National Elisa Thinks This Whole Monday Business is the Pits Day

Sigh…

No matter how good, bad, or meh the weekend is, I am never ready for Monday. By Sunday morning I’ve just started to really relax and unwind from the preceding week, and by Sunday afternoon I am starting to get anxious for the week to come.

And you know what? I’ve only rarely felt otherwise come Sunday evening.

When I was younger, sometimes I would spend Sunday nights at my Grandma’s house, and I always knew that the weekend was over when “Murder, She Wrote” came on. Angela Lansbury was the harbinger of the school week.

There have been times when the idea of Monday held something more for me than dread. When the end of the weekend meant seeing a boy that I pined for; when Sunday night couldn’t come quickly enough, when I spent most of my weekend planning what I would wear and do and say come Monday.

But. I don’t anticipate Mondays these days, and that I’ve never really anticipated Mondays kind of makes me sad. I wonder if I spend too much time anticipating or dreading The Next Thing: the next weekend, the next vacation, the next big change, the next crisis, the next meeting, the next anything…I spend so much time anticipating or worrying about what is to come that I probably don’t spend near enough time being present in the moment.

I don’t know that I’ll ever really get to looking forward to Mondays – at least not while I’ve got this job, but there’s got to be something I can do (or not do, as the case may be) to help re-entry hurt less.

So, what I want to know is…what do you do to prepare yourself for the week? Any rituals, anything that helps you not feel like you just feel through the ice when you wake up on Monday morning?

Comments

[maryse]

i look forward to mondays because it's one day closer to the weekend. heh heh.

but i used to love mondays when i was in school and i had a crush on some sort of boy (ok, when i was older too and i had a crush on a boy at work too).

[Carole]

Mondays suck. There's just no way around it.

[Cheryl]

I'm trying to get my boss to change payday to Monday. Then I'd look forward to it. Ha!

[Julie]

I'm with Carole, Mondays do Suck! I think they will suck until I'm retired, then they'll just be another day :)

[frecklegirl jess]

Gosh, I know what you mean about Mondays... maybe you could treat yourself to something nice on Mondays- like a massage over lunch or a particularly good breakfast sammich?

[Kim]

That Sunday night feeling sucks. The only thing that helps me on Monday is going through the usual routine (lay out work clothes the night before; coffee first thing in the morning; bring a travel mug of strong tea for the commute as well as knitting) and trying not to think too hard. One good Monday thing I look forward to is watching reruns of Six Feet Under on cable (don't have hbo so never saw it the first time).

[lisa]

I am just catching up on you. I posted "my day" just now, so you can go look at what it is like around here. Mondays are a short day at work for me, and I like what I do, where I do it, and who I do it with, so there's not much dread. Not much money either, but I abandoned the lucrative career track (engineering school)in 1980 and abandoned any kind of career track when ds came along as I finished graduate school...(and what kind of money does a plant ecologist make anyhow?) I LOVE your national days. I'm with you about rude people. Here's one, when you see somebody on crutches, please don't take the crutch out from under them! This happened a few years ago (the crutches a 6 week thing, not permanent), and it gave me some insight into some of the issues that people with disabilities might have.

[kmkat]

I second the idea about treating yourself to something every Monday. For a while I was only working Tuesdays through Thursdays every week -- that rocked. A four-day weekend every week was exactly the right work-life balance imnsho :-) Even though I really like what I do, I think I like not doing it better.

[Chris]

Maryse had a nifty feature on her blog today - 3 positive things Monday...

I just hate work days in the winter, because it's so hard to get out of the flannel sheets and down comforter, with purring snuggling cats...

[elizabeth]

Mondays are my longest day of the week (class from 10-4 and then work from 6-10) so I'm as nice to myself as possible. I eat breakfast, I wear all of my favorite clothes, I totally blow my $7/a day allowance on yogurts and lattes and lip gloss. Anything to get through the day

[Kim W.]

I have to say, I really like the idea of treating yourself to something on Mondays. I think that is a fantastic idea.

Mondays are like every other day for me. Wake up early. Deal with Miss Megan Sassy Pants and Monkey Boys all day long. Clean up after messy kids and husband. Go to bed. blah!!!

[Angie]

Mondays can be really tough. I get through by getting organized on Sunday. Like Kim, I pre-select my clothes. If I'm traveling, I make sure I have everything packed and if I can load the car, I do that, too. Being organinzed in advance really keeps my Monday attitude in the positive range (usually).

[Kristen]

okay, I know that this isn't the right post but I can't find the original "neighborhood" post. It's past the 25th, but I did put pictures up tonight. :)