondays.

Seriously. I dislike them.

Honestly speaking, though, I'm not going to go on a shooting spree like Brenda Ann Spencer merely because "I don't like Mondays". I am also not going to write a song about it, partly because Bob Geldof beat me to it years ago, but most especially because I don't have a shred of musical talent. Instead, I'll write a blog post about it.

For me, Mondays mark the end of a good thing and the beginning of a thing less desirable. Obviously, to a great number of you, going back to work fits this definition, but I'm not necessarily referring to the obvious. I am referring to the transition from the wonderfully cathartic outlets of the weekend back to the manic hustle that is my work week. That transition is why Monday is drawing my contempt. Occasionally the transition doesn't hit me until I've been at work for an hour or so, but usually the reality hits sometime within a few minutes of waking up. You know, it's the "damn, I have to wake up, get my son and I moving, and haul our butts where they need to be" realization. (My wife has long since left the house.)

To me this transition is especially rude, because its counterpart, the shift to a weekend's unwinding, is slow. The transition to the weekend mindset is like sliding into a steaming bath or hot tub. Sure, it might hurt a little at first, but once you've eased yourself in there... whoa... you know it feels good. In contrast, the Monday transition marking the end of the weekend is probably much like looking over at your empty beer glass surprised to see one more swallow of beer, only to find out the hard way that some jerk has poured in a finger's depth of malt vinegar into it. Well, since I was the jerk in that scenario, perhaps I need to come up with another analogy (though in hindsight, it was pretty rude, but it was also pretty funny). I think you get the point. Mondays are especially annoying when they show up disguised as a Tuesday or some other day of the week.

Sure, getting into the "day off mindset" is sometimes as fast as walking out the lobby doors at work on a Friday night, but normally it happens sometime during the late afternoon Saturday. That leaves a little over a day to enjoy my "weekend". If I get a call from work, the time to relax gets more compressed, in direct opposition to the concept of relaxing.

Perhaps I simply need to unbolt the responsibility of work and go on a vacation for a week. Vacations have a way of undoing a few Mondays.

* Thanks goes to Steven E. Schend for suggesting today's subject. I told him my intention and he supplied the title, which led me swiftly to the introduction.

** Also, I love my job. I just need to unwind once in a while.